Synology is best known for its niche network storage devices that routinely make it toour list of favorite NAS enclosuresmade for both work and play. But it ventured into internal hard drives not too long ago to offer its customers a complete package in-house, and now, the company is expanding its drive offerings to portable external SSDs. The first device to join its roster is the Synology BeeDrive.
The BeeDrive isn’t just another portable SSD — it is a smart SSD that can do a lot more than just store your data. When paired with its companion app for your laptop, this Synology SSD can help you wirelessly transfer files to the drive and even potentially replace Google Drive’s desktop app. While the BeeDrive appears quite capable on paper, we will find out if all its highlighting software features justify the relatively higher asking price.
Synology BeeDrive
With the Synology Drive, you can automate a lot of backup tasks so that your folders on your computer and the drive remain in sync all the time. Using the BeeDrive app for smartphones and BeeDrop, backing up photos and files from your phones is also a breeze. However, the drive’s reliance on a laptop for all its smart features and the lack of a Mac app currently are what hold it back.
Price and availability
The Synology BeeDrive is available in two storage sizes — 1TB and 2TB, which you can get for $120 and $200, respectively, from Synology’s official sales channels, including Amazon. These prices are a tad higher than other portable SSDs from Samsung or SanDisk, but the BeeDrive has many strengths over its non-smart counterparts.
The feature-rich software bundled with the Synology SSD does justify the price to a degree, though the drive nevertheless remains a relatively pricey choice if all you want is a simple SSD to store your data.
Design, hardware, and what’s in the box
Unlike conventional spinning drives, external SSDs are fairly compact, making them perfect for traveling with large amounts of data, and the BeeDrive isn’t any different. It is light and small enough to easily fit in the palm of your hand, thanks to its plastic shell and its squircle puck shape. It’s pretty thin as well, so slipping it even into your jeans pocket won’t be a problem.
One of its corners has a white LED light with different blinking patterns to indicate if a transfer is in progress or when there is a problem with the drive. The only port on the drive is a USB Type-C port that you’ll use for data transfers. Do bear in mind that Synology has included questionable two-meter drop protection (“tested on a carpeted concrete floor”), with no IP rating to speak of.
During my review process, I accidentally dropped the BeeDrive from a height of about two feet, and its casing opened up slightly along the seam, though the data on the drive wasn’t impacted in any way. So be sure to keep it safe.
Inside the box, you will find the drive itself, along with a USB-C to USB-C cable that supports full USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds, along with a USB-A adapter — with a lock that firmly fixes it to the provided cable — for connecting it with older laptops that don’t have a USB-C port.
Software and performance
The Synology BeeDrive is a plug-and-play storage device that you can start using right out of the box. But its several unique features are what make it smarter than most other portable SSDs on the market right now.
Similar to the Google Drive app for desktop, the BeeDrive can back up your computer folders automatically, and Synology has also included a nifty way to wirelessly back up your photos — and even files — from your phone to the drive.
However, to do all those fancy things, the drive relies entirely on your laptop’s Wi-Fi connection and its companion app, which is currently available only for Windows. The company tells us that a Mac app should be out by year-end. In the meantime, Mac users can continue to use the BeeDrive as anormalportable drive sans the app-enabled capabilities.
An installer file for Windows comes included in the drive storage; you can use it to install the app on your PC. During the initial setup process, the app will ask you to sign in to your (or create a new) Synology account. This is required for the drive’s cross-device connected features. Synology has assured me that your data only travels on your local Wi-Fi network and no information or even metadata reaches its servers, except for your IP address, which is used forQuickConnect pairing.
In line with some of thebest external SSDs, the BeeDrive supports transfer speeds up to 1050MB/s. In our testing, the sequential read speeds did impress us by reaching that figure when connected to a USB-C port on our Windows machine. However, on certain speed test apps for Mac, the speeds hovered around 700MB/s, which is still pretty fast for working straight off of the drive. These transfer speeds depend on a lot of factors, from the file size to the USB type on your laptop, so your real-world mileage may vary.
