Xiaomi AX1800 WiFi 6 Router Review – Best Budget Router for 2021

Xiaomi AX1800 WiFi 6 Router Review – Comparing specs & performance.

Xiaomi AX1800

Xiaomi Router recently released its second Wi-Fi 6 router, the AX1800. This router has a lower price threshold than the previous Xiaomi AIoT AX3600 with similar specs to those of the Redmi AX5. It can also be perfectly adapted to support Wi-Fi 6 in performance. The device, whether it is connection stability or speed, is an excellent entry choice for the current Wi-Fi 6 router.

Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is a new generation of Wi-Fi standards. Compared with the previous generation of Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), the transmission rate, signal coverage, and data delay have been greatly improved. Especially in the scenario where multiple devices are connected at the same time, the Wi-Fi 6 router can significantly reduce data delays and stalls. At the beginning of the year, with the release of various Android flagship phones, the Wi-Fi 6 standard has also been adopted by various manufacturers many times, and gradually became the standard for mobile phones in the 5G era.

The price of Wi-Fi 6 routers has also become cheaper to consumers. The Xiaomi AX1800 released this time can perfectly match for popular Xiaomi 10, Samsung S20, and Apple iPhone 11 series handsets, while also providing Wi-Fi 5 compatibility.

Appearance & Design

At first glance, the AX1800 looks more like a Xiaomi AI speaker product. The AX1800 released this time changed the horizontal layout of the previous AX3600 antenna. Using a vertical design style similar to the AC2100 previously released, the overall appearance of the AX1800 is a rectangular parallelepiped, which hides the external antenna design of the router. Get rid of the design constraints of the physical antenna, confuse the two antennas in the middle frame, and achieve 360-degree comprehensive single coverage.

At the top of this router, there is an “X” shape segment, which divides the square router. The running indicator is set at the lower position in front of the corner of the rectangular parallelepiped, and the rear is the design of the network cable interface and power socket. The outer shell of the whole machine is fixed with a buckle to fix the outer shell and the middle frame.

Xiaomi added a series of cooling slots along the X shape and holes on the bottom of the device to let the heat out of the device case. The router uses a tower cooling structure design, with ample space inside the vertical to form significant channel convection; with the large-size metal heat sink assembled inside that provides excellent heat dissipation guarantee for the stable operation state of the router.

SoC with integrated NPU

Xiaomi router AX1800 adopts the configuration of 4-core CPU + single-core NPU. Among them, NPU is a network acceleration engine of the processor, that is used to process and forward continuous small data packets. In theory, it can increase the routing throughput by 21%, reduce the CPU data consumption, and reduce the CPU load.

Hardware Specification

The processor of the Xiaomi router AX1800 uses a 14-nanometer process, which is better than the 28-nanometer process of many WiFi 6 products currently on the market. This advanced technology can give full efficient processor capacity, and at the same time, it provides better control over heat dissipation, power consumption, and stable performance. With the tower cooling design, this router can always maintain an average operating temperature maintaining good performance.

Connectivity & Security

In terms of device access, the Xiaomi router AX1800 is equipped with 256MB of large memory and theoretically supports 128 devices simultaneously. The router, as the infrastructure for networking appliances in the home, it plays a vital role in the smart home ecosystem. In addition to the advantage of being able to access a large number of devices, the Xiaomi router AX1800 can also monitor mainstream IoT devices for security and privacy vulnerabilities on the Xiaomi WiFi App to protect the network security of the smart home ecosystem.

Device Management

When the Xiaomi smart device is connected to the network for the first time, it will sync with the Mijia APP setting, and there is no need to enter a password manually. Xiaomi router AX1800 continues many of the previous AX3600 excellent features, such as children’s Internet protection, visitor WiFi, anti-rub network, WiFi optimization, and many other functions have been kept, users can directly set the corresponding on the Xiaomi WiFi App.

Mesh Networking

Xiaomi router AX1800 also supports OFDMA, MU-MIMO, and other technologies and multiple Mesh networking. OFDMA technology allows the router to complete the data transmission of up to 8 devices in one connection, and the network delay can be reduced by 66%; MU-MIMO makes multiple people surfing the Internet a smoother experience. 

Many large-scale users need multiple routers for Mesh networking to cater to the needs of different complex types. Xiaomi AX1800 can also do it. Through subsequent upgrades, Xiaomi AX1800 can perform Mesh networking with the AX3600 to further expand Wi-Fi Signal coverage throughout the entire house.

