INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   As we've already pointed out numerous times in reviews posted both 2016 and 2017 several studies project that by the year 2020 most households (at least in both the USA and EU) will have at least one NAS (network attached storage) device installed. This may sound as bit extreme to some people (especially the ones who are not aware of the benefits of owning one) but NAS devices have risen a lot in popularity in the last 2 years (sales numbers clearly show this) not only between professionals but also home users. Because however most NAS models in the market by manufacturers like QNAP, ASUSTOR, Thecus and Synology require a good level of knowledge to setup and use others like Promise Technology do their best to cater to the needs of casual consumers and after testing their Apollo Cloud 4TB NAS today with us we have their latest Apollo Cloud 2 Duo 8TB model.

   Promise Technology is a recognized global leader with 30 years of experience in the storage industry. Promise creates innovative solutions tailored to the unique needs of the IoT, Cloud, IT, Rich Media and Surveillance markets. From personal cloud appliances to scalable enterprise IT Infrastructure, blazingly fast post-production tools, video security solutions, and hyperconverged systems, Promise adapts its products to meet the real-world challenges customers face every day. Promise’s highly experienced sales and engineering teams are strategically located throughout the Americas, EMEA, and JAPAC regions to provide unparalleled services and support to its customers around the globe. For more information, visit: www.promise.com.

    Just like with the single HDD Apollo Cloud 4TB NAS the dual HDD Apollo Cloud 2 Duo 8TB (also available with 2x2TB hard disk drives) is aimed towards home users looking for an easy to use model primarily for file sharing purposes (both local and remote/Cloud - supports sharing of files to up to 40 people). Under the hood Promise Technology has placed a dual-core Marvell ARM v7 Cortex-A9 CPU (clocked at 1GHz) which they have paired with 1GB of LPDDR3 RAM, two 3.5" hard disk drives (2x4TB in our model - hot swappable for quick removal) which can be configured both in RAID0 (all 8TB are used as storage) and RAID1 (4TB storage space with the other 4TB used as a mirrored backup), single USB 3.0 port and an RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port. Just like its predecessor the Apollo Cloud Duo offers several features including quick camera roll backup (allows the end user to instantly backup pictures and videos from a smartphone and/or tablet with the swipe of a finger), location based & facial recognition photo albums (helps catalog your photos either by GeoTagging or by identifying people in them), time machine support (lets you backup multiple Mac's to the same Apollo and also supports incremental time machine backups over the Internet), Cloud sync (backup all your data to the Apollo from Google Drive and Dropbox) and IP camera recording (from up to 2 IP cameras - unfortunately compatibility is currently limited to just 12 models by Amcrest, AXIS, Instar, WansView and D-Link).

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Apollo Cloud 2 Duo arrived inside a white box that has a large product picture at the front right next to a smartphone running the compatible app.

 

 

The specifications and bundle contents are placed on the left side of the box in 2 languages.

 

 

Listed on the left side of the box are some of the features of the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo in 6 languages.

 

 

At the rear we find all the available product uses showcased with the help of two images (the IP camera recording feature was introduced after the product arrived to our lab and so it's not listed here).

 

 

The NAS is placed inside a formed piece of blue foam (the rest of the bundle is located inside a small cardboard box).

 

 

Inside the box Promise Technology has placed the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo NAS, power adapter with two tips (EU/UK), RJ45 Ethernet Cable, app download paper and a quick start guide.

 

 

THE APOLLO CLOUD 2 DUO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Measuring 213mm in height, 123mm in width and 137mm in length the glossy white housing of the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo is not that much larger compared to the one of its predecessor.

 

 

Since the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo is a dual bay NAS we placed it right next to the recently reviewed AS6302T by ASUSTOR for size comparison purposes.

 

 

An intake port placed at the top of the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo allows air to enter the interior (in turn hot air leaves the interior from the base of the NAS).

 

 

The company logo and the power activity LED are placed at the lower front.

 

 

Moving at the rear we find the USB 3.0 port, RJ45 Ethernet Port and the DC in.

 

 

Removing the top cover reveals a small 60mm intake fan which is held in place just by two screws (removing the fan grants you access to the two hot-swappable hard disk drives).

 

 

Promise Technology chose to pair the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo with two surveillance drives from Toshiba and more specifically two MD04ABA400V 3.5" SATA III hard disk drives (featuring 5400RPM, 128MB Cache, 1 million hours MTBF and RV sensors).

 

 

SETUP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To setup the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo you will need to head over to the official downloads page and grab the Windows or Mac Utility.

 

 

Once you install the Windows or Mac Utility it will also need some time to download all the necessary files from the internet.

 

 

The utility will initially search for any devices linked on the local network.

 

 

You will have to decide on whether to setup the drives of the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo in RAID0 or RAID1 (performance is similar between both modes so capacity and data safety are the decisive factors).

 

 

In order to use the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo you will need to register the device to your email (a verification number to proceed with the setup will be emailed to you).

