CONCLUSION

   The Patriot Gauntlet Node may not be as small and as good looking as the Wi-Drive by Kingston but at the end of the day it offers more for less and that's what matters to most people, especially those on a budget. So instead of a fixed capacity the Gauntlet Node allows you to add your own 2.5" HDD/SSD up to 2TB and thus giving you enough space to store everything you'd ever want to share with all your iOS/Android/Kindle Fire compatible devices. Unfortunately although the Gauntlet Node can simultaneously connect with up to 8 devices it can't really stream HD content on them all so the best we managed to achieve during testing was streaming 720p clips (4500Kbps bitrate) to a total of 3 devices (two android smartphones and one android based tablet). Whenever we tried to do the same with a 4th (Apple iPhone4) things got extremely slow to a point which we couldn't watch anything (however bitrate also matters quite a bit so you should be able to stream extremely light 720p media or SD media to the advertised 5). Now according to Patriot the Gauntlet Node has a battery life of up to 5.5 hours and they are almost on the spot since after 2 full recharges we were able to use it for slightly over 5 hours continuously. USB 3.0 speeds are also a plus since the Gauntlet Node obviously has nothing to fear in that area from dedicated USB 3.0 enclosures.

   At this exact moment in time the standalone Patriot Gauntlet Node retails for USD94.99 inside the USA (Amazon) and at around 95Euros inside the EU which is not at all bad for a wireless HDD enclosure that can also be used as a quite fast USB 3.0 enclosure. Of course what really makes the Gauntlet Node special is neither its WiFi connectivity nor its very good USB 3.0 speeds but rather the fact that it offers up to 2TB of space (even more later on) something which for example the Wi-Drive can't. And then there's the price and so pairing an 2TB 2.5" HDD and the Gauntlet Node shouldn't take you over USD300/270Euros which is a bargain always compared to the USD160/150Euros of the Wi-Drive 128GB. Personally i think that the best combo would be the Wi-Drive with 2TB of space and the price of the Gauntlet Node (with the 2TB HDD) but we are quite a few years away from that being even remotely possible and so for now we award the Gauntlet Node by Patriot with our Golden Award based on everything mentioned in this conclusion.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Size
- Wi-Fi Enabled
- USB 3.0 Speeds
- Up To 2TB (Should Be Compatible With Larger Capacity Drives In The Future)
- Up To 5 Devices Simultaneous SD/HD Media Streaming (Not Heavy HD Files)
- Up To 8 Devices Simultaneous Connection
- Battery Life
- Price 

CONS

- IOS/Android/Kindle Fire Compatible Only
- MP4 1080p  Media Playback