The Ugreen NASync DXP2800 ($349.99) is a reasonably priced two-bay NAS device designed for home users who want to store photos, videos, and important data locally rather than pay for a cloud storage subscription. It is equipped with multiple USB ports and an HDMI video port, but it has only one LAN port (though it’s the speedy 2.5GbE kind). The DXP2800 delivers solid performance according to our tests and is easy to configure thanks to a tool-free chassis, but you’ll get better performance, an extra LAN port, and a significantly larger catalog of apps with the similarly priced Asustor AS5402T, our Editors' Choice winner for two-bay NAS devices.

Design and Connectivity: Plenty of USB Ports

The DXP2800 uses a gray aluminum alloy enclosure that measures 9.1 by 4.3 by 7.0 inches (HWD). The front sports two tool-free lockable drive sleds, a power button, a 10Gbps USB-C port, a 10Gbps USB-A port, and LED indicators for the LAN port and both drives.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The DXP2800 has two unpopulated M.2 SSD slots; they are located inside the enclosure on the left. To access them, you need to remove the left drive sled.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Around back are a single 2.5GbE LAN port, an HDMI port for 4K video streaming, a pair of USB 2.0 (Type-A) ports, a 5Gbps USB-A port, a reset button, a magnetic dust cover, and a power port. A single fan protects internal components from overheating. Behind a removable panel on the bottom of the enclosure is a memory slot populated with an 8GB DDR5 module.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The Asustor AS5402T offers fewer USB ports, but it does offer a second 2.5GbE LAN port as well as four M.2 SSD slots for speedy caching.

The DXP2800 is powered by an Intel N100 quad-core CPU, 8GB of DDR5 RAM (which is expandable to 16GB), and 32GB of eMMC flash memory. It can accept up to 60TB of storage using a pair of 24TB SATA drives and a pair of 8TB M.2 SSD drives. Supported RAID configurations include RAID 0, RAID 1, Basic, and JBOD, and supported drive types include 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch SATA hard drives and 2.5-inch SATA SSDs. Both the Btrfs and ext4 file systems are also supported.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The User Interface and App Center

The DXP2800 uses the same web console and mobile app as the DXP4800 Plus and the DXP480T Plus. The web console offers a user-friendly desktop that is populated with Windows-like icons labeled Storage, Files, Control Panel, App Center, Logs, Support, Task Manager, and Universal Search.

(Credit: Ugreen)

Tap the Storage icon to open a screen where you can create storage pools and configure volumes, format drives, configure external (USB) storage, and check disk health. Use the Files icon to create folders, rename files and folders, share folders with other users, assign folder permissions, and upload or download files and folders. The Control Panel is where you go to configure hardware and power settings; enable SMB, FTP, and WebDAV file services; give users access to the NAS; configure network and security settings; and update the device’s firmware.

(Credit: Ugreen)

The App Center contains 20 apps that let you execute key tasks like backing up and restoring data, organizing photos and videos, and using the NAS as a music server...

(Credit: Ugreen)

That's not very many apps, though. By way of comparison, the Asustor AS5402T offers more than 270 app choices, while the QNAP TS-216G offers 76.

To search for folders, files, photos, videos, and other types of data stored on the NAS, you tap the Universal Search icon. Use the Task Manager to view charts of CPU, GPU, memory, hard disk, and storage usage, and tap the Support icon to open a screen where you can view the user guide, browse the Information Center, and contact support. Finally, the Log icon opens a screen where you can view system event activities.

Setup and Performance: Tool-Free Drive Installation

Installing the DXP2800 is easy. The drive sleds do not require screws or the usual snap-in brackets but instead employ a sliding bracket that makes it easy to secure each drive in seconds. For my tests, I installed a pair of Seagate IronWolf 10TB drives and attached the NAS to the same 2.5GbE switch used to connect my desktop PC.

With the drives installed, I powered up the NAS, downloaded the Ugreen NAS utility to my desktop PC, tapped Register New Device, and selected the DXP2800 when it was recognized. I tapped Start and created an Admin name and password, and then tapped Initialize. When the utility had finished installing the UGOS Pro operating system, I tapped Start and created a storage pool and a volume using the Storage Manager. I selected RAID 1, which yielded 18.1TB of usable storage, and also selected the ext4 file system. The NAS needed several hours to become fully optimized and synchronized before I was ready for testing.

The DXP2800 performed well on our file transfer tests, in which we move a 4.9GB folder containing a mix of music, video, photo, and office document files back and forth between the NAS and the desktop PC to measure NAS read and write performance.

The DXP2800’s score of 245MBps on the write test was identical to that of the Asustor AS5402T and faster than the QNAP TS-216G (233MBps) and the Synology DS224+ (113MBps).

On the read test, the DXP2800’s score of 188MBps couldn’t match the score of the Asustor AS5402T (222MBps) or the QNAP TS-216G (196MBps), but it was again way faster than the Synology DS224+ (113MBps).