Alien: Covenant - Prometheus 2


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Filming is underway at locations around Australia on the Ridley Scott-helmed Alien: Covenant. The film follows the mixed-bag prequel Prometheus and promises a direct link up to everyone’s favorite titular killing machines. It may also answer the questions posed in the prequel about why the Engineers seeded human life and created the xenomorphs.

 

At the conclusion of Prometheus, only one man (droid) was left standing – at least since Noomi Rapace dropped out of the prequel sequel – Michael Fassbender’s David. The hard-working actor, currently filming Covenant, had some impressive things to say about the upcoming production.

 

In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Fassbender discusses his spate of upcoming and in-production films. Reprising his role in Covenant, the actor is in a unique position to compare and contrast the sets and conditions with its predecessor, as well as its unwinding path toward its founding film. Fassbender also teases what everyone’s been hoping for, those nasty little murder-machines:

 

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“There are going to be great sets and aliens coming out of people. It’s amazing to watch Ridley work. I try to soak up as much knowledge as I can from him, because having worked on this kind of films a few times and having seen how many moving parts there are, how many people work on the set and how many departments need attention and the language, he’s an absolute master.”

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He also lauds the set design on Covenant. For an actor who’s worked on some highly inventive films (X-Men: Apocalypse and Assassin’s Creed, just to name two), his praise bodes well for the Prometheus follow-up.

 

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“The sets are fantastic. Again, the most impressive sets I’ve seen since ‘Prometheus,’ which was the original setting. It’s a fantastic mixture of high-end technology and primitive elements. The way that I can explain it is the same way that Ridley did ‘Blade Runner.’

Fassbender’s words are very encouraging to fans who, although excited by Prometheus, were somewhat underwhelmed by its payoff. Although much of the appeal of the Alien series was due to its fantastic futuristic set pieces and technology, it was the gritty realism of blue-collar space travel which helped audiences better identify with the characters.

 

As more images emerge, it will be interesting to watch the films slowly connect to one another. However, it’s important Scott doesn’t crib too much of his earlier stylistic elements for Alien: Covenant. The key to creating a believable sequence of films leading back to the Alien is portraying the evolution (or devolution) of the universe along the way. While Fassbender would be foolish to criticize a film he’s currently shooting, hence promoting, his praise seems genuine. If Scott can capture his Blade Runner/Alien blend of high tech and “primitive” design, Covenant could be theAlien film fans have been waiting for.

 

Source: http://screenrant.com/alien-covenant-michael-fassbender-set-design/

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Alien: Covenant Set Photos Show Some Mysterious & Creepy Figures

The Alien franchise is one of the most enduring in film history, with a fan base that is not only forgiving, but extremely patient. The fans have stood by artist H.R. Giger’s dark vision of the Xenomorph throughout the subsequent sequels, crossovers and prequels, most of which have received a less than stellar reception from viewing audiences. But that hasn’t dampened expectations for the latest film to be tied directly to the Alien universe, and now some of the first images of Ridley Scott’s latest installment in the series could mean a renewed interest for audiences everywhere.

 

The batch of new set images from the filming of Alien: Covenant offer fans a glimpse of a dark and disturbing dystopic future and a plethora of destruction and several ashy beings. The context of the images is hard to speculate on at this stage of production, but they’re certainly an interesting peek into the next stage of progression in the Alien universe. Of course one has to wonder whether these people are from planet Earth or if they’re part of the film’s storyline that reportedly delves deeper into the story of the Engineers and their part in creating humankind. The images could very well be depicting Engineers who suffered a horrific fate similar to the people of Pompeii, or the figures could be human in nature.

 

At any rate, hopefully the new film will tie into the Alien franchise in a way that will be befitting the franchise. The original Ridley Scott Alien film, released back in 1979 to rave reviews, sparked a legendary 1986 sequel. Aliensbrought now well-respected action director James Cameron into the fold and spawned what is still considered by many to be the quintessential film in the franchise. The third Alien film hit theaters in 1992, this time with a fresh take from director David Fincher, since Cameron was fully committed to building the Terminator franchise at the time with T2: Judgement Day. Fincher offered a fresh take on the universe, but for the first time in the franchise history Alien 3 received a mixed reception from fans. Aside from Alien: Resurrection, the remainder of the 1990s would relegate the fans to their Dark Horse comic books to get their Alien fix. It wasn’t until the ill-fated Alien vs. Predator crossover films in 2004 and 2007 that the fans would finally get not only another set of Alien film appearances, but the epic showdown that they thought they wanted on-screen.

