A common notion today is that more the storage, bulkier is the storage device. The same cannot be said about the DS1618+. Synology has a notorious reputation of keeping their NAS devices as portable and sleek as possible, and the DS1618+ follows in those glorious footsteps with ease. We have a compact package which has been designed keeping enough space to accommodate 4 more drives should you ever feel the need in the future. The overall device is eerily silent considering that there are two fans for keeping things cool while the device is in use. Next up, we have 4 LAN ports on the back alongside two USB 2.0 ports. A solo USB 3.0 port finds a presence on the front of the DS1618+. An inbuilt PSU negates the requirement of an external power brick. We also have 13 LEDs on the front panel of the DS1618+ which are used to signify the different activities occurring in the device. Finally, we have a special tool that Synology provides with the DS1618+, and that tool is the only way you can remove the drives and maybe swap them out or perform other operations on them. This makes things very streamlined, and I must say that Synology has really pushed the bar this time around.
When it comes to the negatives, the DS1618+ does not have any glaring faults that I can name. Yes, the drive slots tend to crack or get damaged if the tool is not used properly, but that is purely on the customer because once you plug in the drive, it’s not easy to displace it in the slot. Another sort of drawback is the rather pricey bracket in which the DS1618+ falls. While the feature set is enough to justify the price, the absence of 4K encoding may put off a few buyers.
