Huawei AX3 Pro router review: The most cost-effective flagship among affordable WiFi 6 routers

Whenever a new standard appears in the market, the new products that follow will inevitably make the market move in the wind. For the router market, the emergence of WiFi 6 is this long-awaited spring breeze. However, the price of early WiFi 6 routers is often thousands of yuan, which makes many consumers hesitate and also makes WiFi 6 encounter some price resistance on the road to popularization.

However, this situation has begun to change recently, and WiFi 6 routers priced at hundreds of yuan have gradually emerged. The Huawei AX3 Pro router reviewed this time is one of them. The price of 329 yuan after the e-commerce discount directly targets the keyword "affordable". Coupled with Huawei's experience and accumulation in telecommunications routing products and WiFi 6 technology, this AX3 Pro can be said to be full of temptation.

First look at Huawei

AX3 Pro continues the design of Huawei's WS5200 router, and you can tell its lineage and origin at a glance - it is made by Huawei, no doubt about it.

The four thick antennas and the thin body still look very technological. The irregular square shape design and the foldable antennas create a special sense of ceremony when erected, which can be said to be full of momentum.

After the antenna is folded, the unique shape of AX3 Pro also looks very regular, and the frosted texture of the surface also enhances the overall temperament. The small size allows the router to be placed in a smaller space, which is in sharp contrast to some sleek routers on the market, so there is no need to worry about the space occupied.

There are heat dissipation vents on both sides of the bottom. The irregular shape design ensures the smooth flow of air while greatly improving the overall look and feel of the product.

The rear ports from left to right are: power port (POWER), 4 Gigabit network ports, and a reset button (RESET).

In the center of the front is the usual Huawei Hi button, which can be used to connect to other wireless devices with one click, or as a WPS button. The specific function can be designed in the router system. The conspicuous "WiFi 6+" logo on the antenna announces Huawei's development achievements in WiFi 6 technology.

The NFC sensing area in the lower right corner allows you to quickly connect your mobile phone to the router, which is very convenient.

Overall, the AX3 Pro does not have much design in mind, and is basically made from the same mold as the Huawei WS5200. However, for a router, practical appearance is more important than being innovative. The AX3 Pro is a lightweight, compact, and stylish all-match design, so there is nothing wrong with continuing to use it.

Self-developed temperament from the inside out

The AX3 Pro uses Huawei's self-developed quad-core 1.4GHz Lingxiao 650 chip, which has a computing power of up to 12880 DMIPS and is equipped with 256MB of memory and 128MB of storage.

In terms of wireless frequency, AX3 Pro supports 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz dual-band, with a concurrent speed of up to 2976Mbps, specifically 2.4GHz 574Mbps supports 4 concurrent, 5GHz 2402Mbps supports 16 concurrent. And the two frequencies are each equipped with two independent signal amplifiers to ensure better signal transmission and reception. In addition, the Wi-Fi 6 intelligent frequency division function greatly improves the efficiency of multi-device connection, and the total number of connected devices can reach 128.

According to official data, the actual download speed of the 5GHz band can exceed 1GB. If the Internet speed is fast enough, this wireless download efficiency can be said to be amazing. However, this is always a theoretical transmission speed, and it ultimately depends on the server to which the download is connected.

Huawei's routers have always been very mature in software. After connecting the router to a power source, you can use your mobile phone to turn on NFC and touch the NFC sensing area of ​​the router to directly enter the network and make settings.

During the initial setup, if it is detected that the router is not plugged in, you can directly set up the WiFi relay, or continue the configuration without plugging in the network cable. In the subsequent specific configuration, you can also directly obtain the network configuration from the old router. From these two small details, we can see Huawei's attentiveness in the design of the router system. There are no cumbersome steps, and various possible situations are taken into consideration, which is very considerate.

After the settings are completed, the control interface of the router is also very simple. It can be said that it has been simplified to only the most basic functions, but some necessary functions have not been sloppy. For example, in terminal management, you can directly select devices at different frequencies. Whether you want to prohibit connection or limit network speed, you can just click on the quick settings.

It is worth mentioning that as a Huawei device, it also has a very useful "Smart Link" setting. This function is completely prepared for Huawei's hardware ecosystem. As long as there is a device that supports the Smart Link protocol at home, after connecting to the wireless network, it will automatically synchronize with the router settings, from name to password to blacklist, you can try synchronous roaming.

For devices using Huawei, the Smart Life APP is obviously indispensable. After binding the router through Smart Life, more functions can be unlocked.

Among them, functions such as loT exclusive channel, guest WiFi settings, online classes, mobile games acceleration, etc. are very practical. For router setting experts, these comprehensive function settings can meet all customization needs.

Among them, the most worth mentioning is the child online protection. Child online protection consists of a series of restrictions on the Internet, such as the setting of online time and time periods, whether to allow the installation of applications, and blocking certain websites. The most useful one should be the payment control. For children who like to play mobile games, parents can turn off the payment function to prevent their children from spending too much money.

Download and upload full speed

Open the speed test function in Smart Life, and you can see the difference between AX3 Pro and ordinary speed test software:

The speed test in the Smart Life APP is divided into two categories: "Mobile to Router" and "Router to Network". The content they represent is also very simple and easy to understand. From the results, we can see that the router supports a transmission speed of more than 900MB, but when accessing the Internet, the bandwidth is stuck at 130MB.

In terms of signal testing, AX3 Pro also performed very well.

This test was conducted in an office environment, with a total of 4 different locations: 1. Inside the office; 2. Outside the partition door; 3. In the toilet dozens of meters away; 4. In a storage room far away. The test used 2.4G and 5G respectively, and the router's built-in 5G optimization function allowed the router to automatically switch frequencies according to signal capabilities.

The test results were as expected. Since there was no interference at position 1 in the office, the signals were very good, whether it was 2.4G or 5G. When I went out to position 2, I could clearly see the signal increase due to passing by the router. However, after going out, the signal weakened due to the wall. Regardless of whether it was 5G or 2.4G, it still maintained the same signal strength as indoors under the close wall.

However, when we went to the farther toilet No. 3, the expected thing happened. The signal was significantly weakened here, and it was obvious that 2.4G still had stronger penetration ability than 5G. Even with 5G under WiFi 6, there was still a relatively large signal weakening, and there was a certain amount of packet loss.

Here we can see some advantages of 5G optimization. When the 5G signal is obviously weak at a long distance, the 5G optimization function automatically switches to 2.4G, maintaining a certain connection stability and eliminating the trouble of manual change.

In general, the AX3 Pro is excellent in signal penetration and stability. The fluctuations when changing scenes are not large. Even at a long distance and separated by multiple walls, you can still browse the network stably, especially with the assistance of the 5G optimization function. There is basically no need to worry about network fluctuations.

With the rapid development of smart home, having a stable network is more important than anything else. Before, in order to drive more devices, you might need to spend thousands of yuan to buy a router, but now it is not necessary. Taking a Huawei AX3 Pro router home for 329 yuan is a good deal just to try out the advantages of WiFi 6, not to mention the strong penetration, stable signal, and high customization of the system, plus the stylish design. It is most appropriate to describe it in one word: great!

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.