WD My Cloud Home review: A handy personal cloud solution

My Cloud Home: Unboxing and Set Up

Specifications

• Storage: 3TB
• Interfaces: Gigabit Ethernet, Power Supply (DC in), USB 3.0 port?Height: 6.91 in (175.5 mm)
• Depth: 5.51 (140 mm)
• Width: 2.09 (53 mm)
• Weight: 1.03 KG
• System Requirements: Windows 10, 8.1 or 7 (64-bit only), Mac OS X Sierra, El Capitan or Yosemite, For mobile: iOS 9+ and Android 4.4+
• Warranty: 2 years worldwide

Pricing (Single Drive)

• 3TB: Rs 13,200
• 6TB: Rs 20,000
• 8TB: Rs 25,000

Design

The My Cloud Home comes with a stylish design and complements your workstation. Carrying an elegant look, it is enclosed in a plastic tube with a vented top and bottom for air ventilation. It borrows the textured silver design from WD's My Passport range of portable hard drives. But it lacks a physical on/off button, which is only available in the bigger sized My Cloud Home Duo. Also, the smaller variant doesn't allow access to the hardware, so it will be hard to swap any malfunctioning drives inside. Not the same case with the Duo model.

On the front side, there's an LED light that indicates whether or not the device is connected. On the backside, you'll find the power input, a USB 3.0 port, and the ethernet output. Honestly, the company could've added more functionality here as the USB 3.0 port feels dated compared to the latest trends.

Setup

Setting up the My Cloud Home is a cake walk. First, you have to plug the device into a router using the ethernet cable, and it's ready to be fired up. Once you are done with the connections, you can setup the device through your computer by going to mycloud.com/hello and creating an account. It will ask for the unique code provided with the box and offer you to download the desktop app, and instructions on how to download the mobile app.

After the setup, you will be able to use the My Cloud Home as just another drive that can be accessed from the computer, simply dragging and dropping the content - the difference being you don't have to be around to access the content, assuming that you leave the device connected to the internet all the time.

Additionally, you can access the device using respective apps available. The desktop app allows you to browse through the content the same way you access them via computer. The phone app, in turn, provides you a more mobile experience and it automatically backs up your phone to keep your phone data safe. The device also allows you to backup external hard drives and USB drives using the app. For those wondering, there's no option of copying data back to the external drive or the flash drive, at least no directly or automatically.

Performance

Judging by the high-end specifications, one would expect a snappy transfer rate from the My Cloud Home. Well, to burst your bubble, the transfer rates on the device are painfully slow. Normal read speeds range between 50-60MB per second over a gigabit link, but the write speed offered is only something around 20-30MB per second, which is bit disappointing. We also noticed that the speed gets reduced to as low as 4-5MB per second when you transfer a small file. Well, not the same case with big files.

Overall the performance is really smooth, and we didn't notice any major issue during our time with the device. Although, we did notice some lag while using the mobile app. Setting up the device with Google Drive or Dropbox is pretty simple, however, connecting the device to your Instagram or Facebook library is more complex.

Should you buy?

Honestly, the My Cloud Home is a top-of-the-line product, but as they say "applause doesn't come without caveats," it has few issues on the software front. Although the device is compelling, there is still room for improvement. It is dead-simple, which is one of its selling points.

If you are someone who's looking for something more than what the device is offering, you should consider buying the higher-end WD My Cloud devices or opt for QNAP or Synology.