Xiaomi's 2,699 RMB four-bay NAS prices the chassis at 675 RMB a slot

Divide the entry price by the bay count and you get 674.75 RMB per slot ^[15]. That is the only cost figure this launch actually supports, and it is the one a small-office buyer will carry into the next quote they receive.

Everything above it is assertion. The write-up says the specification is competitive against Synology and QNAP at the same price point ^[6], but names no competing model, no competing price, and does not say whether any drives are included at 2,699 RMB ^[17]. Drive inclusion is not a detail; it moves the per-slot figure by most of its value. So the parity claim, for now, is an industrial designer's read of a reservation page rather than a line-by-line comparison against a dealer price list.

What the hardware does constrain is the workload. An N100 with 6GB of RAM ^[3] and Docker support ^[5] will run a handful of containers and a photo backup target. It will not absorb whatever else a small office wants to consolidate onto its one always-on box, and 6GB is a hard ceiling until somebody confirms whether it is a socketed module. Four bays at 24TB each ^[2] gives 96TB raw before any redundancy ^[16], which is a lot of capacity hanging off a processor at that class.

The thermal question is the one the source treats seriously and cannot answer. A 3.5-inch mechanical drive reaches 45 to 50C at full read and write, and four stacked with poor airflow throttle or drop out ^[8]. The mitigation visible in the official renders is an angled-cut top grille and a rear 120mm fan ^[9]. Two 2.5G ports sit on the same rear panel as USB 3.0, HDMI and power ^[4], and 2.5G PHYs draw roughly 30 percent more power than gigabit ^[11], so the network silicon is adding to the local rise rather than being neutral. Renders do not measure anything.

Read the rest of the design as a statement about who services the machine. The magnetic front panel covers the bays for tool-free swaps, the same intent as Synology's caddies with the magnets moved onto the panel ^[10]. The angled grille is chosen for dust deflection, on the reasoning that a desk-side unit will not get blown out monthly the way a rack does ^[9]. The shell is matte white against the matte black of Synology's DS and QNAP's TS lines ^[12], and the author estimates the texture at VDI-21 to VDI-24 by eye, against the VDI-24 to VDI-27 his own white-appliance projects settled on ^[13]. Those are all decisions for a living room, not a comms cupboard.

Which is the actual supply-and-cost story. Synology, QNAP, Zspace and UGREEN have been in this category for years ^[7], pricing entry boxes against software and support rather than against consumer-electronics volume. A four-bay 2.5GbE chassis with a published price of 675 RMB a slot ^[15] does not include a support commitment, a drive compatibility list, or a ship date, because none of those were stated ^[17]. Incumbents still get compared to the number anyway.