But that’s not what you’ll get the BeeDrive for — its Windows app is the highlighting feature here. With Computer Backup, Synology wants to replace the Google Drive app for PC, allowing you to automatically back up changes between selected folders on your computer and this drive. Any change you make to the files appears instantly on the BeeDrive, making it a handy tool for safekeeping your files on an external drive. It keeps five archival copies of your files so that retrieving an older version is possible in case something goes south, though it may eat up some of the storage space depending on the file type.
File Sync also works similarly but is designed to sync files and folders between two computers. This feature should come in handy if you often switch between computers and want all your files to stay in sync across both PCs. While I didn’t have a second Windows machine to thoroughly test out the sync feature, I noticed that that one-way sync from the computer to the drive took a fairly long time.
What I like the most about the BeeDrive is its option to back up photos from your phone wirelessly. Using the BeeDrive app for your smartphone, you can set up the drive to save a copy of your photos in full resolution.
These backups happen swiftly — it took less than 5 minutes to back up 260 photos amounting to a little over 1GB — though you’ll have to ensure that the BeeDrive app is open on your phone to begin the process. WhileSynology NAS enclosures make for fantastic Google Photos alternatives, the BeeDrive turns out to be a far more reasonable option if taking photo backups is your priority.
iPhone users get an additional option to automatically convert their HEIF photos to jpegs for better cross-device compatibility. What’s more, Synology has included an AirDrop-inspired feature called BeeDrop that lets you quickly send any kind of file to the drive from your phone.
It works reliably well and opens the File Explorer on your PC as soon as the transfer is complete. The only major downside of the mobile app is that you cannot even see let alone access the files stored on the drive wirelessly from your phone, which is a big miss.
What’s more troubling is the fact that the drive must be connected to a computer with its companion app running for all the backup and transfer features to work. That’s because the drive doesn’t have a brain of its own and relies on your PC’s network to move files.
It won’t be a problem if the BeeDrive can stay connected to your laptop all day. But for those looking for occasional photo backups from their phone, they’ll have to first hook the drive to a laptop. In comparison, WD’s now discontinuedMy Passport Wireless Prowas bulkier but had a Wi-Fi card and a battery built-in for easier wireless transfers.
Competition
he two most popular external SSDs on the market right now are the Samsung T7 and the SanDisk Extreme. When it comes to per GB cost, these alternatives offer a far better value than the Synology BeeDrive. you may pick a portable 1TB SSD from either brand for as low as $70, which will additionally get you file encryption and even a rugged build for better drop protection (Samsung has a separate rugged variant).
Where the BeeDrive shines is its software capabilities. Being able to back up your photos in original quality when you’ve run out of Google Photos space will be a boon for many. The fact that Synology isn’t charging a monthly fee for its features also works in its favor, though we hope that the company adds a file encryption option as many external drives do sooner rather than later.
Should you buy it?
More than its hardware, Synology is known for its excellent software — we’ve seen thatSynology Drive can easily replace Google Drive. The newly launched BeeDrive has inherited some of those traits with accompanying software that does a lot more than a conventional portable SSD. It can automate folder backups and even keep your family photos and videos in a safe place without paying a recurring monthly fee.
If all these smart features strike your fancy, the Synology BeeDrive would be perfect for you, despite its slightly high asking price. The drive will pay for itself in the long run if the computer backup and file syncing features can improve your workflow when switching between your work and home laptops.
The only notable things holding the BeeDrive back are its lack of a Mac app, no built-in file encryption, and that it needs to be hooked to a PC for wireless transfers. While Synology can fix the first two downsides, the BeeDrive is designed to rely on a computer for its smart features, something the company cannot change — at least in the current iteration. Professionals who spend a considerable amount of time on their work machines will still find it easy, but the process will be particularly cumbersome for people who are considering the BeeDrive for occasionally backing up their photos.
The Synology BeeDrive could be your perfect pal for backing up important files automatically and keeping folders in sync between your work and home laptops. The photo backup feature is an added bonus that can save you from spending a monthly fee on Google Photos storage.