 

Alien: Covenant may sport the title name from the franchise, but this newest Ridley Scott addition to the mythos is absolutely a sequel to Prometheus, which is still a prequel to the original Alien. We do know that Covenant takes place a full decade after the events of Prometheus and we’re set to get two more films before the movies will catch up to theAlien movie timeline. It’s unknown what exactly the tone of Covenant may be, but we know that by the end of the movie fans will be seeing the all too familiar sights of the Alien eggs, face huggers, chest bursters and maybe even the queen mother herself.

 

Ridley Scott is returning again to the franchise he first made famous and he has given us a few vague, but important, plot details. In Covenant they will be exploring the planet that the Engineers came from and the reasons by they first made the terrifying Alien Xenomorphs. If the film really does answer the question of “why?” this predatory race of creature was created, then fans will have not only more depth to the mythos, but endless debate on whether they like or agree with the explanation given. This is an area that filmmakers will hopefully craft carefully and certainly not take lightly.

 

Source:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3600337/On-set-photographs-upcoming-Prometheus-sequel-Alien-Covenant-directed-Sir-Ridley-Scott-filmed-Sydney-big-budget-sci-fi-film-starring-Michael-Fassbender-scheduled-August-2017-release.html

VIA: http://screenrant.com/alien-covenant-set-photos-ridley-scott/

 

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6 minutes ago, warwagon said:

I wanted it to take place directly after the first movie, when they go back to the home world :(

Yep - I was hoping they would go back to the planet. In Typical Alien fashion little do they know they have an egg on board or something and that begins the true alien outbreak.

Alien: Covenant Image Teases Katherine Waterston’s Character

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Now, 20th Century Fox has revealed an official first look at Scott’s next sci-fi movie, via a production image released through the Alien Anthology Twitter account. The photo shows Waterston as Covenant‘s protagonist, a character who is simply referred to here as “Daniels”. You can check out that Alien: Covenant production image featuring Waterston, below.

 

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The photo shows Waterston as Covenant‘s protagonist, a character who is simply referred to here as “Daniels”. You can check out that Alien: Covenant production image featuring Waterston, below.

 

The Covenant spaceship’s interior design, which is presumably what is shown above, is in keeping with the production design of Prometheus and previous Alien installments alike. With that said, Alien: Covenant‘s Oscar-winning costume designer Janty Yates (a longtime Ridley Scott collaborator) has indicated that the passage of time between Prometheus and Covenant will, in fact, be reflected in the movie (see the spacesuits worn by Covenant’s space explorers, among other elements). Scott’s Prometheus sequel should also further bridge the gap between the visual design of Prometheus and his original Alien feature, at the same time that it incorporates certain well-known aspects of the larger Alien franchise’s mythology (including, for example, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation – which was formed during the aftermath of the events that transpired in Prometheus).

 

Waterston, for her part, has adapted a look here that brings to mind classic Alien heroine Ellen Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) appearance, as well as that of Prometheus‘ Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), to a lesser degree. It remains to be seen if “Daniels” emerges as a memorable protagonist in her own right or a Ripley re-tread, though. Similarly, Alien: Covenant has to prove itself to be a worthwhile chapter in the larger Alien film saga and not an uninspired recycling of elements from the previous Alien films, as some fans are concerned it’s going to be after Scott’s divisive Prometheus.

 

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Here is 20th Century Fox’s official synopsis for Alien: Covenant:

 

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Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created in ALIEN with ALIEN: COVENANT, the second chapter in a prequel trilogy that began with PROMETHEUS — and connects directly to Scott’s 1979 seminal work of science fiction. Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, the crew of the colony ship Covenant discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.

 

source: http://screenrant.com/alien-covenant-images-daniels-katherine-waterstron/

  • 4 weeks later...

