Dropbox Dropbox

Dropbox is a simple yet sophisticated cloud service ideal for both consumers and small businesses. An up-and-comer in the industry, Dropbox secures a spot in our lineup of cloud services for its seamless ease of use and feature set. Some users, however, may be disappointed with its lack of mobile access and comprehensive file support.

Your Dropbox account serves as your personal hard drive online, or in the cloud. You can store virtually any type of file in Dropbox, including word documents, photos and videos. Like the other cloud services we reviewed, Dropbox allows you to access your saved content from any computer or device with an internet connection. Where Dropbox differs from its competitors is its inclusion of a desktop app. You can download Dropbox and conveniently drag and drop any files you want to save directly in the Dropbox folder on your desktop. Whether you’re using the desktop app or web interface, Dropbox provides instant access to your most important files, no matter where you are.Dropbox’s feature set is brimming with functionality and features clearly tailored for convenience and usability. The service provides wide support of various file types. In addition to documents and photos, the cloud service allows you to save videos, slideshows and spreadsheets, making Dropbox a good fit for professionals and small businesses. You can also upload and store music files in your Dropbox account, though you cannot stream them through the application.

Unlike some of the other cloud services we reviewed, Dropbox does not have an inherent email client, address book or calendar, nor does it provide a native method for saving and syncing such files. Subsequently, you’ll have to use a third-party application to manage and sync your email, contacts and calendar across all your devices.

Dropbox, however, provides all the other features we looked for in cloud services, including the flexibility to view, edit and share your content from any computer or device. In fact, the service allows you to share files with others (including individuals who do not have a Dropbox account) through links. For security purposes, the cloud service allows you to password protect your account and uses advanced encryption methods to transfer and store all your files.

The cloud service’s hallmark feature is its automatic syncing. Syncing begins as soon as you finish downloading Dropbox; you simply drag and drop any files you want to store to your Dropbox folder. The folder automatically syncs to the Dropbox website and any other computers linked to your account whenever new files are added or changes are made to existing files. Likewise, you can upload files through the service’s web interface, which will automatically sync to your computer’s dedicated Dropbox folder. If your computer is offline or powered off when files are added or changed on another computer or device, it is automatically synced as soon as it is reconnected to the internet. We could easily access photos we had uploaded through our desktop Dropbox folder on the service’s iPhone app and through the web interface, with no downtime. Such flexibility means no more emailing yourself documents or having to carry around a USB drive to access your files on the go.

Mobile Access

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8.8/10

When it comes to the mobile access of cloud services, there is the question of how many devices you can access files from and how easy it is to do so. For the most part, Dropbox 

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does well in terms of both, offering apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry. The service also has clients for all major operating systems: Windows, Mac and Linux. What the service doesn’t have is an app for the Windows phone. However, you can access your Dropbox account from any mobile browser so technically the cloud service works on any device.

Ease of Use

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9.4/10

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Dropbox isn’t the easiest cloud service to use right off the bat, but once you get used to it, operation of the service is simple and straightforward. As mentioned above, the service can only sync files in the dedicated Dropbox folder, so you have to manually move each file you want to sync into the folder and the file disappears from its previous location. It seems easy enough but it can be confusing when you first use the service, and the initial syncing of your files can be a bit tedious. Despite this, we really like the setup; the centralized location lets you see at a glance the exact files and folders that are synced to your Dropbox account. Additionally, you can add files of any size to your Dropbox folder, whereas files uploaded through the web interface are capped at 300MB.

Part of Dropbox’s appeal is its simplicity. The web interface and mobile apps boast a clean, intelligent design that enables seamless and intuitive navigation. It does require a little more hands-on management than some of the other cloud services we reviewed, but even the greenest of users will find Dropbox easy to use.

Help & Support

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10/10

Dropbox doesn’t provide any technical assistance via email or telephone. While this would normally be a disadvantage of any service, Dropbox delivers supplementary support 

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resources that make it easy to look past this deficiency. In fact, the cloud service provides a knowledgebase that is unmatched in convenience and user-friendliness. You can browse the knowledgebase by categories, peruse the top FAQs or take a brief but informative tour of the features Dropbox offers. We were also impressed with how easy and intuitive it was to find the resources relevant to our specific inquiries. When you type in a keyword or question in the help center’s search field, the search results begin to populate with results that match what you input as you are typing it.

If you can’t find an answer in the FAQs or user forums, you can still contact Dropbox using its online ticket system. One of our favorite things about Dropbox is what the service calls Votebox, a feature request system users can use to suggest and vote on new ideas or features for Dropbox. You can even see which ideas are the most popular among users and which ones the company is currently in the process of developing.

Dropbox Summary:

8.9/10

Simple to use and highly convenient, Dropbox is a well designed and implemented cloud service that is ideal for syncing files across multiple devices. It is pricier than most of its competitors and its lack of an integrated email client and ability to sync email, contacts or calendars may be a deal breaker for some users. However, you may find that its automatic synchronization, seamless convenience and zero downtime are well worth the cost.

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