Ugreen NASync DXP series review: NAS newcomer brings great design and intuitive software

Best Prices Today: Ugreen NASync DXP2800

Don’t be scared of the name or their forbidding looks, a NAS drive is a storage solution that has a place in both the home and office.

Freeing you from restrictive and inflexible external hard drives and expensive cloud storage solutions a NAS drive might be the storage solution that your small business or home office requires.

A NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive is a dedicated file-based storage system that connects to your network and enables multiple users and devices to simultaneously store and access data centrally and even remotely over the internet.

Operating as a single storage hub for a network, NAS is a scalable, collaborative, high-speed storage solution that can streamline a small business network with teams viewing, sharing and live editing files and documents, or control a home’s streaming entertainment needs with a direct HDMI or wireless connection.

Instead of separate storage drives being connected to individual computers, NAS devices connect to a local area network (LAN) via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. Authorised members can access files—organized in folders and directories—as if they were stored locally.

It’s local storage that is superior to external hard drives because of its remote accessibility. It can also be seen as a more cost-effective alternative to cloud storage as there are no ongoing subscription fees and it is faster and more stable.

Here we test the personal DXP2800 and prosumer DXP4800 Plus, but include details of all the DXP models.

Bay watch

NAS drives typically offer multiple bays for HDDs (hard drives) and/or SSDs (Solid State Drives), so you can configure and later upgrade (“scale-up”) storage to your requirements.

Ugreen has long been one of our trusted providers of docking stations and charging solutions. It’s a relative newcomer to NAS so has an uphill battle to take on the likes of Synology and QNAP (both included in our Best NAS drive for Mac tests). It is using its accessory hardware expertise and pitching its newbie software with an intuitive interface and AI smarts.

Its NASync range of NAS drives are available from the two-bay DXP2800 (max 76TB) through four-bay DXP4800 (136TB) to six-bay DXP6800 (196TB) and eight-bay DXP8800 Plus (256TB). Ugreen also offers the DXP480T Plus with all-flash 32TB data storage for the best read/write performance; read our Ugreen NASync DXP480T Plus review.

Like most NAS drives, the Ugreen NASync models are sold ‘unpopulated’ – so you get an empty chassis, with no drives included so you’ll need to budget for additional hard drives or SSDs on top of that basic price.

Although slower and louder than SSDs, hard drives are best for inexpensive bulk storage, while faster and quieter SSDs are the way to go for frequent access files and VMs.

Unlike with Synology NBAS drives, you don’t need to to ensure that you select specially approved 2.5-inch SSD or 3.5-inch hard drives. But where that company does sell the storage drives itself, Ugreen does not and so you must look to other dealers. Prices for 4TB HDDs start at around $100. Our sister site PCWorld.com has looked at the best internal SSDs.

Solid design

Few NAS drives are praised for their looks, although the DXP480T Plus looks sleek.

The multi-bay DXP models are more industrial in stern dark gray aluminum alloy. Some entry-level NAS drives can be quite plasticky, but Ugreen’s models are metal from the 2-bay home model to the 8-bay studio monster. You wouldn’t want it sitting in your living room unless you live in a stark bachelor pad, but it will add gravitas to your workstation desk or gaming den.

The bay sleds pop out and in easily and can be locked with the included special key. Fitting the drives is tool-less with some neat sliding brackets and it’s literally a snap to complete.

You can add two 2.5- or 3.5-inch hard drives and two M.2 SSDs into the DXP2800, and four hard drives plus two SSDs into the DXP4800.

The SSDs in the 4800 and 4800 Plus are reached through a plate in the base—where you do need to use the included screwdriver—and are easier to install than in the 2800 where the SSD slots are placed inside the shell on the left side of the first hard drive bay.

A magnetic mesh dust filter is also attached to the back cooling fan outlet.

Ports and specs

DXP2800

• Front: 1x USB-C and 1x USB-A (both 10Gbps)
• Back: 1x HDMI, 1x USB-A (5Gbps), 2x USB-A (480Mbps), 1x 2.5Gb Ethernet
• HDD bays: 2
• SSD slots: 2
• Max storage: 76TB (2x 30TB + 2x 8TB)
• RAM: 8GB RAM (16GB max)
• Processor: N100

DXP4800

• Front: 1x USB-C and 1x USB-A (both 10Gbps), 1x SD card reader (104MBps)
• Back: 1x HDMI, 1x USB-A (5Gbps), 2x USB-A (480Mbps), 2x 2.5Gb Ethernet
• HDD bays: 4
• SSD slots: 2
• Max storage: 136TB (4x 30TB + 2x 8TB
• RAM: 8GB RAM (16GB max)
• Processor: N100

DXP4800 Plus

• Front: 1x USB-C and 1x USB-A (both 10Gbps), 1x SD card reader (104MBps)
• Back: 1x HDMI, 1x USB-A (5Gbps), 2x USB-A (480Mbps), 2x 10Gb Ethernet
• HDD bays: 4
• SSD slots: 2
• Max storage: 136TB (4x 30TB + 2x 8TB
• RAM: 8GB RAM (64GB max)
• Processor: 8505

