aying monthly fees for Google One or iCloud when your phone runs out of storage for family photos and 4K clips has long felt like a routine tax on your memories. Xiaomi is betting on that consumer frustration with Smart Storage—a compact network-attached storage box designed for anyone who wants a private home cloud without earning a system administrator certificate first.
Hardware under the hood
Inside the minimalist enclosure, you will find 4 GB of RAM, 32 GB of onboard flash storage dedicated to the operating system, and two primary drive bays.
Xiaomi Smart Storage features two drive bays supporting up to 60 TB of total capacity when fitted with dual 30 TB hard drives.
Hardware compatibility is straightforward: the chassis accommodates standard 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch drives. For your home network, engineers included a fast 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port, alongside a USB-A 3.0 port and an HDMI 1.4 output for peripherals and direct TV playback.
Smart automation and family access
Instead of cryptic terminal commands, setup relies on a clean, visual HyperOS interface. Built-in neural processing automatically organizes the family archive by recognizing faces, grouping locations, sorting themes, and purging duplicate shots. If you use a Xiaomi smartphone running HyperOS 3.0 or newer, high-res media files and device backups sync over the air automatically. The system supports up to 16 separate user accounts, providing isolated storage partitions for an entire household across PCs, tablets, and smart TVs.
The hub also includes a built-in surveillance server supporting four security cameras with up to 360 days of rolling video history, paired with free remote access delivering speeds up to 40 Mbps away from home. Hooking the box up to a television via HDMI turns it into a standalone media player capable of running 4K HDR10 files, fetching subtitles automatically, and pulling posters, titles, and metadata for your local movie library.
Pricing and early trade-offs
At launch in China, the base 4 TB configuration costs 2,699 yuan (around $370), the 8 TB model runs 3,499 yuan (about $480), and the top-tier 16 TB package costs 5,499 yuan (roughly $755). The hardware pays for itself in roughly two years compared to high-tier cloud subscriptions. However, there is a clear trade-off for global buyers: the initial firmware is built strictly for the Chinese domestic market, requiring you to navigate localized UI menus and route setup through mainland servers.