The NAS world is undergoing innovations with all key players being mostly from China. Beelink, MINISFORUM, and other names are already shaking things up, and now a new candidate, Z4Pro+, with an extremely odd appearance and a strong set of features, is about to enter the market.
So what is most attractive right off the bat is the whacky look of the Z4Pro+, but past the aesthetics The core of a system is more important. One may choose between Intel N150 or the more powerful Core 3 N355 Twin Lake processors-both capable contenders in their own right for managing your digital life. With this kinda room for storage, we are dealing some serious capacity, with host four good old hard drives and a couple of M.2 slots for super-fast SSDs.
Now, although in early shown international listings some jaw-dropping price tags might be set (like it does so often for new tech), reports coming from China stand somewhere in the vicinity of around $375 (2,699 CNY) as a reasonable starting point. With the increased availability, the chances are all the more likely for a good price meltdown.
Beyond the core processing power, the Z4Pro+ comes equipped with:
- A handy 32GB of eMMC storage onboard, primarily for housing the device's operating system.
- Support for up to 16GB of single-channel DDR5-4800 RAM (though it’s worth noting that Twin Lake chips have demonstrated compatibility with 32GB, so future flexibility might lie below).
- A usable set of ports for your devices and networks:
- One USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port (boasting 10 Gbps speeds).
- One USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port (also at a speedy 10 Gbps).
- One standard USB 2.0 Type-A port for peripherals needing 480 Mbps.
- One eSATA port for external storage expansion.
- An HDMI 2.1 output for display connection.
- Two 2.5 GbE LAN ports for fast network connectivity.
Running the Z4Pro+ cooler, especially when packed with drives, was made possible by the dual fans, a removable dust screen for easy maintenance, and a dedicated heat sink.
If mainly seen in the Chinese market, ZOS 2.0 is the operating system that grabs many buyers for the Z4Pro+. Now, this is not the usual operating system for NAS; it integrates AI functions that are said to help you analyze, classify, and find your files easily. Think of something like Google Photos-this OS can recognize people and objects in your photos, from where you can do searches with text. ZOS can also do some memory bumping by shining a light on pictures and videos from "this day a year ago" to dynamically interact with the files stored.
The focus on a native feature-rich OS such as ZOS is a key reason for the recent explosion of NAS systems from Chinese manufacturers. It provides a solid alternative to systems powered by Windows or Linux that are familiar to users of Synology, QNAP, Asustor, or TerraMaster.
For those outside China, the attraction of ZOS may not be that strong. The good thing, however, is that since these NAS devices are mainly based on x86 processors, the users can actually be enabled to install their third-party OS of choice. It should not be particularly difficult to have any of TrueNAS, Unraid, OpenMediaVault, or even a plain Windows installation up and running for you to take control of your storage environment.
Z4Pro+ makes much of an interesting entry into a constantly growing NAS market and offers unique looks, nice hardware, and a chance at AI-enhanced file management. it ll definitely be interesting to see if it can maintain such merit as it hits the streets.