DXP6800 Pro

• Front: 2x Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps), 1x USB-A (10Gbps), 1x SD card reader
• Back: 1x HDMI (8K), 2x USB-A (10Gbps), 2x USB-A (480Mbps), 2x 10Gb Ethernet
• HDD bays: 6
• SSD slots: 2
• Max storage: 196TB (6x 30TB + 2x 8TB)
• RAM: 8GB RAM (64GB max)
• Processor: 1235u

DXP8800 Plus

• Front: 2x Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps), 1x USB-A (10Gbps), 1x SD card reader
• Back: 1x HDMI (8K), 1x USB-A (10Gbps), 2x USB-A (480Mbps), 2x 10Gb Ethernet
• HDD bays: 8
• SSD slots: 2
• Max storage: 256TB (8x 30TB + 2x 8TB)
• RAM: 8GB RAM (64GB max)
• Processor: 1235u

DXP480T Plus

• Front: 2x Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps), 1x USB-A (10Gbps), 1x SD card reader
• Back: 2x Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps), 1x HDMI (8K), 1x USB-A (10Gbps), 1x 10Gb Ethernet
• HDD bays: 0
• SSD slots: 4
• Max storage: 32TB (4x 8TB)
• RAM: 8GB RAM (64GB max)
• Processor: 1235u

Using the HDMI port you can stream and watch 4K video at 60Hz.

Ugreen recommends the fastest network for optimum performance, and with many docking stations now boasting at least 2.5Gb Ethernet it makes sense to upgrade your network to 2.5Gb, 5Gb or 10Gb if possible to take advantage of NAS speeds.

Software

The web-based software installation for UGOS Pro is simple. Just connect your drive and computer to the same network and then visit find.ugnas.com. The system then automatically searches the devices in the LAN, and all you need do is select the device to add and click to connect.

After adding the NAS drive you are guided through an initialization settings interface where you name the device and create a local Administrator account. There are two roles for users: Administrator and General User. The Administrator can manage users and devices while General Users can only use features. New users are created in the Control Panel, with all account data stored on the local device. The username and password are verified in the NAS device when logging in.

The interface is user-friendly and intuitive. UGOS Pro is not as mature a system as you’ll find from other NAS systems such as Synology and QNAP. We didn’t encounter any major bugs and the company appears to be making regular updates. Some nervous Synology users on NAS forums have expressed concerns that Ugreen’s lack of maturity in the NAS market is making them wait before possibly migrating.

You manage Storage Pools and Volumes in the Storage Manager, where you can view the status of hard disks.

The Storage Pool is the starting point. You combine hard disks to form a “Pool”. Ugreen recommends a RAID 1 mode as safer, but that data redundancy and protection leaves you with less overall available capacity.

Within the Storage Pool are Volumes. Ugreen uses a neat analogy to explain this: “if a storage pool is compared to a warehouse, volume will be the shelves of the warehouse”.

Folders are required to easily access files. You can set different permission rules to limit access/read/write to shared folder.

Ugreen is proud of its abilities as a media hub for streaming 4K video and smart AI-based photo management with its Video and Photo Center apps. It can automatically recognize faces, objects and even scenes, which should save you having to scroll your thousands of photos to find individual or groups of photos. You can search semantically with simple, natural descriptions. It will also locate similar or duplicate photos, which could further streamline your photo collection and save valuable disk space.

Ugreen’s newbie NAS status shows up in the number of available apps at this stage of its development. It ships with 20 apps, compared to nearly 60 offered by TeraMaster.

One thing lacking is a Plex client but using Docker you can install it as a container, where it runs well as a native client.

App for remote access

The UGREEN NAS app works alongside the UGOS Pro system. It can be used to remotely manage and access personal files, photos, videos, and other data, monitor adjust power and hardware settings, scan for viruses, and configure file protocol services.

It can create and manage RAID storage pools, volumes, SSD caches, hot backups and other data storage needs. Administrators can use the app to manage users and groups, and assign permission levels and access rights.

NASync diskless prices

Ugreen has a wide range of NASync drives. We tested the DXP2800, which is priced at $349.99 or £309.99, and the DXP4800 Plus, at £699 or £599.99.

• DXP2800: $349.99 / £309.99
• DXP4800: $549.99 / £479.99
• DXP4800 Plus: $699.99 / £599.99
• DXP6800 Pro: $1,199.99 / £999.99
• DXP8800 Plus: $1,499.99 / £1,299.99

Remember that the drives are sold unpopulated (diskless) and you need to purchase the hard drives and/or SSDs on top of the chassis price.

These prices are comp[arable with the Synology DS range of NAS drives—we recently reviewed the Synology DS925+—but are still reasonably premium for an as-yet unproven NAS newcomer.

Should You Buy The Ugreen NASync DXP2800 or DXP4800

The Ugreen NASync range should suit most markets, from the home user (DXP2800) to collaborative teams and the professional studio (DXP8800). The design and build quality are solid.

You need to add your own drives and can be flexible with large hard drives and/or speedy SSDs.

While Ugreen is a relative newcomer to NAS, the solid build quality of the drives and the intuitive software make the range a tidy and easy to setup and use option for any small business or office.

Check out the other NAS drives we have reviewed in our round up of the Best NAS drives for Mac.

Best Prices Today: Ugreen NASync DXP2800