How Long to Upload 1gb to Amazon Digital Drive
While Amazon Basics is a separate line inside the Amazon juggernaut, bones is certainly the correct word to draw the company's storage solution. That's not to say it isn't worth your attention. Information technology certainly is if you're looking for a no-frills, secure cloud storage solution. Keep reading this Amazon Drive review to learn if information technology'due south for you lot.
Describing Amazon Drive as basic isn't without good reason. Those looking for a feature-stacked experience with plenty of productivity tools and integrated apps volition be sorely disappointed. Amazon'due south cloud service only plays home for basic files. There'southward no pick to create documents, nor does it have advanced options for collaboration. Again, it'southward basic.
Key Takeaways:
- Amazon Drive's cloud storage is ideal for anyone looking to back up a large number of photos.
- The user interface across all of Amazon Drive's applications takes no time to grasp.
- Professionals and businesses will be put off past Amazon'southward lack of productivity and collaboration tools.
- Amazon implements high-course security for user files, only its stance on privacy is disappointing to say the least.
Amazon doesn't shy away from offering a plethora of storage plans. Starting with 5GB of costless storage, the largest plan tin can store 30TB, which Amazon claims can hold up to 4,200 hours of 1080p HD video.
That'southward the shallow terminate of this Amazon Bulldoze review. For those looking to go deeper into the product, stay with u.s.a.. Nosotros'll cover everything you demand to know in the rest of the commodity.
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12/25/2021 Facts checked
Cloudwards updated the review with new speed tests, pricing information and features.
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Amazon Drive is not discontinued and can be used across desktop, mobile and web browser applications.
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Yes and no. Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited photo storage, but if you desire to upload videos and other file types, you lot'll need to pay for additional storage if yous get beyond the free 5GB of storage space.
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Google Drive takes the win in this head-to-head. It offers the same amount of complimentary storage as Amazon Bulldoze, with a lot more than features. Google Drive has multiple file sharing options, and users can create documents and collaborate in large teams through Google Workspace.
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The principal advantage of Amazon Drive is the unlimited storage infinite for photographs. Its wide range of paid plans makes information technology one of the near versatile services in the space.
Amazon Bulldoze Review: Alternatives
Amazon Drive: Strengths & Weaknesses
Pros:
- Skillful option for beginners
- Plenty of storage options
- High-resolution image previews
- Integrated print service
Cons:
- No goose egg-cognition encryption
- Not skillful for collaboration
- Separation of Amazon Photos is confusing
Features
Equally the intro suggests, don't expect likewise much from Amazon Bulldoze. Even so, for content creators such every bit photographers and videographers, it's got some useful features that brand Amazon cloud storage a viable option.
Upload High-Resolution Images and Videos
Users have the ability to view loftier-quality images through Amazon'due south epitome preview, including file types such as JPEG, HEIC and RAW. Embedded in Amazon Drive is Amazon Photos — Amazon'southward equivalent of Google Photos — which allows you lot to make bones edits to images inside the web browser app.
Amazon Bulldoze isn't the most characteristic-stacked cloud service, but it has some features worth looking at.
Video playback is available inside Amazon Bulldoze. We uploaded a 4K video, and while we couldn't verify playback quality, information technology wasn't 4K. However, you can watch total-resolution content through Amazon Drive if you have an Amazon Prime account. In that location's no ability to edit videos through Amazon Bulldoze or Photos, but editors will likely use other tools to edit video anyway.
Sync Folders From Desktop
The desktop app lets you control how much bandwidth is used when syncing files, and you can prepare the app to automatically sync and update specific folders. It's express to a select few folders, such as pictures, documents and desktop. Those looking for a deeper online fill-in should consider other services like IDrive (read our full IDrive review) and Backblaze (read our full Backblaze review).
Amazon Drive allows you to automatically sync specific folders when using the desktop application.
Nosotros should point out that Amazon Bulldoze and Amazon Photos are 2 different services from Amazon. They are oftentimes confused, as both allow you lot to upload files and shop them in the deject. Amazon Photos only allows you to add together photos and videos, whereas Drive enables you to upload and sync Word docs, PDFs and music (although you tin't edit documents or play back music).
