Nexto CF Portable Storage Device

I bought my NEXTO CF after it was introduced into the market few years ago. I was very impressed with the design and built the moment I saw it. Chromed top, bottom and both side lines, together with a matted black casing. The best part is its simplicity with JUST ONE BUTTON!

Yes, you heard me right. There is no extra ON/OFF button, no scroll bar, no nintendo pad...etc. Just ONE BUTTON that do all the job! As can bee seen in the photo, the only button has the COPY wording over it. Press it once and it will start the Nexto CF with flashy red light surrounding the button. It will then shows the selection on the LCD screen in the middle of the Nexto CF.

Operation of the Nexto CF through the one button is by SHORT PRESS and LONG PRESS the COPY button.

Simple design, chrome finishing + matted black is the success to this very nice product. Of course, the X-COPY fastest downloading speed is the heart to the success as well.

You can't find an opening to the Nexto CF. There is only one slot for Compact Flash card on the top. The back of the Nexto CF is clean design with company name and some simple specifications of the model and company profile. MADE IN KOREA is stated at the back as well.

Even the side line is in chrome finishing. Very nicely designed and a classy/quality product! At around 2cm thick (less than an inch thick), the Nexto CF can fit into your pocket or camera bag easily!

NEXTO CF ~ code name ND2500 by NEXTO DI ~ a Korean company that is new to the market but quickly gets popular due to this revolutionary product. It is said to be the fastest portable storage device in the world, similar to the CompactDrive PD70X that download 1GB Sandisk Ultra II memory card in less than 2 minutes. Compared to other PSD in the market which takes normally more than 8 minutes to download a 1GB memory card. Thanks to the X-COPY technology, eliminating the lack time of CPU processor.

Top part of the Nexto CF is only a compact flash card slot (left photo). As the name suggested, Nexto CF is specifically designed for compact flash card users. It only has a CF card slot, you can insert/download from any other memory card directly.

Nexto Di did not choose the CF slot for no reason. With a 17 in 1 CF adapter (available at ShaShinKi.com), you can download various type of memory card into the Nexto CF easily.

Bottom part of the Nexto CF contains (from left to right):

External Battery Input
USB 2.0 Connection to PC
FireWire Connection to PC
DC Power In

This is a 17 in 1 adapter sold at ShaShinKi.com:

If you are using MAC, then you will mostly appreciate the FireWire port support. It is using a 6 pins FireWire port, meaning that you can charge and power the Nexto CF through FireWire! Supplied is a 6 pins to 6 pins FireWire cable. My Dell D800 notebook is having a 4 pins FireWire port, hence I bought a 6 pins to 4 pins FireWire cable at less than US$5 and use it on my Nexto CF.

USB 2.0 on the Nexto CF is by no mean any slower! It is definitely much faster than the connection of my Nikon D70 or Olympus C5050 directly to my notebook. When editing photos, I always download them to my Nexto CF first and not connect the Digital Camera to my notebook. It takes less than two minutes to download 1GB of photos from my 40x memory card, and less than 2 mins to transfer them from Nexto CF to my PC through USB cable. I made a habit to always to keep a copy of the original files in the Nexto CF.

Besides storing and downloading files, Nexto CF also acts as an External Memory Card Reader! An external FireWire card reader will cost you most probably more than US$50, and you save the cost by using the Nexto CF as both FireWire and USB 2.0 card reader! When plug into your PC, Nexto CF will be recognized as TWO EXTRA DRIVES. One for the Nexto CF HDD and one for the Nexto CF Memory Slot. Did I mentioned that it is FAST?! Much faster than connecting the DSLR directly to your PC!

A picture saves a thousand words...I will let the figures below explained clearly:

The current and latest firmware for Nexto CF is firmware V1.30. Firmware update is only doable through FireWire port. In other words, you must get a PC that has FireWire port in order to upgrade your firmware. This is to avoid accidentally override of your firmware (but I find it not so user friendly). Nexto Di has made the Firmware v1.30 upgrade installation very easily done! Previous firmware upgrade are quite challenging...but no more! :)

Another praise point about Nexto CF is that Mr. Larry from Nexto Di is very responsive to the requests and feedbacks from customers. Early batch of Nexto CF firmware has a few glitches. Eg. Firmware v1.0 has the shut down mode that will cause sudden stop to HDD ~ weird big sound. Mr. Larry has verified this problem and updated it in the latest firmware by parking the HDD head before shutting down. Another few answers to customer request are: Format HDD now doable with the Nexto CF ONE BUTTON design (don't worry, you will not accidentally format the HDD as it requires a few extra steps for safety), folder browsing, data copy verification (size comparison)...etc. This is a company that listen to customers...make a products FOR CUSTOMERS!

Supplied with a synthetic leather case. I have mine for more than two years and it has show no deterioration at all. A very good protective case to the Nexto CF.

The case comes with a side pocket on the left side that is used to store the EXTERNAL BATTERY for the Nexto CF. Just slot the external battery into the side pocket and plug the connection of the external battery to the bottom of the Nexto CF.

Nexto CF is using internal Lithium Ion battery for the design. The internal battery life of Nexto CF is capable of downloading 20~30GB of data with a single full charge. With a 40GB or 80GB HDD, it means you will run out of batteries before running out of space. This is not very impressive. However, to solve this problem, Nexto Di has foreseen and design the Nexto CF to accept external battery for it. They have even made the case with extra slot for the external battery!

The 2200mAh 7.5v external batteries for Nexto CF sold at ShaShinKi.com will allow 100GB of download in a single charge! This means you will not have to worry of running out of battery anymore!

Nexto CF is utilizing standard notebook HDD, which is a 2.5" notebook HDD and is available widely at most computer shop. This is a very popular notebook HDD size and is currently having upto 120GB capacity (as of April 2006). The common available capacity are 20GB, 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, 100GB and 120GB. I am using a 40GB size myself, which I extracted from my Dell D800 (I bought a 80GB HDD to replace it in my notebook).

Nexto CF has done an extensive test with lots of 2.5" HDD available in the market. According to them, any 2.5" HDD produces in Year 2003 and after are compatible with Nexto CF with no problem.

When buying 2.5" notebook HDD, need to bare in mind also of the various specifications of the HDD. To make the story short...choose a HDD that has 5400RPM and 8MB or 16MB cache memory. Higher speed at 7200RPM will consume more battery power hence reducing the total useable time (the speed gained from 5400RPM to 7200RPM is not really that worth it). A larger cache of 8MB or 16MB (normal/standard is 2MB) will significantly increased the transfer speed and performance of your HDD.

As regarding which brand to choose? ShaShinKi.com is selling Nexto CF and CompactDrive PSD equipped with Samsung HDD (40GB and 80GB versions, both 5400RPM and 8MB cache), and we have sold many many units with no problem or complaint from customers.

I installed a 40GB HDD into the Nexto CF, used it as my external backup HDD for the important data that I have in my notebook. Bring it around to copy files/songs/movies from my other PC or my friend's PC. Use it as a Memory Card Reader (FIREWIRE CARD READER!). Storing photos inside the Nexto CF for quick access. Traveling companion for memory storage.