Synology DS213air Review

DSM 4.2

As per usual, the DS213air ships with next to no applications so you'll need to hook it up to an Internet connection and head over to Package Centre to download your apps. They can be filtered by backup apps, multimedia and various other genres - just as well as there's nearly 50 available. Installing them is quick and painless and you can see at a glance which one's you've installed. You can read more about them in our previous Synology reviews such as the Synology ds212j.


Cloud Station has had a few further tweaks apart from its higher 10GB file limit. Setting it up is now done in just a couple of clicks. You download and enable the package, install the Cloud Station program on the PC's you want to sync and that's pretty much it, although you'll need to add your default account to the Cloud Station privileges and to get syncing with the Diskstation locally - you may need to use its local IP address as the server address.


There are mobile apps for many of the usual packages, including Cloud Station. We checked out the iOS version called DS Cloud, which is free to download. Using your default account information, it's simple to get connected to the server, and you're able to sync your device with any of the shared folders on your NAS - you're even able to limit the maximum file size or filter file types.

Performance Analysis
Speed-wise, the DS213air performed admirably and managed a read speed of 75MB/sec in our large file test dishing out several large video files. This makes it nearly 7 per cent faster than the DS212j, although we tested it on a slightly older version of the DSM. This dropped to 51MB/sec when writing the same data – slightly slower than the DS212j. In our torturous small file test, dealing with a hideous mix of photos, MP3s and documents, it returned a read speed of 18Mb/sec and a write speed of 17MB/sec – both nearly identical to the DS212j.


We also gave the WiFi a bit of a speed comparison compared to our Netgear WNR3500 wireless router. A few rooms away, our 60Mbps broadband dropped to 19Mbps using the router - this dropped to 9Mbps switching to the DS213air - a sizeable drop, which can only mean using it as a wireless router is best left to close-quarters scenarios. The unit drew 23W under load from the wall and as we've come to expect from Synology's NAS boxes, the 92mm fan proved to be exceptionally quiet, with the hard disk making far more noise, even under load. Bring on affordable 1TB SSDs...

Conclusion

The DS213air boasts an improved specification over Synology's previous generation low and mid-range NAS boxes and as with all Synology's Diskstations, half the product is essentially the numerous and mostly free app packages and services, all of which are excellent. However it wasn't a great deal faster than the ageing DS212j, which is likely to be replaced with a 213-series unit at some point soon. As such, it's price tag is likely to be a good £80-100 more than Synology's inevitable new budget NAS box. The only feature that's trumpet-worthy is its built-in WiFi adaptor. However, this is a lot to pay considering most cheap third party WiFi dongles are compatible with Synology's NAS boxes too.

While you can use it as a wireless router, practically all home Internet packages come with them as standard (not to mention it's signal strength was nowhere near as good as a half-decent router anyway) leaving just two situations where this feature might be useful; locating the DS213air remotely such as a garage or outhouse, or using it as a wireless access point/repeater in conjunction with powerline adaptors. Both are fairly niche circumstances, but even then we question whether the price premium would be worth it, especially given the DS213, which boasts a superior specification on paper, costs the same.