The Apps

We should also take a little bit of time here to talk about the Windows and Android apps, although there's also an iOS app, but due to a lack of Apple devices we were unable to test this.


Both the Windows and Android apps have the ability to find NASync devices on the local network—as long as the setting is enabled in UGOS Pro—which makes it easy to locate and connect to the NAS via either of the two. The Windows app appears to be a web wrapper as it has the exact same appearance and UI/UX elements as you get when you log in with a web browser to the NAS.

The Android app on the other hand is a native app, as it has a different layout that works much better on a mobile device, and it also puts various system statuses front and center. Ugreen calls these homepage cards, and they can be edited to suit your needs. The app is snappy and responsive in use, but somewhat limited in terms of what it can do. Taking Docker as an example, it's currently only possible to see some basic details, but you can't stop or start containers. That said, Docker was the most recent addition to UGOS Pro, so hopefully this will improve over time.

HDMI Output

We didn't expect the HDMI output to be doing much beyond showing us the device booting up, but alas, we were mistaken. Ugreen has implemented a rather basic, but workable support for the HDMI output where H.264 and H.265 media files uploaded to the NAS can be played back and displayed via the HDMI port. However, it's not entirely logical how to do this. Once you've uploaded your video file, you need to start the mobile app and locate the video file you want to play in the file manager. If you tap the file here, it will start to play on the mobile device. To get it to display via the HDMI port, you need to tap the icon in the upper right hand side corner. This changes the mobile app to a remote control and the video should start to play via the HDMI port on whatever display you have the NASync DXP4800 Plus connected to. A dedicated app would be a lot more straightforward for this, but as Ugreen's NAS devices for the Chinese market have a native media player, it's not impossible that the rest of the world will get something like this in a future update as well.

Video Playback

It's also possible to play back video directly from the NAS on your desktop, be that a Windows or macOS based device by using the suitable app from Ugreen, alternatively through a web browser. Simply double-click on a media file in the file manager, and it'll start to play. The app, as you can see above, supports hardware decoding, as well as HDR and Dolby Vision support. None of these extra options are available if you play back videos in a web browser, but this isn't entirely unexpected either. The app based video playback window is a floating window and not tied to the Ugreen app itself. As the video is being played back over the network, you have the usual limitations when you fast-forward or skip back in the video, and you will see load times when seeking outside the video buffer. Video playback is smooth overall, but we'd pick a third party video playback solution where possible.