Synology DiskStation DS119j 1-Bay Budget NAS Review

Bohs Hansen / 6 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

At the time of this review, Synology’s DiskStation DS119j can be yours for just £99.99 or $95.93.

Final Thoughts

It is no secret to anyone who reads my reviews that I like Synology. After all, what’s not to like? You get quality hardware backed by a great operating system. Today was no different in our DS119j review. The NAS delivers what it promises. A great performance from what could be a great first NAS for you.

Design

Synology’s design hasn’t changed a lot of the recent years. At first glance, it looks the same. However, there are subtle changes which improve compatibility and there’s, of course, all the improvements to the software and newer internal hardware components.

The DS119j is a 1-bay unit without external drive trays. That gives it a sleek and simple appearance which will blend into most places you’d want to place it. It is well designed with a near silent operation and support for the latest 14TB drives.

Sure, with a 1-bay design, there’s no option for drive arrays offering redundancy or increased performance. That said, a Gigabit Ethernet connection is easily saturated by any modern HDD. So that’s nothing to worry about, if the capacity you get from a single HDD is enough for your needs. Backups can easily be performed to network-connected devices, cloud services, and external drives.

Performance

The performance is right on par of where it should be according to specs and quite an improvement over the predecessor. Especially the hardware encryption engine is a welcome bonus which helps a lot when you encrypt your shared folders. There is a little impact on the performance when enabled, but it isn’t a lot. You’ll still have plenty of power for any action you might take on your files, whether you just open or copy them, or you want to stream your favourite video files.

OS

The operating system is one of the highlights of any Synology NAS. DSM has come a long way over the past years and so have the available apps. There really isn’t a lot to say to it, except well done Synology. Whether you just want to store files, sync with your Cloud services, create your personal cloud, cooperated on files with colleagues and friends, or stream media files. There are apps for it all.

Pros:

Very affordable
Solid performance for a 1-bay NAS
Good operating system
Not packed with unnecessary features which only would increase the price
Low Power Consumption
Near-Silent Operation

Cons:

No USB 3.0 ports

“Synology’s DS119j could be a perfect 1st NAS for anyone. With a base of solid hardware and backed by a great OS, the NAS delivers what it promises. And it even does so for people on a budget.”