- Xiaomi launched its first NAS, a dual-base storage solution available in three different storage capacities
- The Xiaomi Smart Storage was not planned, but was created by customers wanting to own one after a mislabeling indicated that a model was in the works.
- Xiaomi Smart Storage device attracted 30,000 net orders in its first hour of crowdsourcing
Network-attached storage appears to be the new frontier for Chinese heavyweight Xiaomi, which has come a long way from its roots as a software developer focused on a heavily modified version of Android.
While many of Xiaomi’s investment and product line initiatives often surprise others given the breadth of its offerings, many of which are unrelated to each other, a NAS drive seems like a relatively timid product line to focus on.
The product allows Xiaomi to compete directly in a sector previously dominated by Synology, QNAP, Ugreen and Huawei in the region, with users essentially asking it to carry out their projects.
A “happy accident” for Xiaomi fans
The company, whose catalog already includes a disturbing electric supercar on the Nürburgring, rice cookers, nose hair trimmers, electric scooters and the phones that started it all, seems to have accidentally discovered the possibility of having its own NAS, now known as “Xiaomi Smart Storage”.
The idea surfaced accidentally in May 2025, when a diagram titled “10G NAS” appeared in promotional images for the company’s line of network switches. Chinese consumers reacted strongly enough, however, that Xiaomi’s ecosystem general manager, Chen Bo, publicly committed to building one, delivering a completed and publicly funded option about 13 months later.
Xiaomi’s crowdfunded NAS offering comes in 3 different sizes or configurations: the entry-level 4TB SKU (¥2,299), the mid-range 8TB SKU (¥2,899), and a high-end 16TB SKU (¥4,699). All of these options include the dual-bay Xiaomi Smart Storage with two equally sized hard drives.
The NAS is fairly well equipped, offering USB 3.0, HDMI, a 2.5-gigabit Ethernet port, and support for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SATA drives, along with compatible hardware apparently under the hood (a Realtek RTD1619B, a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 clocked at 1.7 GHz, with 2 GB of DDR3L and 8 GB of eMMC).
Xiaomi also seems committed to the software side; It also released a companion app to the Apple App Store and Google Play, while offering support for its Mi Home ecosystem app from the start.
This allowed the company to rack up an impressive 30,000 orders in the first hour the NAS drive went live on its crowdfunding site, as consumers embrace both the value of the Xiaomi brand and the promise of the ecosystem, even as storage prices continue to rise thanks to AI-centric demand.