Amazon Drive Features Overview
| Visit Amazon Cloud Bulldoze | |
|---|---|
| Sync | |
| Sync Folder | |
| Block-Level Sync | |
| Selective Sync | |
| Bandwidth management | |
| Sync Whatsoever Binder | |
| File Sharing | |
| File Link Sharing | |
| Link Passwords | |
| Link Expiry Dates | |
| Folder Sharing | |
| Folder Permissions | |
| Link Download Limits | |
| Upload Links | |
| Productivity | |
| File Previews | |
| Edit Files | |
| In-App Collaboration | |
| Office Online | |
| Google Docs | |
| Notes App | |
| Media Playback | |
| Mobile Apps | |
| Deleted File Retention | |
| Versioning | |
| WebDAV | |
| Security | |
| At-Rest Encryption | |
| In-Transit Encryption | |
| Encryption Protocol | 256-bit |
| Zero Noesis | |
| Ii-Factor Authentication | |
| Server Location | Us |
| Back up | |
| 24/7 Support | |
| Live Chat Support | |
| Telephone Support | |
| Email Support | |
| User Forum | |
| Knowledgebase | |
| Misc | |
| Free Programme |
Pricing
When you sign up for an Amazon account, you instantly become access to 5GB of costless storage. Nosotros'd call that mid-range generosity, as it'south not every bit bad as Dropbox'southward 2GB (read our full Dropbox review), but it can't compete with MEGA'due south 20GB of free storage space (read our full MEGA review).
Paid plans start at $1.99 per month for 100GB of storage — the aforementioned price as both Google Drive and OneDrive.
Many of the best cloud storage services speedily bump up their plans to 2TB of storage space, with non much in between. What'due south good almost Amazon Bulldoze is the 1TB storage option, which costs $half dozen.99 per calendar month, or $59.99 when paid annually. Amazon prices the 2TB storage programme at $11.99 per month, making it one of the more expensive services.
This is pretty expensive, and anyone looking for a more affordable option (that also offers better security and privacy) should consider Sync.com (read our total Sync.com review).
Unlimited Photo Storage
Amazon is one of the few mainstream cloud storage services that offers unlimited storage. Information technology's only applicable to photograph storage, and then it excludes videos, documents and music files. To go unlimited photograph storage, you'll demand to upgrade your basic Amazon account to Amazon Prime. If you're taking lots of snaps, or yous're a photography enthusiast, having the option to store unlimited photos inside the Amazon cloud is a bang-up thing to accept.
For those who require a ton of storage for other files, Amazon offers storage plans all the way to 30TB of cloud storage. You'll pay $i,799.70 per year to access the largest program, and there's no pick to pay monthly.
In full, Amazon has xiii different paid plans, making it i of the near versatile cloud storage services around. For such a huge visitor, we'd prefer to come across Amazon make its plans a picayune more affordable.
Ease of Utilise
You lot tin access the Amazon cloud through three different means: a desktop app, the web browser client and a mobile app. We spent a few days testing all iii Amazon Drive apps, and had an overall pleasant experience with them.
Desktop App
Although Amazon Drive isn't at the forefront of Amazon'south products, the company has done an splendid task in designing its cloud storage apps. Both the desktop customer and web interface accept little time to get to grips with.
There is some confusion when it comes to the desktop application. When downloading the desktop application on macOS, the app is downloaded as Amazon Photos, not Amazon Drive. This makes things a little confusing, every bit they're 2 split apps, which is reflected on the web and the mobile apps.
The Amazon Bulldoze desktop application offers a minimalist design that takes piffling time to grasp.
Mixed letters aside, the desktop client is a breeze to use and those looking to back upwardly and sync files won't have any trouble navigating information technology. In that location's no sync folder kept locally on your estimator, just you can choose certain folders to sync automatically via the app. Amazon Bulldoze also has cake-level sync, for faster updates to edited files.
