In the world of network-attached storage (NAS), there are a handful of household-name companies, custom NAS builds, and not much else. That's why Ugreen entering the market with an entire NASync lineup invoked passionate responses — both positive and negative ones — from the NAS community. There are seven models in total, and they are launching as a Kickstarter campaign that blew past its original crowdfunding goal. I've spent over a month testing a pre-production unit and software for arguably the most interesting NASync variant: the Ugreen NASync DXP480T Plus.

The DXP480T Plus is the only NAS in Ugreen's lineup to run entirely on solid-state storage (SSD). The all-flash NAS ditches traditional hard drive bays and offers four M.2 SSD slots in its place, and this allows the DXP480T Plus to feature a much smaller form factor than most NAS units. It's about the size of a mini PC or Mac Mini, and the all-flash storage configuration is ideal for speed and reliability. When you think of a NAS, a large server with massive storage capacity and RAID configurations for redundancy probably comes to mind. You'll have to rethink the idea of a NAS when looking at the DXP480T Plus, since it is limited to 16TB of storage and RAID 0 is the only configuration that makes sense for all-SSD storage.

Still, not many all-in-one servers like the DXP480T Plus exist to offer network-attached flash storage. Ugreen has a niche product here, but the DXP480T Plus is ideal for people who need a quick NAS with a tiny form factor. The company's UGOS software is far from finished, but it has come a long way in just the few weeks I've spent testing it. If you can deal with some software headaches — in my case, migraines — the DXP480T Plus is a solid all-flash NAS.

About this review: Ugreen sent me a NASync DXP480T Plus and four Samsung NVMe SSDs for review. The company did not have any input in this article, and did not see its contents before publishing.

Pricing and availability

The Ugreen NASync DXP480T Plus is the smallest NAS in the new NASync lineup, and the only all-flash version. It's available as a Kickstarter project for now, but the project has already rased over $5 million, so production is confirmed and units are expected to start shipping in June 2024. Right now, you can back the Kickstarter campaign and receive the DXP480T Plus as a reward with a $519 contribution. When the DXP480T exits crowdfunding, it will retail for $800. Since this product hasn't been released yet, your only option for buying one is through Kickstarter.

Specs

Design

It's a really, really small NAS

The best, and most unique, feature of the DXP480T Plus is the server's design. It's extremely compact and made of premium materials, including a mix of aluminum and plastic. I happened to have two similarly-sized PCs on my desk during my review of the DXP480T Plus for a handy size comparison: the Ayaneo Retro Mini PC AM02 and the M2 Mac Mini. The Mac Mini is slightly bigger than the DXP480T Plus, both in its overall footprint and thickness. While the Retro Mini PC AM02 is about the same thickness as the DXP480T Plus, it has a slightly smaller footprint. I'd even go as far as to say that this NAS doesn't look that much bigger than a robust Thunderbolt docking station.

In practice, the DXP480T Plus will elegantly fit on most desk setups without looking out of place. During my review period, I placed the NAS in between my two desktop computers, and I think many will do something similar. The tiny size of the DXP480T Plus means that it can fit under a monitor, on top of an average-sized PC tower, or on a filing cabinet. You don't need a dedicated space for this NAS, which can't be said about many others. Even though some of the other Ugreen NASync variants are compact for NAS hardware, they're limited by a reliance on HDDs.

There are some compromises that come with the small size, though. There aren't any ports on the front of the NAS, and the only thing of note is the power button. However, in my testing, I found that shutting down or restarting the DXP480T Plus was much more reliable than using the physical button. On the back, there are a host of ports that are highlighted by a 10GbE port. While the speed of the Ethernet port is excellent, there's only one, so you won't be able to fall back to a second Ethernet connection if the primary one fails.

The DXP480T Plus also has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port that only works for transmitting individual files, a USB 3.2 Type-A port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Unlike some of the other NASync models, there isn't an SD card reader on this NAS. It's not exactly a huge loss, but I find it a bit perplexing since the DXP480T Plus is most likely to be on your desk, where a front SD card slot would be most useful.

Hardware

Whether you want an all-flash NAS or not, Ugreen has one for you

The idea behind an all-flash NAS is an interesting one, and for many, a NAS featuring entirely SSD storage is a no-go. Still, the DXP480T Plus features impressive hardware and power for the price. It's powered by a 12th-generation Intel Core i5-1235U processor paired with 8GB of DDR5 memory. There's a cooling system featuring fans that will kick up every once in a while, and can get fairly loud. In the UGOS for the NAS, you can monitor everything from storage usage, CPU and RAM usage, and temperatures.

