In the middle of 2013, the portable WiFi market suddenly broke out, and almost all domestic large IT enterprises launched their own portable WiFi products like an arms race, and the prices were between 18.9 and 19.9 yuan. After 360, Baidu and Xiaomi, Tencent's nationwide WiFi will be officially launched on August 18. Since then, the five domestic "BAT junior" giants have their own WiFi products, except Alibaba, which has never had physical products.
Therefore, before the launch of Tencent's new products, I will bring you the horizontal reviews of these portable WiFi. The objects of this horizontal review are Tencent Universal WiFi, 360 WiFi, Xiaomi WiFi, Baidu Xiaodu WiFi and Leike NW336 V2 at the same price for comparison, a total of five products. The evaluation will compare the hardware, connection convenience, signal strength and software features.
First, take a brief look at their parameter table:
As can be seen from the table, except that the size of the Leike NW336 is close to that of the traditional USB flash drive, none of them can exceed 3.5cm in length and weigh less than 5g. There is no need to worry about portability.
In addition, their chip schemes are unexpectedly consistent. Except that Leike is a higher power RTL8188CUS chip, others are MT7601 of MTK of MediaTek. Therefore, their performance parameters are similar: support 20MHz/40MHz bandwidth, 1T1R antenna mode, 2.4G band, QoS WMM WMM-PS， Support centralized control mode (Infrastructure) and peer mode (Ad hoc).
In terms of transmission power, Leike and 360 are higher, 20 and 19 dBm respectively, and the rest are 18 dBm, but they are small. This power level can meet the requirements of indoor transmission distance of 10 meters and passing through 1 or 2 walls.
Hardware
Except for Xiaomi WiFi, the other four products are packed in traditional paper boxes. Xiaomi is "environmentally friendly" and uses plastic bags for packaging ▼
It includes WiFi body, attached lanyard and instructions. Six colors are available: white, black, orange, green, pink and blue ▼
The fuselage is made of opaque frosted plastic, and Xiaomi's logo is applied, while the protective cover is made of translucent material. It is worth mentioning that the lanyard hole of Xiaomi's WiFi is designed on the protective cover
After the cover is opened, the product shape is very close to the common Bluetooth or wireless keyboard receiver ▼
360 WiFi is the only product of the second and second generation, which is packed in a white square carton ▼
The inside of the package is also the body, lanyard and instructions. The lanyard end is made into a headphone plug shape, which can be directly inserted into the headphone jack. This design is more intimate. The fuselage has 9 colors: white, pink, black, gold, yellow, red, purple, blue and green ▼
The overall round shape, in addition to sanding, also adds a layer of skin coating, which is the most comfortable feeling among the five, but this kind of material is known as not resistant to dirt ▼
After opening the cover, you can see 360 logo ▼ printed on the USB port
Small size WiFi is also packaged in white cartons ▼
Inside is still the body, lanyard and instructions ▼
There is a circle of color decorative belt in the middle of the white fuselage, and Baidu's classic bear paw logo is applied on the front. The body shape is the smallest ▼ among the five
After opening the cover, it can be seen that the "ribbons" are nested in four colors: blue, yellow, pink and gray. But in fact, they are different in style, but the "ribbons" are different in color ▼
Strictly speaking, Leike NW336 is still a traditional wireless network card product, and its packaging is also very traditional ▼
It's still a three piece set, but the lanyard has become a drive disc. In fact, the fuselage has a designed lanyard hole ▼
The front of the body is really like a USB flash drive. There is an inconspicuous status indicator light ▼ on the right side of the logo
There is a button on the back of the fuselage ▼
A closer look at the WPS one button encryption switch makes people realize that Leike is really a very traditional wireless device manufacturer ▼
Open the cover, the USB interface is amazing ▼
Finally, Tencent's nationwide WiFi. The red paper box packaging is bright and beautiful, and it is also the most exquisite of the five. It can be seen from the white arc in the lower right corner that there is actually a layer of packaging ▼
Pull out the inner layer and it is a white bracket with WeChat QR code ▼ printed on it
Family photo ▼
This is the only product made into a square, which will not roll on the desktop. There is only the logo of nationwide WiFi on the front, and it is also the only product that does not provide lanyard holes, so the machine is very clean on the whole. The machine is available in white, black, gold, red, purple, blue and green. ▼
The logo of Tencent is printed on the back, and two bulges are made on the side to facilitate users to pull out the cover ▼
After opening, the machine body is also printed with a concave logo ▼
Body type comparison ▼
Unexpectedly, their thickness looks very close ▼
[Connection convenience]
Because they are non universal products, computers do not come with their own drivers, so essentially they need users to install their own drivers. In addition to the drive CD provided by Leike, the instructions of the other four models all provide the drive download website:
Tencent Universal WiFi:
Xiaomi WiFi:
Baidu Xiaodu WiFi:
360 WiFi Gen 2:
Fortunately, their websites are very short and easy to remember. However, when encountering a computer without an optical drive, Leike's product had to go to the official website to find the driver ▼
Drop its download link here
However, as Xiaobai oriented products, some products still add the "drive free" mode humanely. If the computer is equipped with QQ or Tencent computer butler, the national WiFi will be automatically identified and the driver will be handled in the background; If the computer is equipped with 360360 WiFi, it can also automatically solve the drive problem.
