Xiaomi Mesh System AX3000 review: an attractive, high-performance 6 set wifi

Xiaomi Mesh System AX3000 is the first mesh system from the Chinese manufacturer. The latter, however, has some experience as it has been offering Wi-Fi routers and repeaters for several years. The Mesh System AX3000 technical data sheet is particularly interesting with its wifi 6 with a cumulative speed of 2976 MB/s and a connection provided, All for just under 150 euros.

Xiaomi network system modules are identical. So they can either be routers, by connecting to the box via the blue Ethernet port, or satellites like a wifi repeater.

On the wifi side, the Mesh System AX3000 is a dual-band model with 802.11ax, hence Wi-Fi 6. The 2.4 GHz band can reach a theoretical speed of 574 MB/s, while the 5 GHz band can reach 2402 MB/s .
Communication between the units is done over the 5GHz band and not on a dedicated band. Therefore, the speeds are theoretically halved when connected to the unit that acts as a repeater.

The connection consists of 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports; The blue port is used exclusively for connection to the Internet box (WAN port), while the other three ports can accommodate all Ethernet devices (LAN port). There is a fairly rare abundance of ports that deserve to be highlighted – wifi kits, and even the most affordable models, are usually limited to one LAN port.

The 4 RJ45 ports are accompanied by a network synchronization button, a reset button and a special power socket. Two lights on the front let you know the status of the network and services (blue for startup, white for on, and orange for a problem).

In terms of design, Xiaomi has opted for a matte black plastic block with a height of 22 cm and 9.7 cm². Instead of placing connectors and indicator lights on the faces of the block, Xiaomi has integrated them into the edges that also serve as ventilation. The status LEDs are on the front and the connectors on the opposite edge. The weight of each unit contains (510g). Compared to their size, the units actually give the impression of a fairly light structure.

For installation, Xiaomi offers a basic configuration through a web interface that allows you to set up the network system. After that, it goes through the configuration customization using the Xiaomi Home app available on Android and iOS.

Therefore, the physical assembly of the first unit is done without assistance. It will therefore be necessary to connect your player box to the blue RJ45 port of one of the two units on the Mesh System AX3000 and then connect its power supply.
When the module is started, the open WiFi “Xiaomi_XXXX” should be discoverable. Simply connect to it and it will offer your smartphone or computer to configure your system. The rest of the installation lets you name the SSID (wifi network name) and add a password. The interface also offers admin password configuration to access the configuration later. Once configured, your network system will restart and the rest of the customization will now be done through the Xiaomi Home Automation app.

The Xiaomi Home app requires an account to be created. It should automatically offer to add the network system to your devices; Otherwise, it will have to be added manually.

Suggested settings are relatively comprehensive for a consumer product. Among other things, they allow you to choose the transmission power for each band, the channel used, or create a “guest” wireless network. However, to access more complex network settings, such as port forwarding, DHCP, or adding potential VPN IDs, you must go through the web interface at 192.168.31.1 or router.mihome. com. We regret that there is no real parental control and good management of devices connected to user profiles.

Once everything is configured, the system network offers one default SSID, either for the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band. However, in the options it is possible to separate the two bands into separate SSIDs, especially if you have problems connecting to connected objects – they are often incompatible with 5GHz.

To evaluate the performance of the Xiaomi System Mesh AX3000 network system, we connected the router to the player box that we connected to a laptop via a 2.5 Gb/jack adapter. We transfer a file (disk image) of 4.73 GB from the first laptop to a second device with an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 chip, but also to a fixed desktop computer located upstairs connected to a Gigabyte GC-WBAX200 PCIe card with an external antenna, updated With an Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 chip that supports wifi 6E.

In the 5 GHz band, the average speed of the Xiaomi System Mesh AX3000 reaches 808 Mbit / s, that is, a transmission at a speed of 101 MB / s, both in reception and in transmission. At a distance of one meter from the satellite, we obtained speeds practically in half (427 MB / s in transmission and 361 MB / s in reception). Note that our hard PC wifi card prefers to connect to the unit that offers the best speeds. Thus we get 620 MB / s in transmission and 555 MB / s in reception. At point 5, the farthest, System Mesh AX3000 makes it possible to obtain speeds of 154 Mbit / s in reception and 160 Mbit / s in transmission, without instability; Perfect for watching content from your favorite video-on-demand platform in 1080p.

Despite these good results, we expected better from this grid system. With a theoretical speed of 2402 Mbit/s announced on the 5 GHz band, it offers roughly the same speeds as Netgear’s Orbi RBK352 range, which delivers 1500 Mbit/s on the 5 GHz band.

As close as possible to the modules, we get values ​​that fluctuate around 130 MB / s, both at the level of the router and the satellite module. The two units are connected on the 5GHz band, which explains why the router and the unit have nearly identical speeds on the 2.4GHz band. At point 5, the speed drops to 66 MB / s, however, the connection remains quite stable during the 10 minutes it takes to transfer our disk image.

The speeds obtained by the Xiaomi System Mesh AX3000 put it among the group Netgear Nighthawk MK62and group European Netgear RBK352.