Outbound Reviewed: Gnarbox, Your Computer Substitute

I honestly don't know why a product like this hasn't come along sooner!

For those of you who don't know what a Gnarbox is, it's a small device about the size of an external hard drive. The device serves two purposes; one to store your photos / video like an external hard drive would, but more importantly, its other purpose is to connect your photos from your camera to your phone instantaneously!

Let me explain further...

We set out for a hike in Colorado the other weekend on assignment for Brazo's Walking Sticks. Our day went splendidly as any outdoor photoshoot would, frolicking among the wildflowers at the base of glorious mountains etc... by the end of the shoot I was eager to share at least a snip-it from our adventure and backup my photos.

I posted up in the back of my 4runner, pulled out my Gnarbox, camera, and phone and took the few following steps.

- I setup the Gnarbox App on my phone.
- Connected my camera to the Gnarbox (you can also insert a SD card directly into the Gnarbox.)
- Connected my phone's wifi to the Gnarbox Wifi that was being outputted.
- Selected my device and was able to access my photos for editing and sharing.

That's it!

It's really a simple, well thought out device that eliminates the need for a computer for simple instantaneous posts to social networks and backing up photos in the most "gnar" of places.

Once you have your content connected via the Gnarbox, the app files the content and displays it by date. There are "in-app" editing capabilities for photo and video, however they are not as robust as we see in Lightroom Mobile and other phone editing tools.

Not only does its goal fill a hole for a need that our day and age now demands, but the integrity of the product stands up to the outdoor "gnar" lifestyle. The thing is waterproof and has a rugged case that seems indestructible, and it's an easily portable device to throw in your backpack and not worry about.

Lastly and probably most importantly, the device serves as a quick way to backup your files, the device has various ports including an SD card, micro SD card, USB Transfer, USB 2.0 Transfer and Micro USB Transfer. The Gnarbox comes in various storage sizes; 128 GB, 256 GB, 512GB and 1 TB to suit various storage needs.

As far as removing the photos from your Gnarbox to get back onto your computer, all you have to do is simply connect it to your computer and put the device in "Mass USB Storage Mode" and your computer will read it like an external hard drive.

It's now a tool I will always keep in my kit of gear, that I didn't even realize I was missing before hand.