Synology DiskStation DS212+ Pro Reviews

This is a brilliant NAS enclosure with an outstanding interface and loads of features, but it’s not the fastest in its price range

Synology's nonexpandable, two-bay consumer NAS box is fast and has a useful, feature-packed operating system.

The DS212+ offers some of the best speeds we've seen from a NAS enclosure and has some real benefits over previous models, namely USB 3 and a faster CPU. However, if you're happy with the speed your DS211+ offers and have no need for USB 3, there's little to justify upgrading. We suppose that's a good thing given the short intervals Synology is churning out hardware these days, although the differences between aforementioned models and the DS210+ are much more marked - namely higher specification, better cooling and lower noise. If you're limited to powerline adaptor speeds, then there's little point opting for a 'plus' model in the first place, as you simply won't see the speed benefits over models such as the DS211j, which are still pretty quick. USB 3 is a boon if you'll regularly dump files onto the NAS using one of it's USB ports, but price is already an issue here given the DS212+ comes unpopulated at close to £300 and building a low power server becomes a cheaper option. However, the reason that NAS enclosures are so popular is that they're so easy to setup and use and come with practically everything you need out of the box by way of features, and there's next to no learning curve compared to something like FreeNAS, which will always appeal to those who want to get things up and running in 30 minutes in a generally idiot-proof environment. Here Synology's products excel and while the DS212+ doesn't offer quite the leap in features and performance we've seen in the past, it offers real advantages over its predecessor, which was already excellent.