Huawei WiFi AX3 Pro Review: Should You Buy It?

More content you might find interesting: Redmi AX5400 Review

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Huawei WiFi AX3 Pro

Huawei WiFi AX3 Pro Review – Hand-out covering the router features.

Huawei released two WiFi 6+ router products, AX3 and AX3 Pro. Huawei’s new AX3/Pro series is equipped with a powerful quad-core 1.4GHz CPU and support a large bandwidth of 160MHz. Compared with traditional WiFi 6 routers, the peak speed is almost doubled.

Huawei AX3 series routers also support narrow dynamic bandwidth: by reducing the bandwidth of the mobile phone backhaul router, the signal strength can be increased by up to 6dB at the same transmit power, and the wireless speed of 3000Mbps can achieve an extra wall through a long distance. WiFi 5 mobile phones and tablets with a large bandwidth of 160MHz, such as Mate30/20 phone series, P30 series, MatePad series, and tablet M6 series, will be able to make use of faster speeds with Huawei WiFi 6+ supported routers.

Besides, AX3 series routers also support a one-touch connection, turn on the NFC function of Android phones, and touch the NFC area to join the WiFi network without a long pairing process where the user needs to enter a pairing confirmation code. It also supports mobile game acceleration/net class acceleration/remote office acceleration, and children’s Internet protection.

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The Package

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Unboxing (Package Content)

• 1x 12V-A2A Power adapter.
• 1x User Guide (Chinese lang.)
• 1x AX3 Router

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Appearance & Design

The Huawei WiFi AX3 Pro comes with an excellent and modern design. Its four foldable antennas are designed for maximum portability. Haiwei invested highly in the unique exterior design that allows the user to completely fold the antennas and protect them so they can be carried easily in a small bag.

Operation light status Indicator

Located on the front side of the Huawei WiFi AX3 Pro, you will find a status light indicator that turns orange when the router has no internet link and turns yellow in regular work operation mode.

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Web interface for configuring the router

The AX3 Pro web interface is in Chinese. After connecting the router network ethernet cables, you will be redirected to the router’s main login screen. As part of the initial process, you must first configure your 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz network names, including passwords. After this step, the router will automatically connect to the internet.

Once an internet connection is active, you can use the google translate tool to navigate through all the router settings. For full English support, users would find it much easier to install the ‘Huawei AI Life mobile app by scanning the QR code.

Main Interface (Translated to English)

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Software

The Huawei WiFi AX3 Pro can be fully managed via HUAWEI AI Life, which also supports English. As for configuring different options through the web interface, it’s also very user-friendly but only supports the Chinese language. If you still want to work with the Web interface, It’s easy peasy. You can use the Google translate tool option that is built-in in every compatible chrome browser. You just need to click your mouse on the webpage, and all Chinese characters are instantly converted to English or other languages of your choosing.

From my personal experience, The HUAWEI AI Life app is more unfriendly and easy to manage than XXiaomi’sMi-WiFi App. o operate the device, as the first step, you will need to pair it with the AX3 device by enabling Bluetooth and location settings on your phone.

Xiaomi Mi WiFi vs. HUAWEI AI Life App | Mobile App Main Screen

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Hardware specification

On the software side, Huawei offers two editions of the AX3 router. The AX3 (Basic) Edition is equipped with a dual-core CPU, and the AX3 Pro with a more powerful quad-core CPU and additional RAM.

Huawei uses its hardware solution based on GigaHome 650 chip designed for home routers. According to HHuawei’sannouncement, The GigaHome 650 home router chipset is an all-one solution for a diverse range of connected devices. The leading architecture of the chipset includes a power line communication (PLC) chip and CPU chip.

The new WiFi chip supports up to 3 Gbit/s peak throughput at a peak frequency bandwidth of 160 MHz with two antennas. powered by Huawei’s 5G algorithms, this chipset offers attributes such as interference avoidance and multi-user scheduling while integrating 2G and 5G dual-band support in a single chip. The device has a quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU that clocks at up to 1.4Ghz, with the help of a WiFi offloading unit that provides powerful computing performance for various applications installed on the router while allowing a maximum bandwidth of 3 Gbit/s.

The Chinese tech giant says the GigaHome 650 comes with a level of data security that is guaranteed by TrustZone technology. “these solutions will take WiFi connectivity to a new level and deliver seamless WiFi coverage for Internet calling, online gaming, streaming video, online learning, and even working from home.

Redmi AX5/Huawei AX3/Pro Specifications comparison

Router	Redmi AX5	Huawei AX3	Huawei AX3 Pro
SoC	Qualcomm IPQ6000 5 core SoC	Gigahome 2-core SoC	Gigahome 4-core SoC
Cores	5 (4 CPU + 1 NPU)	2 (CPUs only)	4 (CPUs only)
CPU	4 x Cortex A53 @1.0GHz, 14nm	2 x Cortex A53 @1.2GHz	4 x Cortex A53 @1.4GHz
NPU	Yes, 1 x NPU (1.5GHz)	No	No
RAM	256MB	128MB	256MB
ROM	128MB	128MB	128MB
Supported Devices	128 devices (advertised)	128 devices (advertised)	128 devices (advertised)

One-Touch NFC

A nice feature you will not find in many router products is the One Touch NFC which lets you connect almost instantly to your wireless network using your phone NFC. It saves the user approximately 1-2 minutes of searching for a local network name and manually entering the network password.