You lot tin drag and drop files into the app, and then select which binder you would like to store them in. Sorting folders is easy and you can create new folders within the desktop client if y'all wish.
We also like that the front-finish design tells you lot how much storage you lot accept and how many photos and videos y'all've uploaded to the cloud. It's a modest perk, merely it'southward i that caught our eye when we get-go opened the desktop application.
One feature missing from the desktop application is the ability to view files. If you click on your photos or videos, you'll automatically be taken to the Amazon Drive spider web interface. It'southward non the terminate of the world, but information technology would be squeamish to go along it under 1 roof for those who adopt to use desktop over web and mobile.
Spider web Interface
The web interface sticks with the Amazon Bulldoze branding, making it less disruptive on first use. Near of the action lives on the left-hand side of the interface. Here you lot'll hands find how to upload a file, along with an overview of your contempo, shared and deleted files. If you lot prefer not to use the "upload" button, the option to drag and drib files is also available.
On the topic of deleted files (which Amazon Drive refers to as "trash"), users have up to 30 days to restore them should they regret deleting them. Deleting a file is elementary likewise. Amazon Drive has washed an excellent chore with its design layout, making it easy to understand where each function lives and how to utilise them.
Amazon Bulldoze's spider web browser application allows y'all to view high-res photos and videos.
There's also a tab on the left-hand side that allows y'all to access Amazon Photos. Clicking it takes you to a new browser tab, where y'all'll see an overview of only your photos and videos. You tin can also order prints of your favorite images with a few elementary clicks, a feature missing from most other leading deject storage providers.
Mobile App
Similar near deject storage services, Amazon Drive has an app for both iOS and Android. We used the iOS version and were pleased to run into Amazon had kept the trend of offer a unproblematic, sleek design.
On opening the app, users are presented with a view of each of their folders. You can also apply the bottom menu bar to navigate between recent files and settings. One thing that'south missing is an obvious "upload" push button. It lives within the toggle carte du jour, which you lot can detect in the height right-mitt corner of the application. Here you'll likewise find functions that allow you to select files and folders, sort folders by date, and create new folders.
If you'd rather not manually upload new photos and videos, you tin can choose to automatically upload files from your mobile device when you first set up the application. This is skillful for those who have many images on their smartphones on a daily ground.
All in all, Amazon Drive has washed a solid job with all of its apps. The desktop awarding could be less disruptive, simply other than that, it competes with the applications from other deject storage solutions.
File Sharing & Syncing
Amazon Drive offers bones file sharing, but the ability to practise and so is limited to the mobile app and web browser client. Unfortunately, there's no way to choose unlike user permissions when sharing a file. Amazon Drive generates a sharable link, and anyone with that link has the ability to share, download and comment on the file.
Users tin share files through a link, email and some social media platforms.
When sharing files via the mobile application, you have the option to share a file every bit an zipper. This gives you the ability to share images via email, WhatsApp and iMessage, to name a few. Through the web browser application, you can share files straight to Facebook and Twitter; yet, there's currently no support for Instagram.
Files uploaded via whatever of the Amazon Drive apps sync seamlessly beyond your devices, and tin can exist accessed via desktop, web and mobile. We created a new folder and synced 1GB of files from the desktop customer and could access them in real time via both the spider web and mobile applications. Every bit far as file syncing goes, nosotros have no complaints with Amazon Bulldoze.
Speed
Because Amazon Drive prides itself on its unlimited photograph storage and power to store high-resolution videos, nosotros removed other files when uploading a folder to test how fast the cloud storage service is. We uploaded a 5GB binder on a 100 Mbps internet connectedness based in Dublin, Ireland. The location is relevant, as Ireland is one of the many locations around the world where Amazon keeps its data centers.
Being close to Amazon Drive's servers should improve how chop-chop files are uploaded to and downloaded from the deject. The results were non heed-blowing, but they were strong in terms of speed. When uploading files, little force per unit area was put on our CPU; however, it took quite some time to procedure the files once they arrived in the Amazon cloud.
| Outset effort: | Second attempt: | Average: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upload | 0:09:l | 0:08:50 | 0:09:20 |
| Download | 0:07:00 | 0:07:10 | 0:07:05 |
We experienced practiced performance when uploading to and downloading from the cloud.