Alien: Covenant – Noomi Rapace to Reprise Prometheus Role

 

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Director Ridley Scott’s 2012 film Prometheus remains a divisive entry among devoted Alien franchise fans. Even so, the quasi-prequel/spinoff to Scott’s 1979 sci-fi/horror classic Alien was successful enough to warrant a sequel, with plans for an eventual trilogy in motion now too. The followup, titled Alien: Covenant, takes place ten years after the events of Prometheus and revolves around the crew of the spaceship Covenant, as it finds its way to a world believed to have once been a paradise. However, that planet is now a desolate wasteland, whose sole inhabitant is the android or “synthetic” known as David (Michael Fassbender).

 

David, you might recall, has his head ripped off his body during Prometheus by one of the Engineers – the alien race responsible for creating humanity – and eventually wound up traveling with the sole human survivor of the Prometheus mission, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), into space in search of the Engineers’ home. A set photo has now been released, confirming that David’s head is back on his body in Alien: Covenant – but as there’s no mention of Elizabeth in the official Covenant synopsis, it’s been unclear whether she’s doing as well as David by the time the Covenant crew arrives on the Engineers’ planet… or if Rapace is in the movie at all.

 

Deadline reports that Rapace is in Australia – where Scott is currently in the midst of production on Covenant – and that she will be on the movie’s set for more than a single week; though, Deadline‘s article is otherwise vague aboutexactly how long Rapace will be on set, making it difficult to gauge just how significant her role here will beScott previously indicated that Rapace either wouldn’t be returning for Covenant or, rather, that she wouldn’t be serving as one of the film’s lead characters. The role of protagonist in Covenant appears to fall instead to Katherine Waterston (Steve Jobs, the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), who is playing the Covenant crew member known as “Daniels”.

 

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http://screenrant.com/alien-covenant-cast-noomi-rapace-prometheus/

  • 5 weeks later...

Alien: Covenant Wraps Filming; Photo of Katherine Waterston Released

 

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The upcoming sci-fi-horror film Alien: Covenant is arriving next year and new information continues to build anticipation. The Ridley Scott-directed film is both a sequel to 2012’s Prometheus and another prequel to the 1979 classic, Alien.

 

So far, bits of news have provided some vague knowledge of what the film is about, with casting news having done the most to shed some light on the film’s plot and its setting. The cast includes a returning Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace, as well as newcomers Amy Seimetz, Billy Crudup, Carmen Ejogo, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, and Katherine Waterston.

 

Keeping Waterston in mind, a photo was posted on the official Twitter account for the Alien series, featuring the actress as well as Scott, with a message revealing news that filming on Alien: Covenant has officially wrapped. It should be noted that Waterston’s look in the photo has more than a little in common with Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley in Aliens.

 

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With filming wrapped, this means production is now moving into the next phase, which was also stated in the tweet and should likely lead to speculation as to when a real first look, beyond some stills and behind-the-scenes photos, will be made for the public. With 20th Century Fox having already announced the lack of a major presence at this year’s Comic-Con International, it would seem as if fans will have to wait even longer than expected to get said glimpse.

 

Scott took some flack for Prometheus, but the series clearly still has a fan base looking forward to whatever he comes up with. Just coming off of the major success that was The Martian, it is great to see how the 78-year-old director has not decided to slow down at all. Regardless of film’s receptions, Scott has always been an efficient director, so hopefully the screenplay will be up to the task of delivering an Alien film more fans will be able to appreciate.

 

In the meantime, there is that group of fans excited for the continued talks of a fifth Alien film that would return Weaver to the franchise, as well as Michael Biehn’s Hicks and Carrie Henn’s Newt from Aliens. The progress on that film was delayed when Scott’s own Alien film was announced, but the reception of Prometheus has left some more curious about what happens next in this universe, rather than continuing to fill in gaps from the past. We’ll just have to wait until next year to see how things turn out.

 

Alien: Covenant opens in theaters on August 4, 2017.

 

Source: Twitter

 

http://screenrant.com/alien-covenant-filming-complete-katherine-waterston-image/

 

  • 4 months later...

Alien: Covenant Teaser Poster: Time to Run!

 

Alien: Covenant, the next film in the long-running franchise that began all the way back in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s chest-burstingly scary Alien is gearing up for release in May of 2017. So far, production on the film has been remarkably open with regard to sharing details and behind-the-scenes photos of the cast and crew (but not xenomorphs), encouraging audiences to get excited about the post-Prometheus adventure that promises a “much scarier” product this time around.

