Xiaomi Mesh System AX3000 Review: An Attractive and High Performance wifi 6 Mesh Kit

The Xiaomi Mesh System AX3000 is the first mesh system from a Chinese manufacturer. However, the latter has had some experience providing Wi-Fi routers and repeaters for a number of years. A link was provided, all under 150.

Xiaomi’s mesh system modules are identical. So they could be routers or satellites like a WiFi repeater by connecting to the box via a blue Ethernet port.

On the WiFi side, the mesh system AX3000 is a dual-band model with the 802.11ax standard, so Wi-Fi 6. The 2.4 GHz band reaches a theoretical speed of 574 Mb / s, while the 5 GHz band reaches 2402 Mb / s.
Communication between volumes takes place via the 5 GHz band, not in a dedicated band. The speed will theoretically be halved when you connect to the module that acts as a repeater.

The connection has 4 Ethernet ports up to the Gigabit standard; One blue port is used exclusively to communicate with the Internet box (WAN port), the other three will accommodate your Ethernet devices (LAN port). Very rare numerous ports deserve to be highlighted – mesh wifi kits, and the more affordable models, usually only for one lane port.

There is a mesh sync button with 4 RJ45 ports, a reset button and a proprietary power socket. The two lights on the front indicate the status of the network and services (blue for startup, white for operation and orange for problem).

In terms of design, Xiaomi has opted for the matte black plastic block with a height of 22 cm and a height of 9.7 cm. Instead of placing connectors and indicator lights on the faces of the block, Xiaomi has integrated them into the ventilated and functional edges. The level LEDs are on the front and the connectors are on the opposite edge. Each volume has a weight (510 g). Compared to their volume, the blocks actually give the appearance of a somewhat lighter construction.

For installation, Xiaomi provides basic configuration through the web interface, which allows you to set up the Mesh system. Configuration customization then goes through the Xiaomi Home application available on Android and iOS.

So the physical installation of the first module is done without assistance. So it is necessary to connect your operator box to the blue RJ45 port of one of the two modules of the mesh system AX3000.
When the module starts, the open “Xiaomi_XXXX” WiFi network should be detected. Connect with it, your smartphone or computer offers to configure your computer. The rest of the installation allows you to add an SSID (WiFi network name) and password. The interface then offers to configure the administrator password to access the configuration. Once configured, your mesh system will restart and the rest of the customization will now be done through Xiaomi’s Home Automation application (Xiaomi Home).

You need to create an account for the Xiaomi Home app. This will automatically add your mesh system to your devices; Otherwise, it must be added manually.

The proposed systems are relatively comprehensive for the consumer product. Among other things, they allow you to create a transfer power, channel or “guest” wireless network for each band. However, to access more complex network settings, such as port sharing, DHCP or possibly adding VPN identifiers, you should refer to the web interface at 192.168.31.1 or router.mihome.com. We apologize for the lack of genuine parental control and better management of devices linked to user profiles.

Once everything is configured, the system mesh provides a single default SSID, whether in the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band. However, this is possible with the option of splitting the two bands into two separate SSIDs, especially if you have connectivity issues with connected objects – often not compatible with 5 GHz.

To evaluate the performance of the Xiaomi System Mesh AX3000 Mesh system, we have connected the router to our operator box, as well as the laptop PC to the 2.5GB / V socket via the adapter. We will convert the 4.73GB file (disk image) from the first laptop PC equipped with the Intel AX200 WiFi 6 chip, but also to the standard desktop PC connected to the above gigabyte GC-WPAX200 PCI card. Updated with Intel WiFi 6E AX210 chip support WiFi 6E with external antenna.

Within the 5 GHz band, the Xiaomi System Mesh AX3000 reaches speeds of up to 808 Mb / s on average, i.e. transfer, receive or send at 101 MB / s. At one meter from the satellite, we practically halved the speed (427 Mb / s in transmission and 361 Mb / s in reception). Note that our standard computer’s WiFi card wants to connect to the module that delivers the best speed. Thus we get 620 Mb / s in transmission and 555 Mb / s in reception. At point 5, the system mesh AX3000 enabled speeds of up to 154 Mb / s on reception and 160 Mb / s on transmission without instability; Ideal for viewing content from your favorite video-on-demand site in 1080p.

Despite these good results, we expect better from this mesh system. With a theoretical speed of 2402 Mb / s in the 5 GHz band, it offers speeds similar to the Orbi RBK352 Kit provided by Netgear, which offers 1500 Mb / s in its 5 GHz band.

As close as possible to the modules, we obtain oscillation values ​​of 130 Mb / s at the level of the router or satellite module. This explains why the two modules communicate in the 5 GHz band, the router and the module have more or less the same speed in the 2.4 GHz band. At our point 5, the speed drops to 66 Mb / s, however, the connection remains stable within 10 minutes of changing our disk image.

The Xiaomi system puts it between a kit with the speed obtained by the Mesh AX3000 Netgear NightHawk MK62And a kit Netgear RP RPK352.