 

 

WINDOWS UTILITY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just like with the first Apollo the web interface of the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo is very clean and easy to use (as expected the dashboard tab shows you the current amount of free storage, connected members, status of the NAS, data sent/received and various notifications if they exist).

 

 

From the files tab you can create directories and copy/paste/move/delete files (and directories) found on the NAS.

 

 

All your pictures, videos and albums are sorted out under the photos tab.

 

 

You can check all the available shares (private and public) from the shares tab.

 

 

The small gear over the dashboard tab is where the settings of the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo are at.

 

 

From here you can check various information about the NAS, perform firmware updates, select a sync folder on your computer (for backup purposes), mirror your Apollo Cloud 2 Duo onto another also located in the local LAN, backup all the contents of the attached USB drive onto the NAS, backup and restore the contents of the NAS onto and from an external drive, backup all the contents of the NAS onto the Cloud (Google Drive and/or Dropbox) and finally you can configure the IP recording feature (unfortunately since only 12 IP camera models are supported currently we weren't able to use it with the ones we have here).

 

 

The members tab is placed right next to the preferences/settings one and from here you can easily hand out invitations to people for the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo.

 

 

Finally we have the profile tab from where you can change your picture, email address and password.

 

 

ANDROID / IOS APP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The available Android/iOS app is very easy to use and allows you to share your pictures and videos with all the registered people, easily sync/backup pictures and videos from your phone onto the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo, get invitation links, access all the files on the NAS and also allows you to access the mirror, backup and restore functions.

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY – PERFORMANCE RESULTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Originally we had decided that since some of the NAS servers/devices we've tested in the past are no longer in our possession (naturally) we would keep performing the exact same testing methodology we did in the past for as long as possible in order to provide accurate comparison results. However since our real-life tests are not enough for some people we also decided to throw in ATTO and Crystal Disk Mark to cover the more demanding users. However as always we will be using a single Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB SATA III and up to 10 Seagate Enterprise NAS 6TB SATA III hard disk drives with 3.5” compatible units (we switched to 6TB models for RAID tests since May 2017) and up to two (for now) Enterprise Capacity 2.5 HDD V3 2TB SATA III HDDs with 2.5” compatible units to perform several upload/download tests with 10.9GB (Single) and 40,8GB (RAID) files. Tests are repeated a total of 4 times after which we record the average numbers (from the 4 peak ones) into our charts. The network device used for 1GbE tests is the same Netgear D7800 Gigabit VDSL Modem/Router we’ve been using lately when performing tests on NAS servers. Since the 25th of June 2015 for 10GbE tests we’ll be using a Netgear ProSafe XS712T 10G Smart Switch and an Intel XT540-AT2 10GbE PCIe card (10GbE compatible NAS cards will be provided from each company and stated in each review).

RAID TESTS

 

TEST RESULTS – TEMPERATURES / CONSUMPTION / NOISE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POWER CONSUMPTION

19W at load is nothing new but after taking into account that the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo has two hard disk drives inside and not one it's actually a very impressive result.

NOISE LEVELS

The 60mm intake fan is almost inaudible at all times but unfortunately since the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo doesn't have temperature readings for its drives we don't know just how efficient it really is.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Just like its predecessor the brand new Apollo Cloud 2 Duo NAS by Promise Technology is an extremely easy to use model ideal for home users and people who primarily want but one thing, media sharing. Unfortunately since Promise Technology once again made it impossible for end users to add more applications (just like with the original Apollo) the capabilities of this particular unit are severely limited. Sure their team can always introduce new features like the IP camera recording (which needs much work still) but since we don’t think that will be a priority for them we do hope they will consider giving end users that ability. The good news is that people who are looking for a centralized media server will be glad to know that performance is actually quite good (always compared to other “ready” models from Seagate and WD), both power consumption and noise levels are lower than expected and with a total of 8TB (also available with 4TB) it should be more than sufficient even for huge photo and video collections. As for design well if you happen to be working with a MAC or if you’re an Apple person in general the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo with its glossy white tower enclosure will fit right at home.

   Promise Technology is one of those manufacturers which offer high quality products so combine that with two 3.5” 4TB Toshiba drives and the end result would be something very expensive right? Well luckily the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo NAS is far from what that since it currently retails for USD369 inside the USA (Amazon.com – promotion, same price as the 4TB version) and for 305Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Granted the Apollo Cloud 2 Duo is not what experienced and demanding users would choose over a fully featured unit by QNAP or ASUSTOR but for home users who are just looking for the easy way to store and share files like pictures and videos nothing is simpler to use and so since it delivers on exactly what Promise Technology advertises and then some it deserves our Golden Award.

PROS

- Good Performance
- Compact Size
- Easy To Use Interface
- Two Preinstalled Hot Swap HDDs (Zero Compatibility Issues)
- Available In 4/8TB Capacities
- Low Power Consumption & Noise Levels
- USB 3.0 Port
- iOS / Android App
- Frequent Firmware Updates (Introduction Of New Features)
- AES 256-bit Encryption
- Current Amazon USA Promotional Price (8TB Model)

CONS

- Limited Number Of Features
- No Shutdown Command
- Limited IP Camera Support