Author's Note: The original review can be found at my blog - Synology DS1522+ Review @ JayceOoi.com.



Introduction
Hey guys, meet the latest 5-bay Synology DiskStation DS1522+ versatile data hub for home and office. It is loaded with a powerful AMD Ryzen R1600 CPU. Comes with 8 GB DDR4 ECC SODIMM and max. 32 GB expansion. 4 built-in 1GbE ports and an easy 10GbE upgrade module. Up to 15 drive bays with 2 DX517 expansion units. Come with built-in M.2 NVMe SSD slots that permit cache acceleration without occupying storage drive bays. A flexible all-in-one solution for data sharing, synchronization, backup, and surveillance? Read on to find out...

Special Thanks
This review is possible thanks to below companies. Be sure to check them out too...

• Synology for this Synology DiskStation DS1522+ Versatile Data Hub for Home and Office and Synology HAT5300-4T

Package Content & Design
Synology DS1522+ comes well-protected. Rest assured that it will arrive at your doorstep in perfect condition. Take your time to unbox and install it. For accessories, there are quick installation guide, hard drive tray keys, 2 RJ-45 LAN cables, 120W AC power adapter, power cord with the correct country plug and some screws for 2.5″ SSD. That’s it.



Excellent build quality with sturdy plastic housing. The design is almost the same as other plus series. Everything you need is packed in this medium size body.



In the front, you have the 5 hard drive trays. On the right part, there are LED light indicators, USB 3.2 Gen 1 port and power button.



2 large 92 mm x 92 mm system fans, 2 eSATA ports, power port, network upgrade slot, USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, 4 1GbE RJ-45 ports, reset button and Kensington security slot at the back.



4 anti-skid pads to provide stability. And 2 slots for M.2 2280 NVMe SSD without occupying storage drive bays.

Have a closer look at the M.2 drive slots. You can add SNV3410 M.2 NVMe SSD there.



2 memory slots. One 8 GB DDR4 ECC SODIMM is preinstalled as you can see.



This is the hard drive tray with tool-less holder for 3.5″ hard drive.



And the look with Synology HAT5300-4TB loaded.



Synology logo air intake on both left and right body. Air can flow in from the front and bottom as well. Yup, rest assured that your drives will be cooled all the time.

Software
Synology DiskStation Manager is the heart of the NAS. It is an intuitive operating system that makes every Synology NAS shines. Yes, powerful hardware without proper software is useless. DSM 7.1 is the latest official release. It is very easy and simple to use. And of course, some technical knowledge is required for advanced stuff. Do refer to Synology online guides if you are new to NAS.



Below is the main menu screenshot. You can access all the packages that you have installed there.



Synology DSM is designed to be lightweight and modular. Therefore, just install those Synology packages that you need will do. Yes, there is a lot of them to choose from. For example, File Stations to manage your data, Synology Drive for private cloud / backup, Synology Photos for smart album, Cloud Sync, Hyper Backup and so on. DS1522+ is powerful and more than enough to handle all of them.



Below are some of the open source packages. Yes, you can turn DS1522+ into a web server with Apache HTTP Server + PHP + MariaDB. Manage your own WordPress blog there. Or create virtual machines with the lightweight virtualization applications - Docker.



Besides those, you can also install third-party ones. These are managed by third-party developers. Of course, you are not limited by those listed only. You can also install others from the Internet. But they are not supported by Synology officially. Do take note...

Performance Result
Synology DiskStation DS1522+ is everything you need for your home office. You can access all your Synology NAS anywhere, anytime thanks to QuickConnect. Yes, you can access them as long as there is Internet connection. QuickConnect eliminates the hassle of setting up port forwarding rules. For example, your NAS is located at office. You can access it from home easily through QuickConnect. Everything is the same as accessing from the office.



Of course, that does not limit to you only. You can share files with others easily through File Station. Share important office documents or casual home videos and photos. Totally up to you. Others can access your NAS directly once you have QuickConnect set up. Shared without password for easy public access. You can secure it with password and DSM account login protection as well.



By the way, file transfer performance will depend on your installed HDD and SSD. Network connection speed affects it too. For example below, the transfer rate is limited by 1GbE LAN connection. Up to 452 MB/s with four 1GbE LAN connections. And over 736/796 MB/s sequential read/write when using 10GbE connection.



Synology Drive transforms your Synology NAS into your own private cloud with 100% data ownership at zero additional cost. Yes, why pay for monthly fee for online cloud storage when you can own and take full control of it yourself? Access files 24/7 from desktop and mobile platforms. Keep your files always up-to-date and protected. Edit spreadsheets, documents and slides together with Synology Office. Track how files are accessed and shared with powerful admin tools. These are some of the features that Synology Drive can do.



By the way, I won't be covering these packages in detail here. No worries, in-depth usage will come later in its own article. Do stay with me...

Synology Photos is another must installed package. It's your all-in-one photo management. You can manage your photos efficiently. Its automated tools help you group, filter, organize and share your content while keeping your memories safe and secure. The perfect replacement for Google's free unlimited storage for photos and videos backup. Yup, Synology Photos mobile available on both iOS and Android will upload your precious photos and videos automatically. You can also share them with others just like Synology Drive as well.

Synology has a lot of useful packages. Download Station is one of my favorites. It is web-based download application which allows you to download files from the Internet. And supports a lot of protocols like BT, FTP, HTTP, NZB, FlashGet, QQDL and eMule. Just select the files that you wish to download from your laptop and then leave them to Download Station. You can turn off the laptop after that. Easy, right? In addition, all the downloaded files will be kept in one place for future easy access.



It's mobile era nowadays. No worries, Synology got it covered too. Plenty of mobile applications are available on both iOS and Android. All Apple products are supported including iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV. The same applies to Android smartphone and tablet.



Advantages

• Powerful AMD Ryzen R1600 2C/4T with burst up to 3.1GHz
  
• 8GB DDR4 ECC memory, expandable up to 32GB
  
• 2 Built-in M.2 NVMe slots for SSD cache
  
• Quad 1GbE ports with 10GbE upgrade
  
• Flexibly scalable up to 15 drives with 2 Synology DX517
  
• Powerful & feature-rich DSM operating system
  
• A lot of useful packages for you & me
  
• 3 years warranty, extendable to 5 years

Limitations

• None from me

Conclusion
The best 5-bay NAS for both home and office from Synology yet! Period. Ultra-fast performance thanks to powerful AMD Ryzen R1600. Preloaded 8GB DDR4 ECC memory and expandable up to 32GB. Latest DSM 7.1 with a lot of useful features and functions. Don't forget the 10GbE upgrade option too. Interested? Get yours at Shopee, Lazada or Amazon.