It’s pretty obvious why Synology appear to control the NAS storage arena. Their persistent software updates to the DSM Operating System demonstrates how serious they are about the NAS experience for the consumer. We’ve seen DSM change over the years and the latest 5.1 edition reveals a comprehensive software suite which is so flexible it will satisfy the needs of business and home users alike.

Last year’s Synology units received a new dual-core processor and we’re pleased to see that even the budget oriented model in this DS215j has also been given the benefit of this too. The DS215j replaces the DS213j and thus adds in more storage (up to 12TB) and the inclusion of USB 3.0 functionality.



As we demonstrated in this review, making use of DS215j’s features is easy thanks to the helpful and intuitive GUI which comes with DSM. It would be impossible to cover all the features inside this software but our demonstration reveals just how versatile and feature-rich Synology’s NAS and DSM really are. DSM 5.1 places particular emphasis upon productivity for Cloud Storage and control over your data across different platforms.

Replacing the DS213j you’d expect the price of this new DS215j model to be the same, or even more but Synology has cut the price down to a surprising £138 GBP / $200 USD – that’s over £80 / $100 cheaper than the DS213j on release. Furthermore, this is backed by a generous 2 years warranty.

DS215j is an affordable, stylish two-bay NAS which utilises will undoubtedly enhance the productivity on any network. Being equipped for DSM 5.1, DS215j places a multitude of features at the consumer’s finger-tips and it would be unreasonable not to hand out our gold award.