There’s no shortage of choice if you need a home NAS, and you don’t have to rely on conventional HDDs either — all-flash NAS servers are gaining momentum, and the F8 SSD Plus is a terrific showcase in this area. But what if you need a portable option, one that’s tailored to work on the go?
You can get an SSD enclosure, slot in a drive, and connect that to your phone, and while that is a decent alternative, you don’t get much in the way of features. That’s where UnifyDrive’s UT2 comes in; the NAS is designed to be a truly portable solution, and it comes with the ability to back up photos and videos from your phone, easily make that data accessible on your home network, and even back up SD cards.
While UnifyDrive is a new entrant in this category, the UT2 gets a lot right from the get-go, and having used the NAS for just over a month, I think it is a great choice if you need a reliable way to back up data while traveling.
UnifyDrive UT2: Pricing and availability
UnifyDrive is crowdsourcing the UT2, with the NAS available on Kickstarter. The UT2 is slated to retail for $599 when it starts general availability, but during the crowdfunding phase, you can pick it up for $399 — a $200 discount. The project has received $695,062 in funding as of writing, and UnifyDrive notes deliveries will start going out from November 2024.
UnifyDrive UT2: Design
UnifyDrive did a good job with the design of the UT2, and the NAS has a design that’s similar to an external HDD — albeit bigger. There’s a silicone case that gives much-needed protection to the chassis, and the diminutive design means the UT2 doesn’t weigh much, coming in at just 350g.
There’s a vent on the side to deliver passive airflow to the innards, and the UT2 can hold two M.2 2280 SSDs. The drive slots are located on the underside, and the drive cover has a slotted design to prevent overheating. The design is refreshingly utilitarian, and the size along with lightweight nature of the UT2 makes it highly convenient to take anywhere. It is roughly the same dimensions as a 20000mAh power bank, but doesn’t weigh as much.
Considering the size, you get an exhaustive selection of ports. The UT2 comes with a dedicated USB-C port to power the device and charge the internal battery, and there’s a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port along with HDMI 2.1 connectivity. The HDMI port is a great addition, as it allows you to connect the NAS to a TV — UnifyDrive even bundles a remote with the UT2.
On the other side, you get a USB-C port, CFexpress slot, standard SD card slot, and a USB-A port. The connectivity gives the UT2 a sizeable advantage over traditional external drives, and the fact that you can add up to 16TB of total storage — 8TB in each M.2 slot — makes it highly enticing. I didn’t see any usability issues with the UT2; the NAS doesn’t overheat even under load, and the silicon cover does a great job protecting the chassis.
UnifyDrive UT2: Features
The UT2 has a decent set of features, and what I like the most about the device is the ability to easily back up SD cards with a single button. Just slot in an SD card, hit the PlugBackup button twice, and it will start backing up the contents of that card. It is a nifty use case, and one I utilized extensively in the month I tested the UT2.
You can set up the UT2 with the UnifyDrive app on Android, and it has a clean design and comes with a ton of useful features. Considering UnifyDrive is a new entrant, I figured it would have a basic mobile utility, but that isn’t the case at all. You can easily access the data on the NAS, back up photos and videos on your phone to the NAS, monitor system and memory use, and so much more.
The exhaustive control is a definite edge, and UnifyDrive deserves credit for getting this right on the initial try. Similar to every other NAS server, you can access the data via SMB — this is how I moved data to and from the NAS with my Windows machine — and there’s a flash drive mode that effectively turns the UT2 into an external drive.
In flash drive mode, data is partitioned into exFAT so it can be readable as a drive on Windows and macOS machines, and what’s great about this mode is that you can set the amount of storage you want to be accessible. Again, this is a feature that’s thought out well, and you get all the other usual connectivity options to access data on your home network, including DLNA, WebDAV, NFS, and so on.
The UT2 comes with a built-in battery that safeguards data; it automatically kicks in when you remove the power connector, and you can set shutdown limits. The battery lasts under 90 minutes, and that’s more than enough if you need to transfer photos during a shoot.
UnifyDrive UT2: Performance
UnifyDrive didn’t leave anything out when it comes to the hardware, and the UT2 is powered by a Rockchip platform that has four Cortex A76 cores combined with a quartet of A55 cores clocked up to 2.4GHz. There’s a Mali-G610 that has six shader cores, and 32GB eMMC flash memory. You get 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM, but it is soldered, and there’s no way to increase memory down the line.
The dual M.2 2280 slots are based on the Gen 3 standard, and UnifyDrive bundled two 500 WD SSDs with the package for testing — the retail bundle doesn’t include any storage. I didn’t run into any issues when transferring data to the built-in SSD, and I got bandwidth similar to that of other all-flash NAS devices I tested.
The 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port is a welcome addition, and it allows you to slot in the NAS in a home setting with ease. There’s also Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, and you get the option to set up the UT2 as a hotspot. It holds up well as an external drive when using the flash drive mode, and as I mentioned before, the ability to back up SD cards with the press of a single button is just convenient.
There are several features missing; UnifyDrive is adding a feature that lets you back up the contents of the NAS to a cloud server, and a built-in music player and e-reader aren’t available as of writing.
UnifyDrive UT2: The competition
UnifyDrive has a unique product in the UT2, and there isn’t another NAS that does quite as much and is designed to be portable. If you need a good all-flash server to use in your home, I recommend TerraMaster’s F8 SSD Plus. It has eight M.2 slots, 10GbE connectivity, and better software features. But you don’t get any portability with the NAS.
If you need a way to back up data on the go, an external SSD is still the best way, and I recommend Crucial’s X10 Pro. I used this drive for the better part of a year now, and it has been reliable.
UnifyDrive UT2: Should you buy it?
You should buy this if:
- You want a portable NAS to back up your phone data
- You need a reliable way to back up SD cards
- You want a NAS that doubles as an external drive
You shouldn’t buy this if:
- You need a robust feature-set
The idea of a portable NAS is highly alluring, and to its credit, UnifyDrive delivered the basics. The UT2 makes it easy to back up data, and the inherently portable design gives it a definite edge. You get all the connectivity options you could ask for, and the hardware itself is powerful — rivaling that of home-based NAS devices.
The biggest differentiator is its ability to back up SD and CFexpress with a single button, and the built-in battery allows it to be used on the go without any hassle. It holds up just as well as a home NAS thanks to 2.5GbE connectivity, and if you need an all-flash server that you can use on the road to back up photos and videos, the UT2 is a great overall choice.
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