The DS220j has a nicer external design than the DS420j, and with its compact dimensions, it will easily fit into every environment. The plastic chassis doesn't help with heat dissipation, but a metal chassis would have increased the production cost, which would have negatively impacted retail pricing. With close to a $170 price tag, the DS220j manages a high performance-per-dollar ratio despite its average performance, especially in single-client scenarios. That having been said, the RTD1296 SoC still seems to be a good match for NAS servers featuring only two drive bays as the major limitation for the DS220j is the amount of RAM that cannot be expanded. Given the low price of DDR RAM nowadays, I wonder why Synology didn't include at least 1 GB—its engineers most likely didn't want to create any internal competition with other budget models.

Besides the superior DSM OS this NAS runs, it also supports Plex, and in several scenarios I had tried, Plex performance was decent for the hardware. You shouldn't push your luck with 4K media or transcoding tasks, though, since the hardware will cause long delays, which may end with you suddenly not in the mood to watch a movie anymore. The lack of an HDMI port is a great shame as well because such a port would allow for the NAS to be a standalone media player.

Unfortunately, no "j" Synology NAS servers thus far support the docker package, which is a considerable disadvantage as the virtualization application allows for numerous containers (e.g., other application packages). However, should Synology provide docker support for Realtek CPUs in the future, the low amount of RAM will pose a huge problem.

For users who are taking their first steps into the fantastic NAS world, products like the DS220j are a great first purchase. You won't spend much and will be able to use one of the best operating systems for NAS servers, Synology DiskStation Manager, which offers tons of features. It is also user friendly—even novice users will be able to utilize most of its capabilities. Synology's support is also good, and there is plenty of information online should you have any questions.

My message to Synology is to give this NAS more memory, provide docker support, and equip it with an HDMI port along with a front USB 3.0 port to make it a killer mainstream product!