The official drivers are used for evaluation:
The driver installation package (including the client) of the nationwide WiFi has a volume of 11.9m. One click installation does not need to select the installation address. It takes less than 1 minute to install to the automatic configuration and send WiFi ▼
The drive of Xiaomi's WiFi is 11.6m, which takes about 10 seconds to install, but it takes dozens of seconds ▼ to create WiFi
The size of 360 portable WiFi driver is 12.5m, and the installation process is the fastest among the five (faster than the screenshot), but the creation of WiFi is slower.
The small WiFi drive is 13.1m, and the installation and WiFi creation speed is similar to 360 ▼
Leike is the most different one. Its drive is 33m long. It took more than 1 minute to install it alone, and the computer needs to be restarted after installation ▼
Considering that the installed probability of QQ is more than 360, Tencent's nationwide WiFi is driver free for most computers, and is basically ready to use once plugged in. So the final ranking of connection convenience is: Tencent Universal WiFi>360 WiFi Gen 2>Xiaomi WiFi=Baidu Xiaodu WiFi>Leike NW336
[Signal strength]
Because the evaluation objects are portable low-power products, their wall penetration force will not be too strong. To be fair, they are all plugged into the same USB HUBS for use, and the same computer shares the network. Because the USB port is insufficient, Leike with different levels is directly plugged into the body socket of the test computer. All WiFi used is automatically created by the product. Of course, except for Leike, their clients do not have the function of manually adjusting channels.
The results of signal monitoring are as follows. The following are the results of sitting in front of the test computer, and we can see that their signal strength is quite high. The ranking is Tencent Universal WiFi>Leike NW336>Baidu Xiaodu WiFi>WiF360 WiFi Gen 2>Xiaomi WiFi ▼
When they walked 10 meters away, their strength dropped to the normal level. The strongest signal was Tencent's WiFi, Baidu Xiaodu WiFi>Xiaomi WiFi>Leike NW336>WiF360 WiFi 2 generation. Here we can see that the signal strength of Leike and 360 declined most severely with distance ▼
Finally, I ran out of the office and separated two walls. The results are as follows. 360 and Xiaodu have disappeared in the channel map, while the strongest signal strength is Tencent's nationwide WiFi, followed by Xiaomi, while Leike is far away, but at least there is a signal ▼
Theoretically, their hardware chips are the same, and their signal strength should be similar, but the test results show that Tencent's nationwide WiFi signal strength is strong, and will not decay significantly with the change of distance. However, this is largely due to its excellent channel selection strategy, which avoids the most dense channels 1, 6 and 11, and effectively reduces signal interference.
Xiaomi WiFi and Leike WiFi are not bad either, which can at least ensure stability, but the performance of Xiaodu WiFi and 360WiFi is not satisfactory. Of course, they are all portable WiFi, which is impossible to be used as a router, and the home environment will not have so much WiFi signal interference as the office. They are still competent for home use, but the feat of sending WiFi downstairs to upstairs is almost beyond expectation.
[Software Interface]
In addition to Leike, the other four clients are all designed with small windows and suspended windows to minimize interference with users' normal operation.
Leike NW336
The difference between Leike and other products is even greater when it comes to the client side. Compared with the simplicity and ease of use of other products, it is professional and detailed. Although it is not suitable for small white users, with the WPS entity key, deep users should like it.