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Similarity to previous protagonists and confirmed xenomorphs aside, the series has also been hinting at a return of the film’s patented body-horror scares in the form of the disturbing facehugger and the unfortunate outcome for anyone unlucky enough to live through a run-in with the transitory parasite. According to the Alien: Covenant Fan Website, the crews working on the film were handed a nifty facehugger poster as a thank you for their work. The poster, labeled “Creature Crew” takes on the look of a scientific journal, complete with a sketch of the nasty little bugger and some handwritten notes detailing aspects of its anatomy. Check out the poster below:

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http://screenrant.com/alien-covenant-teaser-poster-run/

 

Alien: Covenant Release Date Moved Up

 

http://screenrant.com/alien-covenant-kingsman-2-release-dates/

  • Like 3

This series is so weird. I've found something to enjoy in each of the installments following the original, and I can call myself a fan, but at the same time, I can't help but feel that it's one of the most unnecessary franchises out there. It just goes on to show how great the first one is. There is nothing you can add or remove from that movie to make it better. It's perfect. 

 

Everything they've done after that (and this includes Aliens), was always worse for it, in one way or another. I also find the idea of explaining the backstory of the first one with FOUR movies to be completely ludicrous. There's really nothing to explain. You see that a previous civilization played with the idea of using aliens as weapons, you see that it somehow went wrong, but humans being humans as they are, don't heed the warning, and history repeats itself. That's where the xenomorphs come from, and that's all the explanation I need. Sometimes less is truly more.

 

I can appreciate the themes that Ridley Scott is trying to explore with the prequels, like the origins of life, our place in the universe, faith, and our relationships with our creators (be it parents, or literally the creators of life), but I can't help but feel that it's better suited for a different series altogether, rather than movies where the main premise always revolves around a dangerous biological killing machine.

 

And again, that's something that the first one already did to a certain extent, too, just stripped it down to the basics: the universe is a cold place, where the main instinct is survival, through any means necessary - the basics being reproduction and killing. That's the horror of it. Sure, you can explore other themes (the second one does a nice parallel of family and motherhood with both Ripley and the alien queen), but for a franchise grounded in horror and simplicity, I really don't see the point of building an epic saga that revolves around literal creation of humanity through it. 

 

I'll still check this one out, of course, but man, I wish they took a different approach to the whole thing.

  • Like 2
2 hours ago, Syanide said:

 

I can appreciate the themes that Ridley Scott is trying to explore with the prequels, like the origins of life, our place in the universe, faith, and our relationships with our creators (be it parents, or literally the creators of life), but I can't help but feel that it's better suited for a different series altogether, rather than movies where the main premise always revolves around a dangerous biological killing machine.

 

Yeah, prometheus could have been a whole different thing, but I guess, he enjoys doing what he does best?

  • Like 1
  • 4 weeks later...

The trailer is a letdown compared to the one for Prometheus (seriously, that one and the second trailer for Fury Road are the best trailers I've seen in the past five years at least), let's hope the movie is the opposite. Doesn't look too promising, same old stuff we've seen many times before.

On 12/26/2016 at 8:39 AM, Syanide said:

The trailer is a letdown compared to the one for Prometheus (seriously, that one and the second trailer for Fury Road are the best trailers I've seen in the past five years at least), let's hope the movie is the opposite. Doesn't look too promising, same old stuff we've seen many times before.

The Prometheus trailer sucked complete balls, I felt like I had watched the entire movie. And them crashing their only ship into the engineers one trying to launch in the trailer?! Come on. The music was great that was about it.

 

I think they've kept us in the dark for this one because of how much backlash they got over that years ago. It looks like the original Alien. And that's all I'm here for and want. And the crew keeping the infected locked in? Finally some sense for once :laugh:

  • 2 months later...
9 minutes ago, Euphoria said:

I wish they continued from where the first stopped. I loved the story of Prometheus, the acting and where the story might have gone.... this just smells like another mess up under the pressure of Hollywood...

Exactly, I wanted to see where the storyline of the "Engineers" goes - that, for me, had so much more appeal than another space horror, mean alien movie... even if it is Aliens...

  • Like 4
18 minutes ago, T3X4S said:

Exactly, I wanted to see where the storyline of the "Engineers" goes - that, for me, had so much more appeal than another space horror, mean alien movie... even if it is Aliens...

