The UnifyDrive UT2 is a portable NAS for creators on the go

If you’re looking for a portable NAS, you’re in luck. The UnifyDrive UT2 kickstarter started on September 25th and the earliest birds can save up to 33% off the retail price. The UT2’s drive is an improvement from the basic design sold in China and the internal hardware should be familiar to those who tinker with efficient NAS projects. This one comes with everything you need from the get go — just put in your own M.2 SSDs and enjoy the ride.

It's also well above the funded level, with over $170,000 pledged on the $20,000 goal. That means it should be built and shipped in the coming months.

The UT2 is driven by the 8-core ARM-based Rockchip RK3588C, a relatively powerful and efficient CPU. Tied to this is the Mali-G610 MC4 GPU, which can handle up to 8K for both decoding and encoding — at 60FPS and 30FPS — with full H.265 and VP9 support. On top of this, the UT2 has a 6 TOPS NPU that could be used for some AI projects. It’s important not to be memory-starved, so the unit also comes with 8GB of LPDDR4X standard.

For booting, the UT2 includes 32GB eMMC, with the ability to greatly expand the internal storage thanks to dual M.2 2280 slots. These slots are designed to take high-performance NVMe drives at up to at least 8TB each. Each slot is connected by x1 PCIe 3.0, which is plenty of bandwidth for a device such as this. We would recommend power-efficient drives like the Sabrent Rocket 4 — which is now arriving at up to 4TB — to make the best use of the UT2’s portability, but most drives will work fine when run at that speed. If desired, the drives can also be put into an array.

As the UT2 is meant to be, in part, a media center, it has a single HDMI 2.1 port for video output. Networking is supported by a single 2.5GbE Ethernet port and WiFi6 802.11ax wireless support. The UT2 also has bluetooth 5.0 support for extra connectivity. An array of memory cards are supported including UHS-II SD/TF cards and CFexpress Type A/B cards, with adapters required in some cases. There’s even a physical button on the unit for one-click backup to any memory card.

When using the UT2 on the go, power supply becomes important. It accepts up to 33W of power delivery over a USB Type-C input port, which means it can pair well with a power bank. In case of sudden power loss, the UT2 also has a built-in battery. To avoid thermal throttling, UnifyDrive has also embedded a quiet smart fan.

The unit isn’t too heavy to carry around, coming it at 306g without a protective silicone sleeve, and 371g with the sleeve. It measures 173.5mm x 90mm x 28mm in physical size. It’s definitely portable and has plenty of power to be used as a NAS or as a simple mobile data station.

What you probably really want to know is the cost. As of now, the UT2 is expected to sell for around $399 per unit during the Kickstarter campaign, with a retail price that's at least 33% higher. This is a bit on the expensive end as the UT2 does not come with any SSD storage, but the compact package and extra features make it worthwhile. It’s worth the price of admission if you value that convenience. Check out the kickstarter and related videos for more.