As I write this, I have 78 devices connected to my home network, including phones, tablets, Windows machines, Android TVs, way too many Govee lights, and other smart home tech. The most important device, however, is my network-attached storage (NAS) system; it houses all my data, acts as my media and music server, and essentially runs my smart home.

So when it comes to selecting a new NAS, I'm exacting in my needs. I'm still using the 100TB home server I set up two years ago with the DiskStation DS1823xs+, but I wanted a new NAS solely as a media server, and there was an obvious choice: UGREEN's DXP4800 Pro.

I tested the DXP4800 Pro when it came out, and it became clear to me that it is a powerful Plex NAS. After the review, I slotted in two 24TB Seagate Exos X24 along with two 22TB IronWolf Pro NAS HDDs, and began transferring media and installing all the utilities and services I rely on every day.

How I tested the DXP4800 Pro

After three and a half months of extensive testing — totaling well over 2,500 hours of use — streaming 4K Plex content on well over a dozen devices, and writing 54TB of data to the drives, I can state with confidence that the DXP4800 Pro is the best all-round media server you can buy in 2026. I'll go into plenty of detail about how I tested the NAS over the last three months, but before I get started, here's a high-level overview of the hardware.

The DXP4800 Pro is a 4-bay NAS with the best internals in its class. It's powered by an Intel Core i3-1315U and has hardware transcoding (ideal for Plex and Jellyfin), 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and a 2.5 Gigabit connection, 8GB of memory, a 128GB built-in SSD, and two NVMe M.2 SSD slots. The Intel Core i3-1315U platform is a solid choice for NAS servers, and it's no surprise that most manufacturers are using it in their enthusiast models. The DXP4800 Pro is available for $719 on Amazon, and you can also buy it on UGREEN's site.

Putting the DXP4800 Pro through its paces

I started testing the DXP4800 Pro by installing UGOS Pro, UGREEN's web-based software. It has come a long way in the last 12 months and is now at a point where you don’t feel like you’re missing out on any of the basics. After installation, I created a storage pool with the four drives; I recommend using a mirrored configuration if you’re looking to set up a NAS, as that way you’ll maintain data integrity should a drive fail. As I had this data in at least two other locations (I’m obsessive about storage), I just went with JBOD.

Then came setting up all the services I use, and this constituted the bulk of the testing. I installed Plex and Jellyfin to manage media, an instance of Roon to manage my music library, Immich to handle photos, and Tailscale to access the NAS remotely. While Jellyfin and Home Assistant are listed in UGREEN’s app store, they’re installed as containers anyway, so I just relied on Docker to install everything. It’s easier to manage, and I get better insights into how much system resources each service is using.

I prefer installing utilities like Plex and Jellyfin via Docker. I find these instances more stable, and I get the flexibility to make any configuration changes I need. On that note, the 8GB of pre-installed memory makes a big difference. Even with eight services running 24/7 within containers, I had 3.2GB of usable RAM left, with enough headroom to run a VM by allocating 2GB of memory.

That said, I subsequently installed a 16GB DRAM module, boosting the memory to 24GB and giving me much better headroom to work with VMs and other containers. Even if you don't want to go this route, know that the built-in 8GB of memory is more than adequate for most homelab hobby projects.

I took ten days to move the data to the DXP4800 Pro, transferring over 54TB in that time. I was conservative in this regard, as I didn’t want to transfer the entire dataset in one go, and I used rsync to move each category — photos, music, documents, and media — individually. A big chunk of that was my music production library that includes VST instruments and their associated media.

I connected the DS1823xs+ to the DXP4800 Pro using a 10GbE switch to take full advantage of the 10GbE connectivity available on both servers, and I was able to saturate the NAS HDDs' bandwidth quite easily. I got close to the 280MB/s maximum bandwidth of the Exos X24 and IronWolf Pro drives, and I saw aggregate transfers hit as high as 580MB/s — both NAS systems could easily handle six times that bandwidth, so this wasn't a problem at all. This was while moving bigger files; images and documents generally transferred at a much more modest average of around 120MB/s.

Thermal management can become an issue with sustained file transfers, and thankfully, it didn’t prove to be a problem on the DXP4800 Pro. The 140mm fan was effective at moving heat away from the internals, and the drives didn’t exceed 48 degrees Celsius.

What I like about Seagate's NAS HDDs is that they’re designed to run 24/7, and they come with unique features like vibration resistance, which is necessary in a NAS system.

