Synology's main competitors, QNAP and Asustor, don't shy away from putting HDMI ports on NAS drives, even budget ones. It's not some industry standard to omit the output, either. It seems a little counterintuitive, given many use NAS devices for media consumption, but it's even less sensible on this unit which literally has "play" in its name.
Luckily, built-in hardware transcoding means you can enjoy 4K video up to 60 frames per second straight from the NAS, and the DiskStation Manager software allows for easy storage and organisation of all of your photos and tunes.įor some reason, Synology basically refuses to put HDMI ports on its NAS enclosures. Marketed as a "personal multimedia library" by Synology, you'd expect the DS218play to be really good at video streaming, as well as photo and music storage. With plenty of support for media playback and a smaller, more compact design, the DS218play is the best budget NAS device on store shelves today. NAS devices aren't all that cheap, and neither are the drives specifically designed to go in them, but Synology's entry-level DS218play makes the technology more accessible. There were a few minor complaints about Synology's use of Gigabit Ethernet, though. Happy customers sang high praises of Synology's DSM interface, and others were pleased with the device's low noise. What's even more impressive is the remarkably low number of negative ratings, with 5- and 4-star reviews accounting for 96% of all reviews for the enclosure. Synology clearly impressed buyers with its DS920+, with the device boasting a 4.8 out of 5 star rating from more than 450 reviews on Amazon.
The Intel Celeron processor is decent, but won't knock your socks off, and the Ethernet ports on the device aren't the fastest. Other brands do have comparable interfaces, they're just not as good as Synology's offering.
DSM includes heaps of features in a snappy package, allowing you to organise your photos, stream videos, collate your music and much more.
While the NAS enclosure itself is fantastic overall, the stand-out point separating it from the competition is Synology's DiskStation Manager (DSM) interface. We've got more information about NAS drives over at our NAS buying guide. Some retailers are willing to sell you bundles that include NAS drives, but you'll likely have to source these yourself. Like the vast majority of the enclosures on this list, Synology's DS920+ typically doesn't come with drives pre-installed. There are also an additional two M.2 slots for speedy NVMe SSDs, which can act as caches to speed up the slower, bulkier storage drives (though these are absolutely not essential). Those same slots can handle the smaller 2.5-inch form factor found on some hard drives and SATA SSDs. The relatively simplistic enclosure supports up to four full-sized mechanical hard drives (3.5-inch). With an unbeatable user interface, a great set of features and a price that's in line with the rest of the industry, the company's mid-tier, four-drive bay-equipped DiskStation DS920+ is the best NAS device on the market. With over 40 products in its NAS line-up, Synology knows a thing or two about what makes a NAS device worth your hard-earned money.