Introduction

In October last year, we took at look at the Nimbustor 4 Gen2 AS5404T, and it was something of a mixed bag. This time around we're taking a look at Asustor's latest entry level NAS, the Drivestor 2 Gen2 AS1202T, and we will be comparing it to the Ugreen NASync DH2300, as it's the only recent, similar device we've tested. The AS1202T is a very typical looking 2-bay NAS that doesn't really stand out, except maybe for the fact that it doesn't have hot-swappable drive trays, but we'll go into details about that later. The specs gave us the feeling of reviewing something from a decade ago and the only thing that gives it away as being a modern device is the 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port. We'll dig into the hardware details shortly, even if they're not that much to look at.

Since October, Asustor has released ADM 5.1, which is a minor upgrade, but as we're looking at a device with an Arm based SoC here, the Linux Kernel has unfortunately taken a big step back to version 5.10.107. It's not as bad as what we saw from QNAP, but for a device that launched at the tail end of 2025, we expected a 6.x kernel. In all fairness to Asustor, this isn't something they have complete control over, since the kernel is often provided by the SoC maker and it is an LTS kernel, but it will no longer be supported by December 2026. Hopefully that means Asustor will release a more recent kernel at some point this year.

There really isn't much more to be said in the introduction here, as we're really looking at a very basic piece of hardware, but as you'll see, it still managed to deliver decent performance, all things considered. It's also unlikely that it will get a huge price increase in these days of almost daily jumps in DRAM pricing, which is another potential bonus if your needs from a NAS only involves file storage and backing up data from your devices.

Specifications

Packaging and Bundle

Asustor ships the Drivestor 2 Gen2 AS1202T in a retail box, and the NAS itself is protected by two pieces of foam padding that also holds the accessory box in place.


The bundle consists of your typical power brick, an Ethernet cable, a bag of screws for the drives, and once again a clip for the power cable that screws to the NAS itself, besides a few different instruction manuals.


The power adapter is from the well renowned Delta Electronics, and it's rated at 65 W. It's a rather strange unit though, as although it's a normal 12 V power brick, it has a 5.417 A max output. We've never seen a power brick with three decimal points before and it technically comes out to 65.004 W, but this amperage could just as well have been rounded up to 5.42 A. Just an odd curiosity, but as you'll see in the power testing, it's not the only thing that is a bit odd with this power adapter.