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FINAL WORDS AND CONCLUSION
Overall a pretty good showing by Apotop’s DW17. Throughout our testing, the DW17 held firm and produced some excellent results. Streaming to multiple devices was seamless, and reading from storage media yielded no hiccups aside from the fact that only one type of media (USB or SD card) can be accessed at one time and not simultaneously. Thanks to the the exceptional 7-8 hours worth of battery life via the 2600mAh battery, we did not have to charge the device every day, or even after every few hours for that matter. If the Android/iOS app or battery LED had numerical indicators for remaining battery life, the DW17 would have won extra points; hopefully Apotop adds it in an app update.
The few caveats we had were more on the network side of things. Although not meant to substitute as a routing device, the Realtek firmware, while comprehensive, has some odd restrictions that lessen the capabilities of the DW17 especially in a LAN environment. In addition, the Realtek components used in constructing the DW17 are on the lower spectrum of networking parts. Furthermore, the all-plastic compact closed design contributes to excessive heat created by the integrated controllers – an easy fix if Apotop had included ventilation perforations, small fan, or another form of passive cooling.
While it is a bit steep for $90, the Apotop DW17 Wi-Reader Pro is definitely worth the buy if you are yearning a good jack-of-all-trades unit while on the go. Acting as an access point, gateway, or repeater, the DW17 can do everything from charging connected devices, to streaming connected storage media. It is perhaps the closest device to achieving a ‘mini-NAS’ title.