The QNAP TAS-168 ($199) performs double duty as a home network-attached storage (NAS) device and an Android-based media set-top box or home theater PC. You can download files directly to the TAS-168 and serve them to your laptops and desktops around the house, or play them back on an attached television. It's a bit more involved to set up and to use than some other consumer NAS boxes, but its low price and extra features make it attractive if you're a media power user.
Design and Features
The TAS-168Best Price at Amazon is about the size of an external desktop hard drive (7.36 by 2.36 by 4.92 inches, HWD), so you can hide it behind an HDTV or place it next to your cable box. An HDMI port on the back of the white plastic box lets you connect the TAS-168 to the HDTV, and there are four USB 2.0 ports for connecting extra external storage or accessories like a keyboard and mouse. There is an SD card reader and another USB 3.0 port on the front, so you can save pictures and videos directly off of a USB thumb drive or from your camera's SD card.
Because the TAS-168 comes without storage, you'll need to provide your own 3.5- or 2.5-inch SATA hard drive or solid-state drive (SSD). I installed a 6TB Hitachi drive, which was easy, because the NAS is tool-less. You just have to remove the casing's thumbscrew, slide the drive into the bay, and then clip on the included brackets to secure it. Once you close the case and replace the thumbscrew, you're ready to connect and power up the NAS.
The simplest NAS devices (like DROBO S ) we've set up have been the Promise Apollo$239.00 at Amazon (a specialized personal cloud NAS for storing photos and videos from your smartphones) and the Western Digital My Cloud Mirror Gen 2Best Price at Amazon. By contrast, configuring the TAS-168 is a lot more involved. Setup is Web-based, using an updated version of the QTS interface we've previously seen in the four-bay QNAP TVS-463Best Price at Amazon. You also have the option of using Android 4.4.4 (KitKat) directly, after connecting the TAS-168 to your HDTV via HDMI, and connecting the USB dongle for the included wireless keyboard with built-in touchpad. You'll want to use QTS to set up shares on your laptop, remotely access the NAS from your work desktop, or otherwise administer and monitor the NAS from a Mac or PC.
As with other QNAP NAS products, you can sign up for a free myQNAPcloud account, so you can access the NAS over the Internet. Once you're logged in, you'll be able to access the TAS-168's files and media services while you're away from home, even if you don't have dynamic DNS or VPN service set up on your broadband router.
Once the TAS-168 is set up, you can access the files and monitor the system using a set of QNAP mobile apps available in Apple's App Store and Google Play. Qmanager is a NAS administration tool that lets you assess the device's hardware health (CPU usage, storage status, and so on) and downloads (more on that below). With Qfile you can track downloads, view media on your device, and copy, delete, and move files. Qmusic, Qphoto, and Qvideo are specialized players that let you enjoy your media on your mobile device. Qget lets you search for and start BitTorrent, HTTP (Web), and FTP downloads.
These all work pretty well on phones and tablets, but I'm not entirely convinced that they should be separate apps. For example, Western Digital's My Cloud app integrates most, if not all, of the functions of the above apps, save the download manager. It's one app versus many, and I think My Cloud is easier to grasp (and use) for both novice and power users.
Traditional NAS services like iTunes server, DLNA, Windows and Mac file servers, a local Web server, and FTP services are available on the TAS-168, and turned on by default. A local antivirus scanner is also available, but is turned off by default to avoid using processor cycles and affecting other services.
The Android interface gives you a way to interact with your files and view your media, bypassing mobile device and PC use entirely. The TAS-168 essentially runs Android like any mobile device, using the HDTV or another HDMI-equipped display as a monitor. You can run the same QNAP apps directly on the NAS, but the real strength of running Android is the ability to download and run apps like HBO Go, Hulu, Kodi, Netflix, and YouTube Music on your 60-inch HDTV across the room instead of a 6-inch screen in front of your face. You can control the Android interface using the included wireless keyboard with integrated touchpad, or download the Qremote app, which replicates the functionality of a standard IR remote, with a Home key, a four-way directional pad, along with a virtual mouse and keyboard, on your LAN-connected phone. Aside from media apps, you can also run Chrome and the thousands of apps and games in the Google Play store, or even sideload Android apps from other sources. Please note that you won't be able to control mobile apps that rely on accelerometer control; you'd be better off running games like Need for Speed directly on your phone, in any case.
While most NAS devices have some form of BitTorrent support built in (but not enabled) or available via a downloadable client, the TAS-168 is notable in that its BitTorrent client is well integrated, already set up, and ready to go. All you have to do is access it in either Qget, the Download Station interface in QTS, the Download Station interface in Qmanager on your mobile device, or on the TAS-168 itself. Several screens will ask you to acknowledge your legal liabilities and another essentially warns you that scary adult content exists on the Internet, but once these are dismissed you can proceed. VPN services are supported in both the QTS interface and via Android apps, if you need an extra layer of security while connecting to private servers. Once in Qget or the Download Station interface, you can search for streams, start downloading files, and monitor the torrent streams once they've completed downloading. HTTP, RSS feeds, and FTP downloads are all supported as well. By default, your downloaded files end up in a marked folder on the top level of the NAS drive, so they're not immediately available to the media playback apps. That's somewhat inconvenient, because Qvideo has a Downloads section in its menu, but that's pointed to a different (but similarly named) folder on the hard drive.
Specs and Performance
A dual-core 1.1GHz ARMv7 CPU powers the TAS-168, along with 2GB of RAM and 4GB of flash storage for the Android OS. Day-to-day performance seemed adequate; there weren't too many hiccups while switching among apps in Android. Reaction times were quick when I was accessing the NAS over the LAN and remotely from the Internet. It could take a few seconds to establish contact using QNAP's cloud servers, but once connected I was able to copy, move, and access files quickly while dodging Pokemon Go players on the streets. I could also watch locally hosted 1080p HD and 4K UHD videos smoothly using Qvideo.
I ran our timed file transfer test, and the NAS performed quite a little bit slower than other consumer-grade boxes like the Western Digital My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 and the Netgear ReadyNAS 202Best Price at Amazon. We copied a 4.9GB test folder containing thousands of text, music, photo, and video files from our Toshiba Tecra Z50-A1503 test bed via an Asus RT-AC68U Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router$135.95 at Amazonusing both Gigabit Ethernet and close-range 5GHz 802.11ac Wi-Fi. I was able to write our test folder at 25MBps and read the same folder at 44MBps over wired Ethernet. That was half the speed of the ReadyNAS 202, but it's perhaps understandable since the TAS-168 is designed to serve a family unit with media. That said, the My Cloud Mirror Gen 2 was also much faster on the same test. Either of the faster NAS boxes is better if you're planning on running lots of local laptop backups or file transfers, but the TAS-168 performs adequately for streaming media around the house or to the Internet.
The QNAP TAS-168 excels if you're a media hound who is ready to take advantage of its extra functionality, like extensive download support and Android app compatibility. It is inexpensive before you factor in storage, but you will need more than an ounce of tinkerer's resourcefulness and technical knowledge to set up the device in your home—even more than is usually needed for diskless NAS boxes. Our Editors' Choice for Consumer/SOHO NAS remains the Netgear ReadyNAS 202, because it is easier to set up, has less-confusing app choices, and is faster on file transfers.