The DXP480T Plus matches some of the other NAS hardware in the Ugreen NASync lineup in offering a powerful underlying server. An Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of memory is nothing to scoff at, and is probably enough for most likely uses for this NAS. You can also expand the memory with your own sticks up to 64GB, though it's not as easy as popping off the access door. While there's no room for PCIe expansion on this unit, the two Thunderbolt 4 ports will be useful for your expansion needs. The system supports a maximum of 16TB of SSD storage overall, which is a lot for most people but isn't much at all in the NAS world. On top of that, the DXP480T Plus comes with a separate 128GB SSD that is dedicated to storing and running the UGOS.

Software

Half-baked, but already miles ahead of where it started

The DXP480T Plus can hang with the best NAS hardware you will find — as long as we're talking about hardware. When the software is considered, Ugreen's lack of experience in both the NAS and software fields come to a head. This NAS runs UGOS, which is Ugreen's custom operating system for the NASync lineup, and is a Debian-based Linux distro. You can access it through Mac, PC, iOS, and Android apps, though all of those are in beta right now. The iOS version, for example, is only available with TestFlight. There's a web client, too, that can be used to access the UGOS.

There are two main ways to access the DXP480T Plus: through a local network connection or with a Ugreen Cloud account for remote access. Either way, you'll be using the UGOS' graphical-user interface or interacting with the NAS with SSH. XDA's Lead Technical Editor Adam Conway did a deep dive into UGOS during his review of the DXP4800 Plus NAS, and discovered that UGOS apps are packaged as UPK files with HTML files for rendering graphics. The issue with this way of running apps is that it requires programs to be intentionally designed to support the UGOS. That seems unlikely, especially in the early goings of the Ugreen NASync lineup.

The workaround to this problem is to use something like Docker, which can interface with other services through containers. Docker takes away the requirement for apps to be specifically optimized and created for the UGOS, so it is vital to the DXP480T Plus' utility. It originally wasn't supported at all, but now Docker is here in beta. The Docker app is actually quite good in the UGOS, as it's easy to install containers and set them up without leaving the app. I was able to get a few Docker containers running after a little bit of troubleshooting, including Jellyfin. However, there seems to be an issue with the way the NAS, UGOS, and Docker containers handle shared folders and permissions. While it's easy to give Docker containers access to folders and files, getting clients like the Jellyfin app or site to see these is much trickier.

The hope is that UGOS will continue to get better over time, and it has so far. The number of available UGOS apps has roughly doubled in the time since I started testing the DXP480T Plus, for what it's worth. However, there are still plenty of bugs that sometimes take lengthy amounts of time to diagnose, fix, or work around. As a few examples of what you'll encounter using the DXP480T Plus software, the UGOS told me that a RAID 5 configuration was recommended for my four SSDs, which doesn't make much sense. It also said that the SSDs (which Ugreen provided) weren't on the DXP480T Plus' compatibility list. We don't ever recommend buying products on the premise of future software updates, so you should either wait and see what comes of UGOS or be willing to face frustrating situations.

Should you buy the DXP480T Plus?

You should buy the Ugreen NASync DXP480T if:

• You want all-flash storage you can access from anywhere
• You need a NAS that features a compact form factor and an attractive design
• You don't need support for more than 16TB of storage, and can handle a few software annoyances.

You should NOT buy the Ugreen NASync DXP480T if:

• You want a NAS with HDD bays and a larger supported storage capacity
• You need polished software and better support with existing NAS and Linux options
• You aren't willing to gamble on Kickstarter — you'd rather wait for a formal release instead

Not everyone will want or need a NAS that only supports NVMe SSDs for storage. However, it's great for people like photographers or video editors that need a lot of fast and reliable storage that can be accessed extremely quickly. Thanks to Docker support, the finicky UGOS software on the DXP480T Plus is much more useful for typical NAS functionality. I was able to set up Nextcloud, Jellyfin, and PhotoPrism instances through Docker in this NAS with only minimal frustration. Using this NAS and its UGOS in its current state is a bit difficult, but the early bird Kickstarter pricing sort of makes up for that. If you have a bit of patience, the Ugreen NASync DXP480T Plus is a more than serviceable option.