I read somewhere that they'll find the David from Prometheus in this movie. I think we'll get some answers.

  • Like 1

I'm bought. The trailer looks great. It looks action packed and fun, which I guess not a lot of people want, but considering what a mixed bag their serious approach towards this was in Prometheus, it's welcome. And who knows, they might surprise us still. Noomi Rapace is nowhere to be seen in trailers, but she is supposed to be in the movie, so they can still tie up some Prometheus loose ends.

3 minutes ago, Syanide said:

I'm bought. The trailer looks great. It looks action packed and fun, which I guess not a lot of people want, but considering what a mixed bag their serious approach towards this was in Prometheus, it's welcome. And who knows, they might surprise us still. Noomi Rapace is nowhere to be seen in trailers, but she is supposed to be in the movie, so they can still tie up some Prometheus loose ends.

She has a very small cameo and David from first movie is supposed to serve as the tie-in.

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Processor E-cores L3-cache Turbo clock GPU GPU-clock TDP Intel N355 8 6 MB 3.9 GHz 32 EUs 1.35 GHz 9 W Intel Core 3 N350 3.9 GHz 1.35 GHz 7 W Intel Core i3-N305 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz 9 W Intel Core i3-N300 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz Intel N250 4 3.8 GHz 1.25 GHz 6 W Intel Processor N200 3.7 GHz 0.75 GHz Intel N150 3.6 GHz 24 EUs 1 GHz Intel N97 1.2 GHz 12 W Intel Processor N100 3.4 GHz 0.75 GHz 6 W The CPU is part of the Alder Lake-N series that sits just below the top N355 offering, albeit with an impressive TDP (less than the N355 and N305) for the features it offers. It is designed for low- powered systems and entry-level laptops. As before, we are seeing another NAS with an acceptable, if not great, amount of RAM. It should be noted that the F4-425 Pro only has one SODIMM slot, so if you are planning to upgrade the already 16GB included in this NAS, it will have to be on one module of Single Rank DDR5. As a reminder, up until a couple of years ago, it was commonplace to only get 2 or 4GB max on a flagship Synology or QNAP home NAS. Ever since the likes of TerraMaster and more have entered the market with ample RAM sizes included in their NAS offerings, it has gone a long way in forcing the hands of the traditional makers to up their game a bit. Before we dive in, you can view the different SKUs released so far since the 2025 series launched for Home and SMB users, with the most important specifications listed along with the MSRP listed below: SKU CPU Cores Memory Link Price F2-425 Intel N5095 4 4 GB DDR4 2.5 GbE x1 $249.99 F4-425 Intel N5095 4 4 GB DDR4 2.5 GbE x1 $369.99 F2-425 Plus Intel Core N150 4 8 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $399.99 F4-425 Plus Intel Core N150 4 16 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $569.99 F4-425 Pro Intel Core N305 8 8 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $699.99 F4-425 Pro Intel Core N350 8 16 GB DDR5 5 GbE x 2 $799.99 The F2 in the product name means two 3.5-inch HDD bays, where F4 is four 2.5-inch bays. First impressions Like with the F8 SSD Plus packaging, the F4-425 Pro is using the upgraded box materials, which certainly look better than a plain cream colored box with TERRAMASTER stamped on the sides. The box gives off a premium feel and certainly adds a positive vibe to first impressions. In the box F4-425 Pro TNAS device Power adapter LAN cable (CAT 6) Quick guide [full online guide] Limited warranty notice Screws (for HDD bays) Stickers 2x rubber feet (spares) Design As has become kind of common with TerraMaster, certainly in the last three years, the 2025 F2- and F4-series have received a makeover that really adds to the premium feel of the NAS. Gone are the plastic shells, now replaced with an aluminum outer shell, with the front and back retaining the textured black plastic we saw on the 2024 models. Some key differences from the 2024 series include placing the power button back on the front, along with the addition of a Type A USB port. It's not much bigger or heavier either; in fact, it weighs 500 grams less than the F4-424 Pro. It's slightly shorter in height and depth (length), but only by a few millimeters. The front and back do retain a similar style to the 2024 series. On the front, you just have your four bays along with LED indicators for the HDDs and power. The welcomed change is having a USB port on the front for quick access, should you need to back up a USB drive, for example. Around the back, from top to bottom, you have a reset pin hole, an HDMI port, two 5 GbE Ethernet ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type A ports with a Type-C port below them, and a connector for the barrel port power