What I really like about the Seagate Central is that once setup, it makes it easy for you to connect any device quickly. Whether it was either of my LG G2’s, Samsung S2, Renata’s S3, our tablets, desktops or notebooks. The experience overall was quite simple via their application available in the Google Play store (also available for iOS). The Central is also accessible via web in case you don’t have access to the app, through all major browsers and enables easy uploads and downloads from anywhere via the Central remote access service.
Note however that a third party is used to access your storage device via the internet and browser, when away from home (or no app) and the most important factor in this case is the connection speed will (not may) vary depending on your internet connection speed. So this may be a downside for you. Now that I have had the opportunity to play with it, it’s not as frustrating as it may seem when network connections are “slower.” Overall I still have a sufficient speed when accessing no matter how “bad” my network is. I do hope that moving forward though that either Seagate or their third party service provider update the interface to make it a bit more intuitive and user friendly – more 2014 than 2010.
Overall Capabilities
Through the comparisons and models we were looking at, I wanted something that more or less lived up to my expectations without the need of having to shell out hundreds of euros like you would for higher business NAS machines such as the Buffalo Linkstation Pro Quad LS-QV4. That’s also for a different use. Nonetheless, what you get for the price with which Seagate offers their Central for is definitely not a bad deal when in comparison to other brands.
At the moment the Central comes in 3 sizes, the primary difference only being the storage
125 Euros – 2TB
194,34 Euros – 3TB
150,70 Euros – 4TB
Here some insight into the specifications of the Central aside from storage size:
- Interface Options: Ethernet
- System Requirements
- Router with an available Ethernet port (WiFi router required for wireless file access and backup)
- Internet connection to activate the central and for internet file sharing
- Web Browser: IE7, Firefox 3.x, Chrome 4.x, Safari 3 or later browsers
- OS: Win 7, Vista, XP or Mac OS X 10.6 or later operating system
- Dimension: HxWxL – 42mm x 216mm x 145mm
- 2 year limited warranty
Overall Design and Build
I was pleasantly surprised with the unboxing of the Central. It has a sleek, solid build that would suitably fit into most homes, be it living room or anywhere else. Ours sits in the living room next to the router and is quite unnoticeable. It features an all plastic enclosure with a mesh grille for ventilation.
The front side of the Central features the Seagate logo in deep grey, while the top and sides are composed of a mesh grille which look like the front of a stereo speaker. The point of this is to help keep the HDD from overheating within the device.
The rear features three ports on the left side including power, Ethernet and a USB plug to allow for additional external hard drives (external storage) to be added. This is more or less a standard feature in most NAS’s.
The bottom of the central is also ventilated with a perforated plastic. The Central stands on four rubber feet allowing for a good grip on just about any surface along with the standard product label information. Here you will also find an emergency pin-hole reset button.
Usability
Most people, especially those not fond of technology fear that a NAS solution, as intriguing as it may sound is difficult to setup and get going. Not at all. I find that Seagate has done a superb job in what we would call “ease of use.” All you need to do is plugin the power cable along with the included Ethernet cable into your power socket and router, respectively, and the device will be ready in roughly 2.5 to 3 minutes or less. Once ready you will find a solid green LED indicator on the front right of the grille.
The next step once the device is ready is to type in the included web address into your browser bar to setup the device. You will also fine the device in your explorer under “Start > Computer” (It will automatically have Seagate in the name). A double click enables you to register a username and also setup remote access so that you can access your Seagate via your browser while on the road.
Upon setup you will find a public folder which you can immediately access within your home network (not password protected). If you wish to setup a password protected folder than you will need to setup your individual user via the remote access. Easier than it sounds, even for non-techies.
One downside which I do not like is when it comes to viewing content. Should you want to use the Seagate Media App, say on your Android device, you would need to copy or save content to the Seagate public folder. You cannot access private media (private folders you may have created) via the app. The app itself is not that bad, but it limited in certain areas.
