Update :  The new iDrifta has been released (iDevice only) – unboxing here. Review to follow.

First reactions from my son :

• Aww Dad, it’s so cute. Look how tiny it is compared to the old one.
• Dad, I can’t plug in the memory stick next to the Drifta.

That, in a nutshell, sums up the new USB DStv Drifta. It’s small and cute, not quite the size of a memory stick (just  a tad fatter), so overlaps a second USB slot when plugged in (a cable is supplied to solve this). It works, and well, but doesn’t really cure any of the inherent problems with the first Drifta. That said, in the right scenarios it is a great device.

USB Drifta with Aerial extended

Onto the review proper :

Back on 14 July 2011 DStv announced (officially) the new USB DStv Drifta (release here).  The release and the pictures made the device look interesting. A week later their PR team mailed me and offered me a Drifta to test out and review (well, they just offered to send me one, my assumption it was to test and review).

This review doesn’t intend to rehash all of the detail from my review last year. This in many ways is just a simpler, smaller, cheaper version of the Drifta and it works much in the same way. Go and read that review if you want to understand more about the DStv mobile product as opposed to the USB Drifta itself.

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