TransferJet is an intriguing closeproximity wireless technology that’s taken what seems like a lifetime to arrive. It was first announced in 2008, but it wasn’t until October 2014 that we first saw it demonstrated, after which it became available in Japan. Now, following a splashy Berlin launch event in September 2015, Toshiba has finally brought TransferJet to market.
TransferJet is similar to Bluetooth, in that it allows you to transfer files between smartphones, tablets and Windows computers even if you don’t have an internet connection. The £40 price quoted here gets you an adaptor that plugs into the Micro USB port on your Android device, and a full-size USB adaptor that plugs into your Windows PC or laptop. A separate Lightning adaptor for iOS devices is available separately for £35.
TransferJet is much, much faster than Bluetooth, however. Once we’d installed the free app on our devices and plugged in the adaptors, we were able to transfer a 31MB H.264 video from an iPhone 6 to a Moto X Force in 10 seconds. That easily exceeds Toshiba’s claimed theoretical transfer speed of 560Mbit/s, and wasn’t a one-off, either, but a consistently repeatable score.
A batch of 24 photos transferred almost instantaneously, while transferring the same video clip from the Moto X Force to a Windows 10 laptop took three seconds. Sharing the same file between two laptops also took just three seconds. Oddly, transferring the same clip from the iPhone to the laptop always took a little longer at six seconds. Regardless, these scores are very impressive and, as TransferJet doesn’t use an internet connection, you can transfer large quantities of data even when your 4G or Wi-Fi signal is weak, congested or nonexistent.
As well as the requirement that both the sending and receiving device must be within a few centimetres of each other, file transfers are made secure by the need for both the sender and the recipient to specifically authorise each transfer.
Inevitably, there are caveats – and they’re all on the software side. The Android and Windows apps are, not surprisingly, more flexible than the iOS version. Whereas the others can transfer any file, iOS limits you to contacts, pictures and video clips. You can also manipulate files more freely and easily on Android and Windows – another consequence of the restricted file handling abilities in iOS.
All the apps were surprisingly buggy, however. We were unable to transfer video clips that had been edited in any way – even something as simple as trimming. The Android app was very laggy, struggling to render thumbnails of photos it received, and the interface of the Windows app looked mangled on our laptop’s high-resolution, high-pixel-density screen. What’s more, the button for opening the received files folder actually took us to the root level of our Windows user folder rather than the actual destination, which was the Documents folder. Just as bizarrely, you can’t change the destination folder to one that’s more convenient for you.
The plain white plastic adaptors are small enough to fit into the change pocket of a pair of jeans, but the Micro USB adaptor is especially tiny. The lack of finger purchase this provides, combined with the snug fit on our Moto X Force, meant that the adaptor’s plastic casing broke apart surprisingly easily when we tried to detach it. This isn’t a necessary consequence of the device’s design: our replacement unit was the Japanese version, which while a little wider and deeper was also easier to detach and felt sturdier. We think Toshiba should sell this version in the UK.
A bigger problem for the technology is that the apparently simple requirements for an adaptor and apps makes TransferJet far less likely to catch on. That small amount of hassle almost certainly means that you and everyone else you know will be less likely to use it, even if you’re keen enough to carry all three adaptors with you. It would be better if at least a few computers and mobile devices came with TransferJet built in, but not even Toshiba’s own laptops and tablets come with it (at least not outside of Japan).
We’d also be surprised if TransferJet wasn’t made obsolete by alternatives sooner or later. Although we couldn’t find a reliable crossplatform alternative, iOS users can quickly transfer files with each other if their devices support Apple’s similarly cloud-free AirDrop technology, which is built into iOS 7 and later. Using AirDrop, we transferred the same 31MB video file between an iPhone 6 and an iPad Mini 4 in four seconds.
Toshiba’s TransferJet is a great wireless technology that works surprisingly well, but unless it’s built into computers and mobile devices, or at least until Toshiba puts more effort into its apps, it will be a mere historical curiosity rather than the widely used and appreciated convenience it might have been.
A clever idea that works well, but we doubt this new wireless technology will catch on.