Upon completion of the above steps you will find a FAQ and tips section that will explain a few other things to help you understand the use and device in a bit more depth. Give it a read, but for those with sufficient know how, feel free to skip.
The last section in the browser setup is the final dashboard where you will find all configuration options. Important features such as updating firmware, adding an additional external USB device or setting up the Seagate to automatically backup data such as photos and videos (even from your facebook account), upload or save content from other social media sites, run diagnostics or adjust other smaller settings are a few nifty little features I believe make this NAS a great steal at this price.
Note: Should you want to connect your facebook account to the NAS, be patient. Depending on the size and amount of media you may have stored it might take a bit. This is also dependent on your inet connection.
I don’t know my way around Apple products in depth however the Seagate Central also supports Time Machine.
Accessing Content
As mentioned above there is more than one way to access content however there is a bit of work for Seagate in this area.
Remote access allows you to log-on to your device with the credentials entered during setup via the Seagate website, as mentioned through a third party provider, so that regardless of where you are you can access data any time as long as you have a browser and internet connection. Through remote access via the web you can grab any content, any folder along with any data you may have stored on the device. The interface for the web does look a bit outdated and could use a facelift, but it does what it needs to do.
The second method which I believe most users would utilize is the Seagate Media App for Android and iOS (also available for Samsung Smart Hub (DLNA)). The app per se is simple to use however you will only be able to access content within your public folder, a major downside should you have protected content. This is the major downside at the moment. Also, say you organize your content into sub-folders, ie: under “Photos” you may have “November,” “December” and so forth. You will find all photos under the “Photo” section of the media app, searchable however not organized in your sub-folder logic.
Nonetheless, the overall look and feel of the app is solid and would be easy to use for a majority of smartphone and tablet users. Functionality is great and I have not run across any issues with any form of media to date and drag-and-dropping files is quite simple. The beauty of the app is that I can access data via my phone or tablet immediately (ie: Google Drive style).
Performance
I have not done any comparisons or tests per se so my opinion on performance for the Central may be subjective.
Within my home network I ran two tests. One being connected via Ethernet, the other through WiFi. Do note that we run a 100MB/s network at home so your speeds may differ depending on connection. In both tests writing speeds were astounding, and to my surprise not much of a difference between cable/no cable. I used a 25GB test file in each scenario and the Seagate posted an easy 56MB/s.
On the road, access through a web browser depends on the connection speed I have at that given moment and through the Seagate Media App I am connected to my device within a rough 4 seconds of accessing the app. Fantastic.
In Conclusion
Overall I am very satisfied with this purchase and piece of hardware. The Seagate Central is easy to setup and I believe for most home users not into heavy multimedia than the starting 2GB Central is more than sufficient to kick start into the world of NAS’s. You can access and share content easily via wired or wireless networks. This is a great solution should you want to store and centralize all your data (photos, videos, documents, etc) especially in a “family” or similar scenario where everyone within the home network can easily access the drive and data, while you completely own it (not Google, Microsoft, Box, Dropbox and the like).
Seagate offers apps for iOS, Android, Kindle, Samsung via Smart Hub to name a few and, at least on Android, are decent providing more than needed (in certain areas) functionality. It still needs a few tweaks but for the most part does what it needs to do. You can access content via the web while on the road or should you not have access to a mobile device and functions on just about anything, whether browser, operating system, device and so forth.
You can easily create backups including your social media accounts. One important point here is that the Central is a single unit device. Just like any other hard drive, should it fail and you have no backup then you might as well just…exercise caution like with any other device.
In terms of performance the Central is a solid piece of hardware and when looking at certain specifications such as that of the Western Digital My Net N900, the Central does not need to shy away.
Pros
Sleek design
Easy installation and setup including administration
Backup (including social media accounts)
Good performance and reliability
Cons
Application needs some tweaking and enhancements
Browser based overview needs a few design updates