Introduction
Synology is a well-known brand for visitors to Hardware Info. You could say that the brand name is ‘de facto’, a standard in the field of NAS devices. Many visitors to this site have such a smart butler running for their home network somewhere in their home, and the same applies to many organizations in our country. Synology markets hardware, but perhaps you could call it primarily a software company. In addition to the well-known – usually black – cabinets, it has now built up a considerable cloud portfolio, with services that ensure you can easily secure your data.
The Beedrive was presented at the Computex, which took place in Taiwan last week. This external SSD should simplify backing up and transferring files.
External SSDs are on the rise. The falling prices for flash memory make not only the internal variants but also the external variants increasingly attractive. If you do not have a large storage or data transport requirement, 1 or 2TB is often sufficient. Roughly speaking, you can say that an external SSD in our market costs about 100 euros per terabyte. The suggested retail price of the Beedrive is 142 euros for the 1TB variant and 237 euros for the version with double capacity. Synology is not too far out of place with this. After all, recommended prices are usually somewhat higher than the final market prices.
Like most, the Beedrive is literally and figuratively a gem. It is much smaller than a classic external HDD. If we measure it, we come out at 65 x 65 x 15 millimeters, and it weighs only 43 grams. This makes the device a small square box. A not insignificant difference with an external HDD is that a flash drive can take a much better beating. That makes it very suitable to take with you.
Different than usual
Synology wouldn’t be Synology if it wouldn’t give the Beedrive a different interpretation than other brands that market external SSDs, such as WD and Seagate. The Beedrive has a USB-C 3.2 10-gigabit connection and, according to the specifications, should achieve a transfer speed of 1005MB/s. That’s nice and smooth.
If desired, the drive has a short, sturdy USB-C cable and a converter to connect it to USB-A.
You can easily back up your files or synchronize folders to the drive via the software. For example, you can use Beedrive to transfer data from one PC to another. Currently, there is only an app for Windows 10 and 11; the Mac version will follow shortly.
This app for Windows (and soon MacOS) synchronizes the files on the computer and is also a server for the mobile app. So your smartphone and the desktop app must be on the same network, with the clients not isolated. In many hotel networks, the latter has been chosen. In that case, you have to connect via, for example, a hotspot on your laptop or telephone. You can then automatically sync all or only new photos via the app. That can come in handy if your Google Drive or iCloud is filling up. In addition, it is not a bad idea to have your backup of the photos that are otherwise only kept in high quality by the big tech companies.
Do you also want to transfer other files or select certain photos? That is also possible. If you take photos with your phone’s camera, they can even be transferred directly.
The setting and synchronization options of the Beedrive have not (yet) been expanded enormously. With this product, Synology wants to appeal to a slightly different target group than the brand currently does with NAS devices. The Beedrive is much more focused on simplicity in use. The speed of synchronization between a phone and the drive strongly depends on the amount of data and the speed of your network.
If you use the Beedrive with several PCs and/or smartphones, the software automatically creates recognizable folders so that you can easily recognize them.
Performance
The Beedrive can reach 1005MB/s, according to Synology. We come close to that in our tests. When transferring ISOs, we don’t get 461MB/s; games run at 306MB/s.
The speed of the Beedrive is comparable to that of the SSDs from LaCie, Samsung, Seagate, and WD.
| Synology Beedrive 1TB | SanDisk Pro G40 2TB | WD_Black D30 2TB | LaCie Portable SSD 1TB | Seagate OneTouch SSD 1TB | Samsung T7 Shield 2TB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS SSD | ||||||
| Sequential Read (MB/s) | 917.89 | 1632.7 | 809.78 | 902.37 | 902.76 | 912.84 |
| Sequential Write (MB/s) | 880.47 | 1350.49 | 757.58 | 900.79 | 911.46 | 889.78 |
| 4k read (MB/s) | 16.37 | 36.62 | 19.88 | 28.34 | 28.72 | 12.3 |
| 4k write (MB/s) | 20.87 | 12.08 | 52.53 | 73.43 | 72.92 | 31.52 |
| ISO transfer (MB/s) | 461.36 | 600 | 427 | 152.05 | 510.26 | 308.53 |
| Game files (MB/s) | 306.4 | 428 | 337 | 259.99 | 369.51 | 275.4 |
| ATTO | ||||||
| 64MB I/O read (MB/s) | 1002.76 | 1760 | 890.95 | 1002.76 | 1005.08 | 1021.6 |
| 64MB write I/O (MB/s) | 1002.76 | 1460 | 803.95 | 1005.08 | 1002.76 | 968.32 |
Specifications
Below you will find the specifications of this external SSD from Synology.
| Fashion model | Synology Beedrive |
|---|---|
| Connection | USB 3 (10 Gbps) |
| Capacity | 1TB, 2TB |
| Specified speed (read/write) | 1005/1005MB/s |
| Encryption | – |
| Dimensions | 6.5×6.5×1.5cm |
| Weight | 43 grams |
Conclusion
The Synology Beedrive is a compact and smooth model as an external SSD. For example, the suggested retail price is somewhat higher than the market price of competing models from Seagate and WD. Still, the final market price of the Beedrive will undoubtedly be lower than its current recommended price.
The performance is comparable to that of the competition. A plus of this SSD is its smart software. The Windows app is easy and clear to use. It’s easy to back up and sync files with it. In addition, you can easily sync and transfer files via WiFi with an Android smartphone or tablet or iPhone. That goes much faster than via Google Drive or iCloud. Moreover, you keep a grip on your files.
The setting options are still somewhat limited, and perhaps a thousand functions are missing. It is understandable that Synology has not added them (yet), because it would have made the Beedrive less easy to use. This means the manufacturer may appeal to a different target group with this product than its NAS devices. However, if you look at Beedrive from the perspective of the external SSD market, it is an innovative product recommended.
