As a photography enthusiast, you need to take a lot of photos or videos every day, basically dozens of gigabytes, so that a month is several T of data, so how can you ensure the security of storage? Whether it is for clients or photographers, once it leaks, the consequences will be unimaginable. At the same time, it is also necessary to ensure the compatibility of computers, mobile phones and tablets, so as to achieve rapid data transmission. Nas products are definitely a good solution, arguably the best choice for photographers, but they have always been prohibitive due to their high price. Recently, a friend recommended to me the latest private cloud new Z4 of Ji space, which is powerful and cost-effective, so I decided to start and talk to you about its use experience.
Regarding polar space, I believe everyone is already familiar with it. Although the brand was only founded in 2019, its products have successfully entered the market with their easy-to-use operation, stylish design and moderate price, and gradually gained a foothold in 2021, achieving good sales and attention. It is precisely because of its steady and steady play that it has been unanimously praised by geeks in the circle. The new Z4 is the latest to launch in 2022 and is also a collector.
【Part 1: Appearance Appreciation】
▼ From the appearance, the design of the new Z4 of polar space is full of sense of design, using a Z-shaped scheme, and two parallel lines give people a strong reverie space. The main color of gray makes this product look quite technological. In fact, this shell adopts the aerospace grade 5052 magnesium aluminum alloy shell, and the surface is treated by sandblasting and anodizing process, which can not only ensure a good feel, but also ensure that no fingerprints are left, and it is more reassuring to use. It must also be said here that the entire fuselage fully takes into account the needs of geeks and adopts a split design, that is, the user can open the lower half and then install an SSD.
▼The front of the fuselage adopts the front cover of the magnetic hard disk compartment that is currently mainly pushed, which is more convenient than the snap-on type of the previous generation. The suction force of the pro-test is still very large, and there is no need to worry about falling down. However, in order to present the integration concept of the product, the front cover does not expose the USB interface hidden inside, which means that it will bring certain inconvenience when using. Although there is also a USB interface in the back, I still feel that the front is better, and the manufacturer can completely expose the USB port, which is more practical.
▼ Open the front cover, you can see that the new Z4 adopts the four-bay design of NAS products, supports 2.5/3.5-inch SATA interface hard disk, the capacity of a single hard disk is up to 20TB, and the total capacity is up to 80TB, which can fully meet the needs of various users. In addition, ZDR mode is also supported, that is, the polar space dynamic dual backup mode, which will synchronize the contents of the user device's dual backup on two hard disks to ensure data security, which we will introduce later.
▼ There are also two USB interfaces below the hard disk area, one is a USB-C interface and the other is a USB-A interface. Compared with other brands, the USB-C interface equipped with the new Z4 of the extreme space is very mainstream, and it must be liked, after all, many devices are now USB-C interfaces, which greatly facilitates the convenience of data reading. In addition, this USB-A interface is USB 3.0, and the transmission speed is also leveraged.
▼ The left side of the fuselage is the power button and the hard disk indicator, this button is also the only button in the entire host, and the function of turning on and off can be realized by tapping. There are a total of 4 indicators, each corresponding to a hard disk. Of course, different working states will show different colors, the hard disk indicator green indicates normal, red flash indicates that the format is in progress, red flash indicates that the hard disk is faulty, and red solid light indicates that it is waiting for processing. For example, my current state is that I am waiting to be processed.
▼ The back of the fuselage is covered with a large area of exhaust air outlets, which are used to discharge the heat inside the machine in time to ensure that the efficiency of NAS operation is higher. Inside is a large size 14cm fan, 70cfm large air volume, with self-developed rail type channel type air duct, to ensure good heat dissipation under high load. After actual testing, the sound of this fan is not very large, there is no need to worry about the sound too large to affect the work.
▼Under the fan, most of the functional interfaces are concentrated, including 1 USB 2.0 interface, 2.5Gbps network ports and 1 power socket. Why are there two network cable interfaces? It turns out that the two of them can aggregate through network links to achieve a connection speed of up to 5Gbps to meet the user's demand for speed. It should also be noted that the USB interface here is 2.0, while the front is 3.0.
【Part 2: Hands-on Experience】
▼ Regarding the hardware, the new Z4 of Polar Space uses the Intel Celeron J4125 processor, has a quad-core quad-thread, 14nm process process, the main frequency can reach up to 2.7GHZ, the thermal design power consumption is only 10W, and this generation provides 8GB of DDR4 memory and supports SSD expansion. From the hardware point of view, the new Z4 of the polar space can be called the mainstream, and it is very capable of playing in the same price of products, which is definitely a conscientious configuration.
Before starting the test, we first inserted two 2TB Western Digital purple disks into the hard disk compartment, which is also the most commonly used hard disk for daily monitoring. The installation process is relatively simple, and even a technical novice like me can easily handle it. The user only needs to open the tab and install a new hard disk, because there are fixed edge strips and no screws are required.
▼ As a NAS, the most important thing is the interactive experience. In terms of compatibility, the new Z4 of Polar Space is basically compatible with all commonly used platforms on the market, including Mac OS, Windows, IOS, Android, etc., and even supports the TV version of smart TVs and Mini Programs, which means that the whole platform is seamlessly linked. For photographers, customers can upload and download data through different terminals, and the data is safe and reliable, without worrying about their privacy being leaked, which is the most important thing.
▼Here we take the iPhone as an example to briefly introduce its functions. First download the "Polar Space" APP in the app market, then register step by step according to the instructions, and finally connect by scanning the QR code of the fuselage or automatically searching in the LOCAL AREA Network, the whole process is relatively simple. Note that after logging in, you need to format the hard disk, and you can also set the ZDR dynamic dual backup function unique to Ji space.