source. Again, there's no Kensington Security Slot present, which is a bit of a shame considering it's a data storage device. Left side Right side On the left and right of the F4-425 Plus, it is completely smooth aluminum with a TERRAMASTER logo printed on both sides. On the bottom, there are some holes to assist ventilation. Unlike with the F4-425 Plus, the rubber feet did come unstuck during the teardown, which was also an issue on the 2023 series. It seems like other customers have lodged complaints about them, as TerraMaster now includes two spare rubber feet in the box, in case any of the preinstalled ones are lost; however, this seems more like a papering over the cracks solution rather than actually fixing the issue with better quality rubber stand-offs. There are also four screws that must be removed in order to access the internals. Teardown Upon removing the four screws, you can slide the device out of its shell to reveal the three NVMe M.2 slots (PCIe 3.0 X1) and single SODIMM slot connector, which is populated with a single 16GB DDR5 4800MT/s module. I added a couple of MP44Q M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs (2 x 4TB) that can be availed on Amazon for $492.99 that TEAMGROUP supplied us with, along with a 250GB 970 Evo Plus that my colleague Chris White sent me by accident and let me keep a few years ago. As I have said in previous reviews, TerraMaster support staff actually encourage installing whatever you want on their devices, and happily, the USB port for the bootloader is now easily accessible should you want to use it for your own flavor of NAS OS, such as TrueNAS, Unraid, or maybe Xpenology. Yes, because TerraMaster has now switched to a 256 GB NAND Flash card (3rd photo above) for the TOS bootloader. This is also replaceable, but you can also simply add a USB bootloader, access the BIOS, and tell the F4-425 Pro to boot from that instead of the Flash card. Unlike earlier iterations of TerraMaster NAS, you don't have to tear this down any further than the four screws on the outer shell in order to be able to access and manage the memory, NVMe slots, and USB bootloader. However, if you need to access the NAND Flash card or CMOS battery, then eight more screws (four on each side) need to be removed in order to take off the rear panel with the 120mm fan, and then the motherboard can be lifted off and removed from the SATA connector PCB. There's also no risk of threading the screw holes, because the four that hold the shell in place are metal on metal, while the screws that hold the rear panel on do screw into plastic. Either way, like last time when I reviewed the F4-425 plus, I was just happier to see larger screws being used. Overall, it follows some great improvements in build quality from the 2024 series and earlier. Setup BIOS The F4-425 Pro includes an Aptio BIOS from American Megatrends [1, 2], and you can setup pretty much everything here including the boot order, which is locked to the UEFI OS, however above that choice you can enable or disable booting to the USB bootloader so this would still allow you to switch to a USB stick with an alternative bootloader and boot from it, or disable it to instead always start from the first disk with an OS installed on it. Initial Setup Setup is roughly the same as the F4-425 Plus, along with the new TOS 7 setup dialogs, so there will be no surprises here. Upon connecting to the LAN and booting up, the F4-425 Pro can be reached by navigating to http://tnas.local. If that doesn't work, you can use the local address assigned via DHCP, which you can find using the TNAS PC desktop application, which is essentially a TerraMaster NAS finder. The setup process is pretty straightforward, through a wizard, and in full below: TOS 7 Initialization As you can see, TOS 7 received a new coat of paint, and the initialization requires fewer interactions. Happily, TOS no longer decides to throw all disks into the same Storage Pool; 2.5-inch HDDs are allocated into Storage Pool 1. This is because two of the HDDs are allocated to hold system files. Previously (with TOS 5 and 6), if you pre-installed HDDs and SSDs, they were all placed into Storage Pool 1, even if you did not select the SSDs for inclusion during the onboarding. TOS 7 Setup On first boot, there is a tutorial and some steps to take to harden the TNAS (or not), which includes an immediate update from TOS 7.0.0616 to 7.0.0706, of which the changelog screenshot is also included in the above gallery. It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to a "Start panel", initially I didn't see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • well you can add a GPU for around $500, that's still around the price of Steam Machine but overall significantly better in performance.
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