Back up and share your photos without pesky subscription fees
Designed for use as a personal cloud storage device, Synology’s BeeStation makes it easy to access your photos, videos, and other personal files from anywhere. Unlike other Synology network attached storage (NAS) devices, the BeeStation does not offer RAID protection; nor does it have an app library to complement it. Instead, it makes it easy to automatically back up your data and share it with other users without paying monthly cloud subscription fees. At $219.99, it’s cheaper (though potentially slower) than the similar LatticeWork Amber X, which makes it a good deal for those who want to stop paying for a cloud subscription to access their personal data. Its strengths are in its simplicity and savings; if those are not your priorities as an advanced user, consider spending just a few dollars more to get true NAS functionality—including RAID protection, multi-gig LAN, and a catalog of apps—with devices like the $239 QNAP TS-216G dual-bay NAS. Just bear in mind that the QNAP, like most NAS drives, doesn’t include the drives themselves. The BeeStation gets you 4TB out of the box.Design: A Simple Black Box
The BeeStation uses a black enclosure that measures 5.8 by 2.4 by 7.7 inches (HWD) and has a BeeStation logo on either side. You’ll find a small LED indicator on the front, near the bottom, that is solid white when the drive is ready and functioning correctly, blinks white when it is booting up or shutting down, and pulses white when the drive is in hibernation. A solid orange LED indicates that the BeeStation is resetting; a blinking orange LED indicates a drive error; and a breathing orange LED indicates a firmware update.
The rear panel is home to a power button, a power port, a reset button, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen port, and a 1GbE LAN port. You won’t find any multi-gig LAN ports on this device. The BeeStation is powered by a 2GHz Realtek ARM quad-core CPU, 1GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 4TB Synology-branded internal drive. The sealed drive spins at a relatively slow 5,400rpm and is not upgradable. Also, note that because it uses a single drive, the BeeStation does not offer the multi-drive mirroring or other RAID protection you get with a traditional multi-bay NAS. The box includes a power supply, a LAN cable, and a quick-start guide.
The BeeStation forgoes Synology’s DSM operating system, found on most of its other NAS devices, and instead uses the BeeStation OS, which offers a combination of web, desktop, and mobile applications to access and manage your data and back up files directly from your phone and from cloud services such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Dropbox. You can also back up data from connected USB drives.
