Foreword:
When talking about wireless routers, I believe many friends can talk non-stop. For example, it can range from chips and flash memory to various types of firmware, and then from power amplifiers and antennas to signal coverage. Anyway, there are many friends who like to toss with routers. As a digital enthusiast, I was like this before. For example, the main router I used at home was the "foreign garbage" Cisco EA6300. After installing the Merlin system, the playability immediately increased a lot. There are also Xunpai K2, K2P, K3, etc. (all sold), and I have a lot of fun playing with various firmwares. However, just some time ago, my family and I felt that there were some problems with the Wi-Fi at home. For example, the screen got stuck when trying to use Douyin well, and "Honor of Kings" often experienced 460 interruptions (even for more than 10 seconds). ; After judgment, it may be that the life of the Cisco EA6300 as the main router has come to an end. In addition, there are now endless Wi-Fi 6 routers, and the price is not expensive; and I am too old to bother with it, so I bought a Huawei AX3 Pro wireless router.
PS: Some people say why not buy a Xiaomi router? Let me talk about my personal experience here: In the early days, I bought several Xiaomi routers for others, but the stability and signal coverage were not as good as TP-link. I will name Xiaomi Router 3 here (it is too unstable without flashing the firmware). So this also gave me a bad impression of Xiaomi routers. However, I heard that after Xiaomi acquired the team of Xuxun, its routers performed well, but the price felt a bit expensive, such as AX3600.
Unboxing:
Let’s first take a look at the unboxing of Huawei AX3 Pro. A rendering of Huawei AX3 Pro is printed on the front, and various highlights are also marked in the upper left corner. Of course, this router is also a member of the HUAWEI HiLink family.
But this title of "edge router" is probably the first time some friends have seen it? It is defined as a router located at the periphery (edge) of the network. Simply put, its function is to connect users from the LAN to the WAN.
Unboxing family portrait:
There are no additional network cables included, just the router itself, manual and power adapter are included directly out of the box.
Huawei AX3 Pro router currently comes in two colors: black and white. I bought the black version, and the overall design is full of technology. Although it looks like a quadrilateral, the bottom of the router has a hollow water chestnut design, which makes it look less rigid than traditional routers.
And I personally think that the biggest highlight of the appearance of Huawei AX3 Pro router is the antenna design. Compared with the traditional cylindrical antenna, it is more stylish and can be folded inward for easier storage. The front and back of the antenna are marked with Wi- Fi 6+ logo. Anyway, I am very satisfied with the appearance. At least it won’t feel out of place in the living room. There is a button on the router's body, which is the Huawei Hi button, which is equivalent to the WPS button. It is mainly used to facilitate users to connect to other wireless devices with one click. The specific functions can also be set in the router system.
There is an NFC sensor in the lower right corner of the fuselage. For any Android phone that supports and turns on NFC, after turning on the NFC function, there is no need to enter a password, and the networking operation can be completed with just one touch, which is very convenient. This is also a function that most routers on the market currently do not have.
In addition, the network ports of Huawei AX3 Pro are all Gigabit designs, and WAN/LAN is automatically selected.
Wi-Fi usage experience:
First, let’s talk about the networking structure of my home. I use Cisco EA6300 as the main router, and 360 M5 mesh sub- and mother routers are placed in the room for signal coverage. The main reason is that the signal coverage of Cisco EA6300 is really average, and the effect is OK after being paired with the 360 M5 mesh router. Of course, the main reason is that the layout of self-built houses is rather strange.
This is a Cisco EA6300 that has been used for almost 5 years. Because it has a built-in antenna, it is placed in the storage compartment of the TV cabinet.
Comparison between Cisco EA6300, 360 M5 mesh and Huawei AX3 Pro. Who does everyone think is the prettiest?
Of course, as a router, the most attention is naturally paid to Wi-Fi performance. So I also wanted to see how powerful this machine is, equipped with Huawei’s self-developed quad-core 1.4GHz Lingxiao 650 chip.
First, let’s briefly introduce the hardware parameters of Huawei AX3 Pro router:
Processor: Lingxiao 650 quad-core 1.4 GHz
Wireless speed: dual-band concurrent 2976Mbps, 2.4GHz 574Mbps+5GHz 2402Mbps;
Wireless frequency band: 802.11ax/ac/n/a 2 x 2 & 802.11ax/n/b/g 2 x 2MU-MIMO; supports 160Mhz bandwidth
Antenna gain: 5dBi;
RAM：256MB；
ROM：128MB；
Equipped with four independent signal amplifiers;
The total number of access devices can reach 128
Overall, the only drawback may be that it only supports 2x2 MU-MIMO. If it is 4x4 MU-MIMO, it would be perfect.
There is nothing to say about the installation process, because my home uses optical modem + Gigabit switch + dynamic IP (Telecom does not provide public IP for the time being), so changing the router only requires plugging and unplugging the network cable. The installation location is to replace the Cisco EA6300 with the Huawei AX3 Pro router and place it in the living room. As for the devices tested, I used Huawei Mate40 and iQOO 7.
