Buffalo CloudStation CS-X1 – It’s All In The Cloud (Updated)

Physique and Features

NAS Devices Now Mainstream

Gone are the days when network-attached storage (NAS) devices were limited to large businesses because of their complexity and exorbitant costs. These days, the market is already adequate with NAS devices that are easy-to-setup and on offer at more consumer-friendly price tags. Among of these NAS devices come from hard drive pioneers Seagate and WD which we have already featured in our previous reviews. Joining the club is the CloudStation CS-X1 from the Japanese label Buffalo.

Physically, the CloudStation CS-X1 looks like a hybrid between the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Home and the WD My Book Live 2TB. Similar to the former, the CloudStation CS-X1’s enclosure is black in color and peppered with tiny holes. But looking at the Buffalo drive’s side profile, it quickly reminded us of the blinds on the My Book Live 2TB. Like the latter, the CloudStation CS-X1 comes with an Ethernet port as its sole option for connectivity and can be powered by just plugging its adapter straight into a power source. It does not have a power button like the FreeAgent GoFlex Home.

Among the three NAS devices, the CloudStation CS-X1 is the one which we consider almost 100% cloud-based. The CloudStation CS-X1 is distinct because of its convenient CD-less installation. The software application that detects the NAS device over the network and mounts it on the computer is entirely based on the cloud. Dubbed as PogoPlug, the app is accessible through the Internet browser of a computer or a handheld device. Based on our experience, we simply went to the website http://cloudstation.pogoplug.com/activate and let the cloud-based application finish its job. With this kind of setup, users will never have to worry about losing the installation disc and bother downloading again the app. PogoPlug is compatible with Windows XP, Mac OS 10.6, Linux, iOS, and Android.

PogoPlug allows for speedy uploading of files to the CloudStation CS-X1. According to our observation, the uploading process was much faster than when pasting files directly to the NAS device. A holistic file manager, the PogoPlug application automatically categorizes content into music, photos, and videos. Hence, the app also features a built-in music player, photo viewer, and video player. However, do take note that these sub-apps can support only certain file formats. MKV, for example, is not playable on PogoPlug. HD video playback is not supported as well. When we tried playing a full HD video on PogoPlug, it automatically resized the frame of the video and played it in standard definition format.