▼So, what is ZDR Dynamic Dual Backup? Its full name is Zspace Dynamic RAID, the common RAID1 is the most secure mode, that is, full disk dual backup, the disadvantage is that it requires at least 2 hard disks, and occupies a large amount of hard disk space. ZDR can choose to back up important files to another hard disk, and most of the less important files can be backed up without backup, which not only ensures the security of data, but also saves storage space.
▼ In terms of UI design, the interface of the Polar Space APP is very concise, and all kinds of information are clear at a glance, so it is very easy to get started. Next, let's pick a few typical applications to interpret in detail.
▼ One of the first features that I have to say is phone backup. For example, my iPhone memory is only 128GB, often install a few APP memory on the emergency, this function can automatically back up the data that users need to back up in the WiFi environment, including albums, WeChat files, etc., so that the space of the phone can be freed up. Even if it is deleted, it can be found in the backup.
▼ Users can bring together photos scattered across multiple terminal devices, which allows for unified management, and pictures can be viewed according to the order of the time of taking pictures. In addition, there is also an AI discovery function that will intelligently identify photos and then aggregate them together to make it more convenient for users to find photos.
▼ The second thing that must be said is the polar film and television, which is also one of the characteristic functions of the polar space. It can automatically classify movies or TV series after uploading them to the extreme space. In particular, it also supports smart TVs, such as the TV version of the Xiaomi TV app store, which also has a very large space, so that we can easily watch saved videos anytime and anywhere on the mobile phone, computer or TV.
▼ In addition to the backup and download functions, the new Z4 also has the function of the safe, which is also a feature that I am particularly concerned about, after all, for individuals, there is always some more private content, this time I only need to upload the file to the safe. Independent password, safe and reliable. Personally, I think it is more secure if you can get through the face recognition of the iPhone or the fingerprint unlock of Android.
▼For computer users, they can directly access the URL zconnect.cn, initialize and connect to the NAS, and download the corresponding client. From the operating system, the logic of the ZOS operating system is similar to windows, the interface is very simple, reducing complex learning time.
▼ Look at this operation interface, is it very familiar? The toolbar on the left and desktop space in the middle. The toolbar integrates most of the shortcuts and the various functions are clear at a glance. Users can also add or remove from the app to organize their desktops, hoping to add more functionality later.
▼Polar Space not only supports the download of Baidu network disk, but also supports mainstream download forms such as bt, magnetic force, and pt. Taking magnetic force as an example, after copying the magnetic link, the polar space client will automatically identify, and the user can choose the download tool that comes with the polar space or the built-in Thunderbolt to download.
▼What about the download speed? Seriously, this speed is not slow at all, even exceeding the download speed of Thunderbolt members. Mainly due to the use of cloud downloads, the internet speed is beyond imagination. No matter where you are, no matter what device you use, NAS is always waiting. The download speed has reached 7.7M/S, are the partners still satisfied?
▼ After the download is completed, you can watch it in Polar Movies. Thanks to the strong hardware support, the new Z4 currently supports a variety of video formats, and users can freely switch audio tracks, subtitle search matching, etc., which is no less than mainstream players. Even, it also supports movie poster walls, which will automatically generate posters, introductions and other information for newly added movies.
▼ Then for photographers, in addition to entertainment, the most dealing is photos. As we said before, the new Z4 in Polar Space is remarkable for the overall photo. For the studio, people usually put some material in the public group, and then classify it, so that everyone can access it at any terminal, whether it is using a computer to optimize the photos just taken or using the TV to browse the videos taken on the go, it becomes extremely simple.
▼However, there are not many operations for photos, and only some simple operations such as zooming in and out, rotating, renaming, sharing, and viewing parameters are supported. In fact, there are more features to add here, such as scoring, cropping, and even simple online editing functions.
▼Of course, for remote Internet access, the speed depends on the network speed. I deliberately went to the café to test it, using the WIFI of the café to view the pictures and videos in the network disk, it is still very fast, which can fully meet everyone's needs. This allows customers to view their content in different venues.
▼Finally, let's talk about the docker function of the new Z4 in Polar Space, which I have seen for the first time. This function is basically unusable for ordinary users, but it is just needed for professional NAS users. In simple terms, docker is an open-source application container engine that allows developers to package their applications into a portable image and then publish them to any popular Linux or Windows operating system, or virtualize, giving users the opportunity to realize more possibilities.
【Part III: Personal Opinion】
Unconsciously saying so much, the new Z4 of Polar Space offers an excellent NAS platform, exquisite appearance, rich performance, all of which impressed me. But if you think about it, it seems to be different from the traditional NAS, it is easier to get started, and the compatibility is also very good, which is very worthy of recognition. As my first NAS, the new Z4 of Polar Space delivered a satisfactory answer, and I am personally very satisfied. To summarize its advantages:
1. Red Dot Award design, high value;
2. Excellent hardware, safe and durable;
3. Full platform compatible, simple operation;
4. Docker expands the function and provides advanced choices;
Of course, from my use, it also has some improvements:
1. The front USB is inconvenient to use;
2, the application is less, but also need to be further enriched.
In short, I personally feel that the new Z4 is a very good NAS, which is not at all inferior to Synology and QNAP on the market, and there are still many places to go beyond. For small partners who want to start NAS in the near future, this product is definitely worth considering.
Polar Space Private Cloud Z4 Quad Core 8G Memory 4 Bay NAS Family Personal Cloud Network Disk Private Extreme Space Network Storage Server [No Internal Hard Disk] ¥2799 Purchase