But more than anything else, it’s long-term reliability that matters. While the drives I used in the DXP4800 Pro have now clocked just under 3,000 hours (I still count that as almost new), I've had several IronWolf Pro HDDs in the last decade that have clocked over 50,000 hours of usage, and I haven’t run into any issues with any of these drives yet (thankfully).

After the data transfer came the real test: media streaming. I used Plex predominantly, and the DXP4800 Pro delivered three high-bitrate 4K transcodes simultaneously, which is no small feat. Hardware-assisted transcoding via the built-in Intel Quick Sync platform is limited to Plex Pass users, and if you have older client devices like an early-gen iPad, this feature will come in handy.

However, most newer devices have the requisite media containers and codecs to play media files, so you don't actually need to transcode content most of the time — outside of testing how the NAS holds up in this area, I only had to rely on direct play. That said, if your video is encoded using H.265 and you have a TV or streamer that can't handle the codec, it will need to be transcoded to H.264 to play on the client device, and all of this is done automatically.

The verdict is clear

After playing dozens of hours of footage via Plex and Jellyfin over the last three months, it became clear that the DXP4800 Pro is the best 4-bay Plex NAS.

I did notice higher-than-usual power draw in general, with the NAS idling at 24—28W, going up to 60W when the drives are in use, and exceeding 85W under load. There is plenty of headroom, though, given that you get a 150W power brick, so this is not a problem as such. Averaged over three months, the power usage was well within the limits of a powerful 4-bay server, so I didn't worry about it too much.

Overall, the DXP4800 Pro is without a doubt one of the best 4-bay NAS servers around. The combination of powerful hardware and UGREEN's sensible software choices gives it a leg up over its rivals, and after extensive testing, it has consistently proven to be reliable, which is what I look for the most in a media server.

What you need to know

• A rumor claims to have discovered early "design illustrations" for a Ballie app from Samsung.
• The illustrations lay out Samsung's supposed plans for an app, showing battery, location, status icons, as well as a "Streaming" button for the robot's built-in camera.
• It's unclear if this means that Samsung hasn't completely abandoned Ballie, as the last report said the company "delayed" Ballie to figure out "its place in the home" and to likely handle that intense price point.

This certainly wasn't on our bingo card. A leak has surfaced online, offering a glimpse of what could be Samsung's companion app UI for its smart home assistant, Ballie.

Earlier today (July 30), SammyGuru posted a series of alleged "UI design sketches" for what would be Samsung Ballie's companion app. The illustrations give us a good look at the app's main screen. Taking up the center is Ballie's circular frame with its battery percentage, location, and an "Error"/"Ready" icon. There's a chance this could be used in scenarios when the device gets stuck, since it rolls around. If everything's all green, users can likely launch Ballie.

There is a hard-to-miss "Streaming" button. Earlier info about Ballie suggested it would feature a camera. There's a chance this app could let users see what Ballie sees in real-time. "Home Monitoring" seems to be quite an important aspect of this app and of Ballie as a smart home assistant. According to the post, the "monitoring" aspect could involve a setup process in which Ballie maps out its routes, maps out your home for navigational purposes.

Taking another look at the initial icons: battery, location, Error/Ready icon, Home Monitoring might play more of a role than we think. This app could give users every ounce of information they need to view their home, understand where Ballie is, and handle any scenarios that might occur.

Oh, Ballie, Ballie

This is quite surprising. The last time we heard anything about Ballie was when a report suggested Samsung delayed it to "find its place in the home." It gave the impression that Samsung was questioning the right place for Ballie within the home. The company reportedly expressed "caution" about the AI companion. Other concerns, such as a potential high price point and whether consumers would truly engage with Ballie or not, ranked high on its list of worries.

Speculation claimed Ballie could cost consumers ~$2,000, and with everything going on in the world, that might've been too steep a price. Samsung hadn't officially said anything about Ballie. This report was in July, and nothing more has come of the little rolling robot. However, if we want to get real, Ballie was first introduced at CES 2020. Samsung was said to have a "human-centric vision" for robots, and Ballie was the start of it. The company said Ballie "understands you, supports you, and reacts to your needs."

Its built-in camera would be its "eye" into your life, your home, and your needs. There was an announcement that saw Google and Samsung working together to bring Gemini into Ballie for enhanced AI support.