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Automatic WAN port selection

Under network port settings, you will find the ”automatically select WAN port and ”fixed WAN port options that let you define your preferred fixed WAN port located next to the power interface or use any available ports numbered from 1 to 4 as your default WAN port.

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WiFi 6 Certification

Because Huawei has plans to sell this product globally worldwide, the Huawei AX3/pro series is also a WiFi CERTIFIED 6 device, which means that the product has gone through the WiFi AAlliance’scertification process. Therefore you don’t need to be concerned about any electromagnetic radiation problem as it follows all the necessary standards and regulations to assure its safety. You can view the “WiFi 6 Certified” logo sticker to verify this is true.

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Connectivity

Preparing for the near future is always a good thing. The AX3/Pro series has everything you need, supporting the latest new WiFi 6 Plus, which is an improved version of the existing WiFi 6 standard with a significant improvement in providing extra 160 MHz frequency bandwidth, achieving a total maximum theoretical bandwidth of up to 2976 Mbps for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz combined.

Inside The AX3/Pro software settings, you will find similar configuration settings on XXiaomi’sRedmi AX5 router. You have an option to combine both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz under the same network name or set them separately. Some users would prefer to put them induvial according to security and personal preference.

Huawei AX3 Pro | Network Configuration settings

Huawei AX3 Pro | Web Interface (browser) access

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WiFi Signal Coverage & Bandwidth Testing

When I connected my Huawei P20 phone in the same spot in a nearby room with an open door, the WiFi signal and available bandwidth using a 5 GHz connection were in the same range of 195-292 Mbps as with the Xiaomi Redmi AX5 router.

• Point #1: 195-292 Mbps
• Point#2: 866 Mbps (1m distance from the router).

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Firewall & Security Settings

In the security arena, Huawei invested highly in implementing plenty of valuable functions that every user would be pleased to provide maximum security and protection. New settings are more relevant only to the Chinese market. For example, the advanced parental control options limit children’s activities to specific parameters such as payment, app installation, video services, social platforms, and games that only support popular Chinese video service providers and exclude youtube.

I expect that soon when an international firmware update will become available. It’s most likely to be able to update your AX3 router with international global software in English and enjoy more options related to Google and other services accessible outside of china’s mainland.

Security & Protection Features:

• Brute force attack
• WiFi stealing prevention
• Anti-hijacking
• Safe internet
• Smart device safe
• Parental control – payment services, app install, video services, social, games.
• Guest WiFi (Create a separate secure network for improved security).

Huawei AX3 Pro | ‘‘HUAWEI AI Life”Firewall Settings

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NAT Service

Another handy feature related to security settings is the NAT service configuration section. Here you can enable and map specific ports.

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Mesh Networking

Simple and easy-to-use Mesh networking, quickly covering the whole house.

WiFi single coverage is a problem in most households. t makes it very problematic when we need to use two or three wired or wireless routers to increase signal coverage. The most reliable method is AC+AP, but this method requires the same network wiring in advance.

In a two-mesh router network configuration, it is essential to automatically select a faster WiFi device in actual scenarios. Any routers are not great at switching or matching the best signal, and automatic switching often fails to respond. With the HUAWEI WiFi AX3 Pro device, the phone will automatically connect to the nearest mesh unit.

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Price

After XXiaomi’sfirst WiFi 6 router launch, the AX3600 AIoT router received high praise from user reviews for its flagship hardware and excellent user experience. s the second product of the Xiaomi WiFi 6 router, the Xiaomi router AX3 series, have a lower price threshold starting at $54 for the basic dual-core CPU model, and it contains the most advanced security features any user will need.

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Redmi AX5 vs. Huawei AX3 Pro which one is better?

Huawei invested lots of resources in the software side of the product by adding tons of useful features that don’t exist in Xiaomi’s Redmi AX5 router. Plus, it also supports the latest new WiFi 6 plus standard. Other devices, in my opinion, are super great and perfect for users needing a great home router at a meager price tag.

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Redmi AX5 vs. Huawei AX3 Pro – Features Comparison

To make things a lot more simple, we composed a table with a list of features for both Xiaomi AX5 and HUAWEI AX3/ Pro routers listed below.

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Final Words

The Huawei AX3 Pro is fantastic, cost-effective, easy to manage, and packed with great features that you might find in high-end router devices. This is an excellent choice if you are looking for a home router without burning a hole in your pocket.

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Review Summary

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Where to buy

Huawei AX3/Pro router is currently on sale in the official Banggood store for $109.99 and is an excellent, well-designed product worth checking.