Target market

For non-heavy users, it can perfectly fit with phone and other mobile devices and use at home or office, supporting the latest WiFi 5/6 standards. Ethernet broadband has upgraded to gigabit bandwidth. When you usually use the network to watch videos, play games, and connect multiple smart devices to control, a Xiaomi router AX1800 is more than capable of doing all these tasks.

Specification

What’s in the box

Inside the package you will find the following items:

• 1x AX1800 Router.
• 1x User Guide.
• 1x Power adapter.
• 1x Network Cable (Type Cat5e).

Software

The software powering all Xiaomi routers is called ‘MiWiFi.’ Based on the popular open-source OpenWrt framework. All of the Xiaomi router devices run ‘MiWiFi’ software, which is very easy to configure and setup. You can use the ‘Wi-Fi Mi’ mobile app to manage all of your Xiaomi devices. Although the web interface only supports the Chinese language, the ‘Wi-Fi Mi’ mobile app also supports multiple languages, including English. You can add additional router devices to create a local mesh array network to increase signal coverage. Manage all of Xiaomi’s smart home appliances effectively under Xiaomi’s platform.

Web interface for configuring the router

All of the settings of the AX1800 are simple to understand and require minimal technical knowledge. The AX1800 web interface only supports Chinese, but once you connect the AX1800 router to the internet, you can simply use the google translation tool in your web browser and pick a preferred language to translate.

AX1800 web interface | Login Screen

(Translated to Eng. with google)

AX1800 web interface | WiFi Settings

(Web interface Translated to Eng. with google)

MiWiFi | Mobile App

Experience of using Xiaomi Mi Router AX1800

Our general user experience was good. The AX1800 unique tower design with a squared shaped base measuring just 97mm has its advantage as it doesn’t occupy too much space as a traditional router typical do when placed on a table or even an upper small size shelf. Plus, it also looks very modern, and it will blend well with your living room surrounding.

LEDs for Operational Status

Xiaomi added a pair of LED lights that indicate the AX1800 device operation modes. When both lights turn blue, it means that the router is working and established an internet connection, and visa versa turn orange if the device is disconnected or in a booting process step.

Security

This day’s cybersecurity is becoming a big issue, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, as a large portion of the population work remotely from home. Xiaomi integrated few useful security settings that are straightforward to manage through the ‘MiWiFi‘ mobile app.

Under the ‘Security Center‘ settings, you have options to block access for specific devices based on their MAC addresses. You can add mobile devices manually or automatically from a list of devices currently connected to the AX1800 router. Few other useful advanced options also include QoS settings to limits user’s bandwidth or schedule an internet disconnection time.

QoS intelligent speed limit

(Translated to Eng. with google)

Adding device MAC Address to White / Blacklist lists

(Translated to Eng. with google)

Firewall

Xiaomi firewall settings are average and not too advanced for professional IT security persons. You can port forward specific ports according to your security needs, but as a user, you don’t have too many options to play with compared to the Huawei AX3. The firewall settings offer three fixed preset protection levels: High, Medium, and high you can choose.

DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) – The DMZ option that allows you to map an IP of a certain device on the internal network to the external network to facilitate access to the device from the external network.

UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) – Considered less secure as it permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points, and mobile devices to discover each other’s presence on the network seamlessly, those can pose a potential security risk.

AX1800 vs Redmi AX5, which one is better?

According to our tests, checking the signal reception in 3 different spots at a 100 sq. ft apartment home, to our surprisingly both routers: AX1800 & AX5 provided almost the same signal strength and coverage.

Default Wireless Network Settings

• Band: 5GHz
• No’ of channels: 44
• Encryption: WPA2 Personal Edition

Test Results:

Price

After Xiaomi’s first Wi-Fi 6 router launch, the AX3600 AIoT router received very high praise user reviews for its flagship hardware and excellent user experience. As the second product of the Xiaomi WiFi6 router, the Xiaomi router AX1800 has a lower price threshold starting at ~$54, and it retains most of the functions of the AX3600 and those provide excellent spec price ratio value for both home and office users.

Final Words

If you are looking for a cost-effective router that can also handle high broadband internet connections up to 1 Gigabyte, then the AX1800 is an excellent choice worth buying. As a final tip, you can buy a pair of AX1800 units or more to set a mesh network by placing all AX1800 units in different strategic spots around your home, which should greatly help in extending signal coverage.

Where to Buy

The AX1800 is currently available in Gearbest official store. If you are interested in this excellent product, we recommend you check the following product link Here.