Given how Xiaomi has almost every aspect of your life covered, you know this was going to happen someday. I am talking about Xiaomi’s first-ever Network Attached Storage, or as Xiaomi calls it, Xiaomi Smart Storage.
Before you get all excited about a Synology kind of NAS, well, this isn’t a NAS in today’s traditional sense. It is a compact, very Xiaomi-style NAS that supports two HDDs. It skips many of the geeky features power users have come to expect from traditional NAS devices, but that’s precisely the point. Xiaomi has stripped away much of the complexity, making network-attached storage far more approachable for everyday users. After all, nobody should have to be a rocket scientist just to back up their photos.
It is designed to meet the demands of a family’s digital storage, featuring 2.5 GbE high-speed data transfer, support for multiple platforms, an AI photo album, and home audio. As with a device of this nature, it lets family members store their photos, documents, and videos, and access them anytime from any compatible device. Users can use it to back up their smartphones, use it to store computer documents, and more.
Under the hood, it supports two 2.5/3.5-inch SATA hard disks, which you can have configured in a RAID setup, if you so desire. In addition to 2.5 GbE, this digital storage solution offers one USB 3.0 port, as well as an HDMI port.
The AI photo album features smart recognition and automatic organization of your images. It also automatically backs up photos and boasts AI scene recognition and people recognition, basically serving as your expanded storage for devices like your mobile phone. It even includes a built-in AI search feature that lets you search for photos and videos locally. This means you can relive moments captured on your phone on the TV, too.
Xiaomi Smart Storage is also a home entertainment center, supporting 4K video decoding with automatic thumbnails. It can, of course, play well with Xiaomi TV, which is precisely why it rocks an HDMI port.
With Xiaomi’s first NAS, you can expect data encryption, automatic backups, and, of course, remote access. I never thought of this as an alternative to subscribing to iCloud and Google Drive. Looking at how much these services are charging me, and how much cheaper mobile data is these days, I just might do it.
Xiaomi Smart Storage supports access across multiple platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and even Linux TV. But the real draw for Xiaomi users is that it fits perfectly into the Xiaomi ecosystem. Thanks to HyperOS integration, Xiaomi phones, tablets, PCs, and even Xiaomi vehicles can seamlessly access and share files.
The Xiaomi Smart Storage is currently being crowdfunded [CH] on the Xiaomi Crowdfunding Platform. It is available in three capacities: 4 TB (2 TB + 2 TB) for 2,299 yuan (about US$338), 8 TB (4 TB + 4 TB) for 2,899 yuan (about US$427), and 16 TB (8 TB + 8 TB) for 4,699 yuan (about US$691). Apparently, they sold out in the blink of an eye.
We have no idea what drives are inside, except for the 4 TB and 8 TB models, which apparently rock a pair of Western Digital WD Red Plus drives—Western Digital’s NAS hard drives. As for the 16 TB version, your guess is as good as ours.
Images: Xiaomi [CH].