We experienced no interruptions during uploads and downloads, giving us an overall fluid experience. Amazon Drive won't win awards for its speed, but it does the job just fine.
Security
An issue nosotros take with Amazon Bulldoze'south security is that it isn't like shooting fish in a barrel to discover out what type of technology is used. Nosotros'd expect security-related information to be at the forefront of Amazon's feature listing, and we're disappointed that it isn't.
The frustration extends to the level of encryption Amazon Drive offers. While we're non surprised, Amazon doesn't offering zero-cognition encryption for users' files. This means that Amazon Drive — or more specifically, people working at Amazon — could access your files. For those who want more security, check out our roundup of the best zero-noesis cloud storage of 2021.
Amazon uses AES 256-fleck encryption for files both in transit and at residual. 2-factor authentication is also available for anyone who wants an added layer of security. Its security is built on Amazon Elementary Storage Service (S3), the aforementioned technology used with AWS (Amazon Web Services). AWS is a deject computing platform used past businesses and governments that excels at keeping data rubber from unwanted eyes and criminals.
Privacy
While Amazon may do well to keep your files secure, its approach to privacy is lackluster. Information technology's on a par with Google and Microsoft, and that's non a practiced thing — at least if you lot don't want your data being accessed and used.
Amazon's terms of utilise states that the visitor may access, use, and retain user files.
Furthermore, it reserves the right to copy and modify files, and employ information near user files to organize them. Amazon sells its ability to do all of the above by proverb it will aid ameliorate the user experience. That's certainly true, but it too means that too many people have access to your personal data.
Customer Support
Amazon Drive doesn't have a dedicated user support department. If you experience an issue, you'll accept to effort to resolve it by going to the centralized help eye via the Amazon website. You lot tin use the search function to ask specific questions relating to your issue; however, results are a little vague on Amazon'south part.
Back up is possible through the Amazon Drive and Amazon Photos user forums. The forums cover a lot of bases, and you have the ability to post a new question if you lot tin't observe an reply to your query. User-based support has plenty of value and you lot tin ofttimes resolve your result much faster than past speaking to an Amazon employee.
Amazon's customer support is underwhelming and would benefit from several improvements.
If you want to speak to the Amazon support team, there's no easy way to do and then. Finding how to contact Amazon felt like an obstacle course we couldn't consummate. Determined to succeed, we kept going and eventually accessed the alive chat.
After speaking with a less-than-responsive chatbot, nosotros eventually got continued to a support assistant. Nosotros were also given the selection to asking a call, but continued with the live chat. After acknowledging our question about the level of encryption used for our files, the support member took x minutes to answer with an answer.
Instead of giving united states of america a direct response, we received a link to the privacy section of the Amazon site and were left to find the answer ourselves. Not but did the response disappoint, but the link provided didn't answer the question we asked.
When the user forum is the saving grace of a service's back up network, it's time for the company to learn how to ameliorate support its users.
The Verdict
For a bare-bones photo storage service and a place to support video files, Amazon Drive doesn't disappoint. It'south perfect for those looking for a basic fill-in solution on their mobile device to keep their treasured memories rubber and easily accessible.
If a professional or business concern user needed a recommendation for cloud storage, nosotros'd quickly directly them to other services. The lack of productivity apps and ability to collaborate makes it a no-go for almost professionals.
If the boilerplate user next door asked how they could keep their files safe, we'd have no problem recommending Amazon's accept on cloud storage, peculiarly considering that Amazon Prime members can back upwards an unlimited number of images. We think that's where Amazon wants to position itself: as an like shooting fish in a barrel-to-use cloud storage for users with little experience and bones needs.
What exercise you call back of Amazon Bulldoze? Would yous recommend it to someone else? Exercise you lot agree with our overall assessment of the service? Let usa know in the comments. Thanks for reading.
Source: https://www.cloudwards.net/review/amazon-cloud-drive/
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