At a look
Professional’s Ranking
Professionals
- Fashionable & compact
- Good efficiency and vary
- A lot of options
Cons
- Not the simplest to handle
- Backhaul goes down typically
- Solely two wired networking ports on every node
Our Verdict
Asus’ new mini-mesh is clearly higher at crucial issues than its predecessor. It may be a problem to get probably the most out of the router with its many options and inconsistent interface, however when you get the grasp of it, it’s value it.
Value When Reviewed
$130 (1-pack), $220 (3-pack)
Greatest Costs At this time: Zenwifi AX Mini XD5
The principle benefit of Wi-Fi 6 over Wi-Fi 5 is vary. Put merely, a Wi-Fi 6 router can preserve excessive pace communication with a variety 40 to 50 per cent greater than a Wi-Fi 5 router. And this makes Wi-Fi 6 mesh packages significantly attention-grabbing. You could possibly get by in a bigger residence with a two-pack as an alternative of three or extra nodes. Much less problem to arrange, and cheaper.
Nonetheless, Asus didn’t appear to get this. With the ZenWIFI AX Mini XD4 that I examined in early 2022, you bought all the opposite Wi-Fi 6 advantages: quick high pace, elevated safety in a trendy and feature-rich small router, however solely about 15 metres of vary per node whereas sustaining acceptable speeds.
Asus has mounted this within the follow-up: the ZenWIFI AX Mini XD5.
Now, I can put a second node two rooms away from the principle unit and nonetheless get steady wi-fi backhaul speeds of over 200Mbps, permitting you to obtain, browse and stream in excessive definition with none issues. The highest pace of a laptop computer with 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 in preferrred situations, about three metres from the router in the identical room, continues to be round 800Mbps over 5GHz.
Mattias Inghe
Extra bandwidth, however no sooner
When configuring the system, you may select between having a single SSID for two.4 and 5GHz, or cut up them up and select which to connect with from every machine your self. Since 2.4GHz bandwidth is restricted to simply over half a gigabit, it is likely to be a good suggestion to maintain them separate, join your good residence devices to the slower frequency, after which join computer systems and telephones to 5GHz, the place you’ve got extra bandwidth to work with.
Not an enormous quantity extra: it is a dual-band AX3000 system the place there’s 2,400Mbps of bandwidth for units and the mesh system itself to share. This is a rise from the ZenWIFI AX Mini XD4 which solely had 1,200Mbps on 5GHz. So if the outdated mannequin was appropriate for one or two folks in a two-room condo, the ZenWIFI AX Mini XD5 might be thought of appropriate for 2 to a few folks in three to 5 rooms. Possibly even a balcony or patio, if you happen to place the second node in the most effective place. Asus claims 3500 sq. ft of protection for the XD5 two-pack, and 5000 sq. ft for the three-pack.
Throughout a week-long check the place I ran two XD5 units as my predominant residence Wi-Fi, issues went properly total. On a few events the backhaul between the nodes was interrupted and the system needed to reconnect, which occurred robotically, however took about two minutes. A bit annoying, however not an enormous drawback. When this occurred, I used to be in a position to connect with the principle router (additional away) and will proceed browsing, albeit at a decrease pace.
Testing with a Wi-Fi 6E-equipped laptop computer, I measured a pace of 820Mbps at a distance of 3m from the principle node: roughly what you’d count on from a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 system round this value. And the vary is round 20m / 60ft (with two inner partitions between the laptop computer and node) to take care of a minimal of 200Mbps.
Mattias Inghe
Similar form, new color
A two-pack of the XD5 prices £213 from Amazon, and a three-pack is £315. Within the US, they’re significantly better worth, with Amazon promoting the three-pack for $219.99. You may’t simply discover the two-pack on the market.
It is usually offered as a single unit, in case you need to add additional protection afterward. Nonetheless, contemplate what you’ll need, since you’ll save loads by shopping for the proper quantity from the beginning, slightly than getting particular person extras and increasing afterwards.
The XD5 models retain the compact design of the XD4: cubes with rounded sides, with all exterior dimensions underneath 100mm / 4in, two gigabit community ports beneath, considered one of which can be utilized for a WAN connection (usually to attach the principle unit to your present router), and a discreet LED on the backside of the entrance. The XD5 is offered in white in addition to the black of the XD4. Additionally, there at the moment are brackets on the underside that make it straightforward to mount them on a wall, one thing not doable with the XD4.
Functionally, the XD5 presents the identical wealthy characteristic set because the XD4. Meaning you’ve got each a VPN server and VPN consumer, detailed QoS management, parental management with scheduling and content material filtering for the youngsters, versatile visitor community functionality, and built-in lifetime virus monitoring from Development Micro. These are the form of options that different distributors cost additional for, however not Asus.
Mattias Inghe
Organising and administering all the pieces generally is a problem. You are able to do loads by way of the Asus app, with extra detailed community and Wi-Fi settings than many rivals, however for full management you typically have to log into the a lot messier internet interface. But it surely’s value exploring and familiarising your self with, so you will get probably the most out of the system.
Specs
Product title: Asus Zenwifi AX Mini XD5 2-pack
Wi-fi protocols: Wi-Fi 6
Frequency band: 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz
Efficiency: 574 + 2400 Mbit/s
Connections per machine: 1 gigabit WAN/LAN, 1 gigabit LAN
Wi-fi safety: WPA/WPA2, WPA3, WPS
Velocity, 3m*: 820 Mbit/s
Vary per unit**: 20 metres
File server/write server: No/No
Different: Visitor community, parental management, qos, antivirus, vpn server and consumer, assist for Alexa and IFTTT
Person interface: Internet, app
Distant administration: Through app
Dimensions. antennas: 9 x 9 x 8 cm
* Measured on the principle unit of the system in direction of the laptop computer with 2×2 Wi-Fi 6E
** Longest distance, together with two interior partitions, the place a brand new mesh node is required to take care of the browsing pace of at the very least 200 Mbit/s.