Over the course of the past month or so, there have been countless UGreen NAS reviews, ranging from 2-bay devices to 8-bay devices, with a full range of products that even cover an all-flash NAS. The issue has been and always will be: are you going to back a device line that’s in a Kickstarter phase that…quite honestly…didn’t need one?
Anyone who’s received this device knows that it’s a finished product from a hardware perspective and quite honestly, surpasses almost everything else on the market in that regard. The downside is the software, where UGreen took an initial stance of discouraging third-party OSes and has recently flipped the script and is now backing (and potentially even encouraging) the usage of a third-party OS.
UGreen NAS Roundtable
This leads us all to the eventual point that you are running out of time to back the device or cancel your order if you’ve already backed it. I had the pleasure of being invited onto a panel to discuss the UGreen NAS devices, hosted by Robbie from NASCompares, with Lauri from Tech Notice, Logan from TwoGuyzTech, and I discussing the device, brand, the way it’s been rolled out, and ultimately, if you should or shouldn’t back it.
One thing we all agreed on is that this device has had an abnormal (to put it politely) marketing campaign. If you’ve been just about anywhere on the internet, you’ve seen some sort of UGreen Ad for these devices. There have been dozens of YouTube video reviews, and UGreen has made it a point to blast this device out to as many people as possible.
This not only waters down all reviews (mainly because there are so many of them to pick from) but signifies that UGreen had an extremely direct approach to marketing. It would seem (a hope that we all shared in the chat), that UGreen took this approach to launch the brand as opposed to trying to pull a bait and switch (a fate that sadly, many Kickstarters have experienced), and it seems to have worked after selling millions of dollars of preorders.
Should You Back the UGreen NAS Line?
This all leads us to the eventual point of if you should or shouldn’t back the device. With UGreen’s stance in terms of third-party OSes, it would appear as if flexibility has been given back to the consumer, and installing TrueNAS or Unraid on this device will give you an overall exceptional experience due to fantastic hardware.
Where it gets to be a more difficult decision is for users who want to utilize the first-party OS. To be blunt, at this point in time, it’s more of a beta than a fully polished OS. That’s not to say it’s bad, because it’s gotten better, but it’s to say that the security of the device hasn’t been validated, the data integrity hasn’t been stress-tested, and there are a lot of question marks – something thoroughly discussed in the roundtable.
I urge you to check out the video above and get everyone’s input if you’re on the fence!