RAVpower travel router also connects iPhones to hard drives and SD cards [Review]

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RAVpower FileHub Travel Router is also a hub.
RAVpower FileHub Travel Router does far more than its name indicates.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Life on the road can be a hassle, even with an iPhone, but there’s a lot the RAVpower FileHub Travel Router can do to make it easier. It’s a battery, a hub with a USB port and SD card reader, and (naturally) a travel router.

I road tested every feature of this accessory. Read on to see if it deserves a place in your travel kit.

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RAVpower FileHub Travel Router review

The FileHub Travel Router is surprisingly small considering everything it does. It’s 5.5 inches by 3 in. by 0.9 in., and it weighs 7.1 ounces (0.44 pounds). Corners are rounded, and so are all the bottom edges. It won‘t take up too much room in your luggage or gear bag, especially when you consider that it replaces at least three other accessories.

The power button is on the right side, and there’s a band of status LEDs across the front, along with the RAVpower logo. Look on the left side to see the SD card reader. Under a protective door on the top edge is an Ethernet port, USB port, and micro-USB port.

This accessory does so much, you’re really going to need to read the manual. Otherwise, you‘ll almost certainly struggle setting up its many features.

Look under a door to find a more ports in the FileHub Travel Router
RAVpower’s accessory offers an Ethernet port, USB port, and more.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

RAVpower FileHub Travel Router performance

I fully tested all the most important features of this product, which took quite a bit of time.

Travel Router

Open the door on the top edge to expose the Ethernet port. Use a cable to plug this into a router at wherever you’re staying and you have your own private Wi-Fi network.

Alternatively, you can set the FileHub Travel Router as a repeater, so it connects to the local Wi-Fi network, then your devices connect to it.

RAVpower’s idea is that it’s easier to set this accessory up rather than half a dozen other devices. When traveling with your family, you won’t need to reconfigure every phone, tablet and gaming console with new Wi-Fi settings wherever you go — just have everything attach to this router.

You can switch between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. If you don’t know what that means, you might just stick with the default setting: 2.4 GHz. The FileHub Travel Router offers 300 Mbps Wi-Fi speed on the 2.4 GHz band, or up to 433 Mbps on 5 GHz.

My tests showed performance is quite good. There were no problems streaming movies from Disney+ to an iPhone and an iPad at the same time. Or watching two movies streamed from a thumbdrive in the FileHub’s USB port. RAVpower doesn’t recommend trying to stream more than three movies at once, though.

SD card reader and USB port

Apple sure doesn’t make it easy for iPhone users to access what’s on SD cards or USB drives. The RAVpower FileHub Travel Router fixes that.

Open the door on the top edge of this accessory to expose the USB port. Plug in a thumbdrive or even a full USB hard drive. Alternatively, there’s an SD card reader on the right side.

Make sure you’re connected to the FileHub over a Wi-Fi, then open the free RAVpower FileHub application. This works as a file manager, giving you access to anything stored on drives or cards plugged into this wireless hub.

And multiple people can connect simultaneously. As I alluded to before, one iPhone/iPad can stream a movie off an SD card while another is streaming a different one.

A Mac can get in on the fun too, by connecting locally via your web browser accessing a simple, built-in web server.

With the RAVpower FileHub Travel Router, you can load a bunch of movies on a thumbdrive and let your children watch whichever they want on their own devices. This won‘t take up space on anyone’s computer.

Plus, it can automatically back up everything on an SD card to a USB drive. Just push a button. Very handy for making a copy of all the pictures you’ve taken on your trip.

RAVpower FileHub Travel Router is quite portable.
RAVpower FileHub Travel Router also has an SD card reader.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Battery

If your iPhone battery gets low when you’re on the go, connect the handset to the FileHub Travel Router’s USB port for a recharge.

This accessory holds 6700 mAh. In my tests, it was able to raise the battery level of an iPhone XS Max by 116% over multiple recharge cycles. That means, if you recharge your phone when it gets down to 20%, this accessory can give your device 1.5 charges.

The main job of this battery is to keep the FileHub going without having to be plugged in, though.

When its battery runs dry, look under the door on the top edge of RAVpower’s accessory to find a microUSB port. Plug in the micro-USB/USB-A cable (supplied) to a standard USB-A charger (not supplied) to power up.

RAVpower FileHub Travel Router final thoughts

RAVpower created a Swiss army knife for vacationers. The FileHub Travel Router (RP-WD009) makes it simpler to keep your family connected and entertained on the road, and can provide an emergency recharge too.

Just consider that because this accessory does so much, there’s a learning curve. Give yourself some time to figure out how it all works.

Pricing

The RAVpower FileHub Travel Router costs $59.99.

Buy from: Amazon

Because it combines so many features, there’s not much direct competition for this product. You can buy multiple devices to let you do the same things, of course, but the total cost is almost certainly going to be higher than this one item.

RAVpower provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out more in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.

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