one,Foreword and picture appreciation
In the past two years, Wi-Fi 6 has become popular, and many manufacturers have begun to actively deploy, including mobile phone manufacturers, and a large number of related products have been launched one after another. Among them, routers are the most important and an important part of the layout of the lot ecology, but the price is more expensive than Wi-Fi 5 routers a lot.
Redmi, which has always been based on the concept of extreme cost performance, launched its first Wi-Fi 6 router last year, priced at 229 yuan, and then launched the Redmi AX6 to accelerate the popularity of Wi-Fi 6 at an affordable price, but now these two models The router has been removed from the shelves, the reason may be due to lack of core.
In order to make up for this, Redmi recently launched the AX3000 router. Although the positioning is also entry-level, it has improved performance again compared to the AX5. It has a 3000-megabit wireless speed and the most important 160MHz high bandwidth, and the price is only 269 yuan.
The author has been getting the Redmi AX3000 for some time, but considering the characteristics of Xiaomi’s previous routers, I decided not to write the Review, so I used it as the main router for a while to see its specific performance, including whether there will be interruptions in daily use. Even, signal strength, etc. After all, for heavy mobile game players, the occasional 460 is quite uncomfortable.
Before that, let’s look at the shape design, which is basically the same as the AX5, and should be the AX5 shell that will continue to be used.
router wrapper
The back of the package is the main highlight of the product
The shell has a large number of cooling holes, four antennas
Redmi AX3000 router
Redmi AX3000 router
There are also a lot of cooling holes on the back
Rear power port, Mesh button, 3*Gigabit LAN port, WAN port, RESER button
The package does not come with a network cable, you can choose it yourself, it is recommended to connect a Category 6 or Category 6e network cable
2. Connection
Like most routers, the Redmi AX3000 can access the address or bind the APP for use, or use the Mijia App to connect.
Opening the Mijia App will display the status of the router, including some function settings of the router, such as passwords, connected devices, etc., which are regular functions, so I won’t say much.
In terms of Wi-Fi settings, users can independently set the frequency band bandwidth of the router, and at the same time can select the wireless channel, which is of great help to the transmission rate and supports Wi-Fi 5 compatible mode.
Let’s focus on Mesh. It seems that the large-scale publicity has only started since the popularity of Wi-Fi 6 in the past two years. Before that, enterprise-level routing such as Lingshi and Netgear was doing it. Now it has entered the public eye, and the price has also increased. down. From the perspective of product positioning, the AX3000 supports 160Hz bandwidth only for Mesh. Why, let’s talk about Mesh first, and what is it used for?
Mesh networking is a “wireless cellular mesh network”, which is a dynamic and continuously expanding network architecture, and any two devices can maintain wireless interconnection. It looks like the function of a relay, right? In fact, it is not the case. Compared with wireless relays, Mesh makes up for the shortcomings of relays. For example, it is troublesome to operate. It can be said to be the most ideal solution at present. Adding Mesh nodes and modifying Mesh network settings are very simple. Modifying the master node information will automatically synchronize other routers in the entire Mesh network, which almost solves the relay requirements with one click.
Moreover, the Mesh system is a whole, it will automatically guide the device to the entire network-free node route according to the signal strength, network interference and load conditions.
Wi-Fi is half-duplex communication, and the speed of running back and forth will be cut in half. Although some routers that support Wi-Fi 6 also support Mesh networking, the bandwidth is only 80MHz, such as the AX5 previously released by Redmi, but the AX3000 is upgraded. At 160MHz, the maximum speed of 5GHz single frequency has risen to 2400M, and the wireless networking can also reach 1200M.
In addition, Xiaomi officially marked that the AX3000 supports hybrid Mesh networking. What does it mean? Speaking of human words is to network with other routers of different models, but it is only limited to Xiaomi and Redmi routers.
There is also a question, that is, will my laptop/mobile phone use this router to have a faster internet speed? In fact, most of them are still useless. As mentioned earlier, the most important thing about the AX3000 is Mesh networking, and the 160MHz bandwidth has not yet been fully popularized for terminal equipment. Most of the older models and notebooks stay at 80MHz.
For example, in the above two screenshots, both mobile phones are equipped with Wi-Fi 6, but the left side does not support 160MHz bandwidth, so the connection speed can only be limited to 1200Mbps, while the right side supports the full speed of 2400Mbps, and there is another condition It is its own broadband rate. Even if all devices meet the Wi-Fi 6+160MHz bandwidth, 100M broadband cannot run the 200M effect.
3. Experience
Next, let’s talk about the user experience, which is also the reason why the author delayed the release for so long. The AX3000 is used for daily gaming and watching videos. It is completely used as the main force, and there is no disconnection during the period.
The above is the test location, where point A is basically a very close distance without any obstruction, point B has a partition, point C is a load-bearing wall and partition, point D is a relatively harsh environment, about 15 meters away from the router, and The load-bearing walls and partitions were separated, and the room door was closed. The test device was Xiaomi Mi 10S.
After actual testing, the Redmi AX3000 can achieve qualified signal strength at four points. Even in the harsh environment of point D, it has a signal strength of -63dBm, which is in line with the excellent pass line greater than -70dBm.
In terms of speed, using 100M broadband and a model that supports 160MHz bandwidth, the test starts at point D. The network speed of the two is basically the same, but the overall stability is still more advantageous at 160MHz.
Thanks to the 160MHz bandwidth, the Wi-Fi connection rate of Redmi AX3000 has been significantly improved. From the test data at point D, whether the door is opened or not has little effect on throughput, and 100M broadband is basically run full.
4. Summary
For an entry-level product, the Redmi AX3000 has once again pushed the popularity of Wi-Fi 6.
On the whole, the Redmi AX3000 can be regarded as an enhanced version of the AX5, adding a 160MHz bandwidth that is more suitable for Wi-Fi 6. This is also a point that must be paid attention to when purchasing a router. In terms of functions, it supports multiple Mesh networking. Redmi’s previous Wi-Fi 6 routers implement hybrid networking.
Finally, let’s talk about the price of 249 yuan, which is only 20 yuan more expensive than the AX5, which is quite conscientious at the same price. Besides, its performance is absolutely worthy of the price, which is not much different from the current price of Wi-Fi 5 routers. You can use Wi-Fi 6+160MHz bandwidth for ten yuan, why not?
