Review: Yunsan Cloud NAS - Your Personal Home Cloud Storage

Review unit provided by Yunsan Cloud

Yunsan Cloud is a personal dual bay cloud storage NAS. You can think of this as an alternative to online cloud storage services such as Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox. Yunsan Cloud is a one time purchase and you are the cloud storage provider, and there's data encryption. You upload and download files to your own server at home. The downside is this NAS does not many features provided by the big brands.

Yunsan Cloud will be sold via a Kickstarter campaign that starts on 14 November 2023 and ends on 24 December. The price is USD 209 limited to 100 sets during the campaign, and will be USD 239 after that.

As with any crowdfunding campaign, there is the risk that the company may not deliver on its promise, so you should do your own due diligence and decide whether this is a product worth investing in.

This product is manufactured by China company Shenzhen Baisiwei Technology Co Ltd.

Update 23 Nov 2023: I had linked to the wrong company website in the original review, but the company name above is correct. Another confusing bit is they said they have another company called Looife Inc in USA.

Specs

• CPU: Allwinner industrial-grade A-series, ARM quad-core Cortex-A7/1.2Ghz
• GPU: Mali 400 MP2, support OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1.1 standard
• EMMC: 8GB
• RAM: 1GB
• LAN: RJ45 x 1 (10/100/1000M auto-sensing)
• Disk array modes: Single disk, RAID 0, RAID 1
• HDD slot: 2x 3.5-inch SATA hard drive
• Supported storage capacity: 18TB x 2
• IP: Supports dynamic IP
• Power: 60W, 12V-15A (AC100-240V)
• Fan: Intelligent 8025 fan x 1
• Operating temperature: -10 to 50 degrees celcius
• Compatibility: Windows, iOS, Android
• Dimensions: 12.7 x 15.8 x 22.6cm (H x W x D)

Things included

• NAS
• Screw driver
• Screws for the hard drive trays
• Ethernet cable
• Power adapter
• User guide

Design

Design of the Yunsan Cloud NAS looks good. The body is made with metal throughout and build quality is excellent. The surface is matte textured. Bottom is elevated with rubber feet.

The front has door access to the two hard drive trays. The doors have no key and lock, and they open with a button press.

Hard drives are not included with the purchase. The NAS is said to support up to 40TB total storage.

The tray feels a bit filmsy but that doesn't matter as it will go into the NAS.

That's the SATA connector for the hard drives.

On the back, there are the fan, power socket, ethernet port and one USB-A port.

Beneath the NAS is one QR code to download the app, and another QR code to bind the NAS to the app.

Setup

The included user manual has really small text that's difficult to see. And the ordering of the steps isn't obvious due to how the user manual was printed. You should download the PDF manual instead for the larger text.

For setup, you can download and install the iPhone app 云伞智能 from the Apple App Store, or the Android app from Google Play Store or the APK from their website.

For my review, I have used the Android and iPhone apps which have the same functionality.

After binding the app to the NAS by scanning the other QR code, you can access the NAS from the app, format the drive, setup user account and password.

It's possible to create other user accounts, up to 20, to share the NAS storage space. Each user will have an individual folder and shared folder on the NAS.

Cloud and file management features

Features are limited with the app.

These are the features available from the app:

• Upload
• Create new folder
• Cut
• Copy
• Paste
• Delete
• Rename

Everything's in icon mode. You can't even switch to list mode with the app. There's no search. Uploading progress is represented by a spinning animation in the iOS app, but there's % progress status with Android app.

Creating a download link for external download is not possible for privacy and security.

The app has to be active for the duration of the upload for the iOS app. If the iPhone or iPad sleeps, or you switch app and come back, the file upload may fail.

The desktop app is only available for Windows and the company is currently working on the MacOS app. The desktop app can do whatever the mobile apps can do and has the same limitations. There's also no search. But at least there's option to show the files in list mode.

Is it cost effective vs competition?

So the Yunsan NAS is USD 209 and current price for 2TB hard drive is around USD 60 each. So total cost for this is around USD 329. I'm not sure what kind of support or software/firmware updates will be provided.

Microsoft 365 Personal is USD 69. Use it for 5 years and it cost USD 345. There's no maintenance needed and this can be used to sync and backup your computers too.

A Synology DS223 2-bay NAS is USD 249. After you add two 2TB hard drive, total cost is USD 369. Synology is a well known brand and there should be support.

The UI design for the apps can certainly look better.

Conclusion

The Yunsan Cloud NAS works fine as a personal cloud storage. The setup is simple enough with the main difficulty which is reading the small text on the user manual.

Basic technical features such as RAID 0, RAID 1 and data encryption are included.

The main limitation with Yunsan Cloud currently is the lack of features for their apps. There's no search, and there's no way to create a download link to share your files. The company has said they will update the app with new features in the future, but you should buy it as it is with the current feature set since there's no actual roadmap.

The launch price for Kickstarter is set as USD 209 and that's quite competitive compared to other brands. However the other brands are more established. Not sure what the official retail price will be after the Kickstarter though.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Design looks good
+ Solid build quality
+ Works fine as a personal cloud server
+ Has mobile apps for iOS, iPadOS, Android, Windows
+ Reasonable pricing
+ Supports RAID 0, RAID 1
+ Has data encryption
+ Can support multiple users
+ Competitive pricing
- No MacOS app, yet
- Apps have limited features, e.g. no search
- UI for apps can look better
- Text in the user manual is small and difficult to read
- No lock to tray doors
- Not sure whether there will be software or feature updates

Availability

If you're interested to get the Yunsan Cloud NAS, you can get it through the Kickstarter campaign before 24 Dec 2023.