The router initialization process is also very simple. I used the NFC function of Huawei Mate40 to establish a link with the router, and then the phone automatically entered the setting interface.
It is worth noting that the Huawei AX3 Pro router turns on the "dual-band-in-one" setting of 2.4GHz and 5GHz by default. However, considering that there are many 2.4GHz devices in my home, I habitually split them. However, I later tried turning on the "dual-band-in-one" setting, which also did not affect the use of 2.4GHz devices.
After setting it up, I used two mobile phones to test the speed next to the router. The software used is SPEEDTEST, which shows that the download rate is 300Mbps and the uplink rate is 40Mbps, which is completely full speed.
At the same time, in the Smart Life APP, there is also Huawei’s official testing software. Test results show that it has reached the operator's 300Mbps bandwidth.
In order to see the 5G wireless signal coverage capabilities of the Huawei AX3 Pro router, I also tested several points in the room.
Among them, the download speeds of living room A, master bedroom B, and study room C all exceed Gigabit cable, and the upload speed and network latency performance are also very good. Because the children's room is separated by a corner, the network speed is halved. However, the worst performance is in the bathroom. Personally, I think it is due to the influence of the tiles, because when I used Cisco EA6300 and 360 routers before, the signal coverage in the bathroom was average. Fortunately, the bandwidth of 100Mbps is enough for watching videos. As for the balcony, the signal performance is pretty good because of its window design.
After replacing the Huawei AX3 Pro router, the author also tested "Honor of Kings" and "Peace Elite". I feel that the problem of 460 disconnection should be solved. After playing more than 10 games of ranked games and Super Smash Bros., it did not happen again.
APP experience:
After testing the Huawei AX3 Pro router Wi-Fi, I found that the router has pushed a brand new firmware, and various functions are emerging one after another.
For example, there is a fun smart detection mode, which allows you to customize the room type, then conduct Wi-Fi tests in each room, and finally draw a signal heat map. I think this function is very user-friendly. You can clearly understand the signal "dead spots" in your home and improve them. For example, the last two pictures are the signal coverage of 5GHz and 2.4GHz in my home respectively.
In terms of applications, Huawei AX3 Pro router comes with many functions, such as automatic channel optimization, automatic restart, intranet penetration, setting up private cloud, VPN and other functions.
However, what surprised me the most was the “Children’s Internet Protection” installed on the Huawei AX3 Pro router. You know, many years ago, a computer terminal filtering software called "Green Dam" appeared on computers to protect minors' healthy Internet access, but the effect was very poor. So at first, I chose to ignore this feature when I saw it, but when I opened it, the "Children's Internet" feature on the Huawei AX3 Pro router seemed a bit exaggerated! Not only can you control the time you spend online, but you can also control what games you play, what videos you watch, what social software you use, what software you use to pay, what web pages you read, and even the apps you install.
For example, in terms of games, mainstream mobile games such as "Honor of Kings", "Peace Elite", "Identity V", "Onmyoji", "After Tomorrow" and so on can be controlled, and it seems to include "Heroes" which has not yet been officially launched. alliance".
Social software is the mainstream WeChat and QQ; payment software is also the mainstream Alipay, WeChat, QQ Wallet and Huawei Pay. The most interesting thing is that you can ban the application markets of major brands, from Apple, Huawei, to Meizu, Samsung, vivo, OPPO, Xiaomi, etc.
There are also many video ban options, which also cover mainstream video APPs.
I also did a small experiment with iQOO 7. For example, after playing Brawl, you can see on the menu that the game time of "Honor of Kings" is 13 minutes.
At the same time, I also conducted detailed tests on the various functions of Huawei AX3 Pro router's children's Internet protection. It is really not a gimmick, and the control effect is very obvious. For example, after turning off video playback, the entire Bilibili APP is in a state of no network connection.
The same is true after closing the game. "Honor of Kings" will not pop up the entry interface at all, and it will directly display that the network condition is poor, please try again. This also shows that the control function of Huawei AX3 Pro router's children's Internet protection is really powerful.
Another benefit of the Huawei AX3 Pro router is that it can control the Internet access period of each child protection device, which allows parents to feel more confident when their children use mobile phones, tablets and other devices.
In addition, the Huawei AX3 Pro router can also be bound to WeChat, which not only allows you to view various usage tutorials, but also enables push reminder functions. For example, children can know at the first time what operations they have performed on the device. Anyway, with the support of Huawei AX3 Pro router, I will undoubtedly have a firm advantage when "matching wits and courage" with my children.
Summarize:
After several days of detailed practical experience, I feel that as a 300 yuan router, Huawei AX3 Pro does have its unique features. It is no wonder that some friends highly praise it. Anyway, after personal experience, I feel that not only does it have great Wi-Fi coverage, but it also does a good job in software. Some of its highlight features are even beyond the reach of the Merlin system, such as signal heat map, children's Internet control, WeChat push, etc. Of course, Huawei AX3 Pro also has shortcomings. The main reason is that there are currently relatively few plug-in applications and they are not open. We hope that Huawei will continue to increase them in the future, thus bringing a better user experience.