With the Pogoplug Mobile still fresh in our minds from only a few months ago, the Pogoplug crew continues to raise the bar, refusing to stop developing new and awesome home cloud hardware. The Pogoplug Series 4 is the latest creation to emerge from the think tank at Cloud Engines, and it's one of the best yet--striking a chord for many users in terms of price vs. features and usability. Let's check it out.

First Impressions of the Pogoplug Series 4

At first glance, it looks incredibly similar to the Pogoplug Mobile. And by incredibly similar, I mean almost exactly the same--but with some differences that reveal themselves under closer inspection.

First of all, this 'Plug has two USB ports on the back instead of one. What the back of the unit doesn't tell you, though, is that it contains support for the USB 3.0 standard for faster file transfers as well. The SD card slot, as with the Mobile, is also included (it's on the side.)

In addition, the v4 has a removeable cover which reveals a SATA connection as well as an additional USB port.

Using the Pogoplug Series 4

Setting up and installing the Pogoplug Series 4 is as easy as any other Pogoplug unit. Since I already had a My.Pogoplug account, I attached it to my network and went through the setup process, after which it was instantly recognized and attached to my list of Pogoplug devices.

The small form factor, about the same footprint as a standard network switch (although thicker), allows it to be placed almost anywhere in your setup with little impact to your workspace. 

In essence, using the Pogoplug Series 4 is a lot like using other Pogoplugs, except for that it's the only one in the lineup to support the faster standards of USB 3.0 and SATA as well as containing 3 USB ports and an SD card.

Note: We're planning on doing some speed tests of the USB 3.0 and SATA connections compared to the USB 2.0 connections once we get some more time to spend with the unit, and we'll update the review.

What Makes the Pogoplug Series 4 Special

I honestly believe that the Pogoplug Series 4 is the "dream" of Pogoplug realized in corporeal form. It's simply the best, most well-rounded device yet--like the "Swiss Army Knife" of cloud hardware.

Think about it--not only can you attach 3 USB devices (or USB hubs leading to multiple devices, if you wanted) but you can also easily access data on an SD card, PLUS you can connect virtually any SATA/USM drive with the included port DOUBLEPLUS you can use it with a virtual Pogoplug Cloud drive.

Note that you can insert some drives directly into the top of the unit, such as Seagate drives. Inserting a "naked" drive is also possible, although that might be ugly-looking to some. Sadly, I don't have a laptop SATA drive lying around, but you can see some shots of what it looks like here.

To sum it up, I can't really think of a device that does this much for cloud storage and sharing for such a reasonable price. It's just a bit more than the Mobile at $99, but offers practically everything most users will need, and is certainly worth the small premium.

Pogoplug Series 4 Speed Tests

Our (totally awesome) moderator Brandon C did some initial speed tests on the Pogoplug Series 4. Your results may vary widely, depending on what type of drive you have, your general network setup, any activity that is currently happening on the Pogoplug or your network, and so on.

For the purposes of these tests, a gigabit wired connection was used to connect the Series 4 Pogoplug, and a 5400 RPM 2.5" hard drive was used. 7200 RPM drives should provide improved performance. A 700GB file was transferred and these were the recorded speeds.

• Connected directly to the SATA/USM port: 30Mbps
• Hooking up the same HD to an external enclosure and connecting via USB 3.0: 27-28Mbps
• Same setup with a USB2.0 connection: 22-23Mbps

As you can see, even with an older drive, there is a significant speed boost with transfers when connected to gigabit wired Internet and using a SATA or USB 3.0 drive.

Your individual transfer results will likely be even faster if a newer, 7200 RPM drive is used.

Pogoplug Series 4 Specifications

• Processor: Feroceon 88FR131 rev 1 (v5l)
  • BogoMIPS: 799.53
  • Features: swp half thumb fastmult edsp
  • CPU implementer: 0x56
  • CPU architecture: 5TE
  • CPU variant: 0x2
  • CPU part: 0x131
  • CPU revision: 1
  • Hardware: Feroceon-KW
  • Revision: 0000
  • Serial: 0000000000000000
• RAM: 128MB
• Kernel: Linux Pogoplug 2.6.31.8 #5 Wed Sep 28 12:09:12 PDT 2011 armv5tel GNU/Linux

[You can snag a series 4 Pogoplug from the official website.]