Its client basically continues the shape of the wireless network card management program of the year. Almost all the data collected by the network card can be seen, including the channel, signal strength, Mac address, connection duration, and encryption method. What's painful is that it defaults to the wireless network card mode. If you want to send WiFi, you have to manually switch to the access point mode, and the WiFi name does not support Chinese names
However, apart from debugging the network card, the client has no other additional functions ▼
Xiaomi WiFi
The client of Xiaomi portable WiFi adopts a square interface. The main interface is the WiFi name and password modification interface. Its function is the simplest of the four portable WiFi.
The three buttons below the main interface are the three main functions of file sharing, uploading and device management in the next screenshot. It also supports small functions such as interface color change, equipment connection confirmation, blacking, speed limit, remote shutdown ▼
The machine also comes with 1TB of Jinshan online disk space. After the user drags the computer file to the client, the file will be automatically uploaded to the online disk, and the mobile phone can scan the code to download ▼
Small WiFi
Xiaodu is the simplest of the five clients, and its network control function is also the simplest. You can only change the WiFi name and password, and nothing else can be controlled.
However, its floating window has three main functions, namely, air separation, mobile phone album and video sharing: users can drag computer files into the client and automatically send them to the mobile phone to view the album directly, or let the mobile phone directly watch movies on the computer. However, the premise is that the mobile phone needs to install the Baidu Mobile Assistant client
The left side of the figure below is its floating window, and the right side is its WiFi setting interface ▼
360 portable WiFi
360 portable WiFi continues the large and comprehensive route of 360 clients, and is the most complex among the five. Timed shutdown, user blacklist, speed limit, connection confirmation, WiFi SSID hiding and other functions are not available, and switching to wireless network card mode is supported (this is more conscientious) ▼
What's more special is that it also adds the function of computer remote control. After the mobile phone is installed with the client, you can directly view the computer files, operate the computer by simulating the mouse and keyboard on the mobile phone, take screenshots, transfer pictures, share the pasteboard, control the volume and other operations on the computer ▼
In addition, it is also a compact version of 360 cloud disk client, with 10T capacity given away by the randomizer. However, as the cost of many functions, its client CPU usage is relatively high ▼
Tencent Universal WiFi
The software interface and functions of the nationwide WiFi are quite restrained. Many of its core functions and features are automatically completed directly in the background. For example, after WiFi is inserted into the computer logged in to QQ, the driver and client will be automatically installed and logged in using the QQ number.
It also includes the only "Scan QR code to link WiFi" function for the time being (how lazy you must be to make such a function). In addition to customizing the name of the connected device, it will also directly identify the brand and model of devices from different manufacturers (such as Sony LT18, Xiaomi 4, etc.) ▼
In terms of its network control function, it is worth mentioning its humanized floating window control function: mouse over the floating window can check the instantaneous network speed; After clicking, the connected equipment will be displayed in "Map Mode"; Drag the target device away from the levitation window to directly disconnect it. Very convenient and intuitive. ▼
However, for game fans, the above is not its "main business". The core selling point of nationwide WiFi is actually the game acceleration and free value-added package, which is more like a "game WiFi on the go".
The computer connected to the nationwide WiFi will automatically enter the online game acceleration channel of Tencent, which is more attractive to online game players such as Shuaashuo (League of Heroes), Crossfire and QQ Dancing. After the mobile phone is connected to its WiFi, games such as the National Airplane War, the National Town, and the Rhythm Master will receive gift package rewards ▼
summary
After more than a year of development, WiFi is basically developing towards other functions besides wireless network transmission. 360 is still working on security, Baidu is working on audio and video, and Tencent is working on optimizing the game experience. In contrast, Xiaomi's portable WiFi is like a defensive product with no special functions, but their use experience has left the traditional products such as the Leike NW336.
Finally, purchase suggestions:
If you are too lazy to care about computer security or Xiaobai, 360 WiFi is more reliable, although its WiFi signal strength is relatively weak;
If you are a frequent cross platform movie watcher or a loyal Xiaomi user, you can consider Xiaodu WiFi and Xiaomi WiFi;
If you are a Tencent family game fan, WiFi can speed up your game and give you a gift package;
If you only need a tool to share WiFi, you can choose Universal WiFi or Leike NW336. They are both strong in signal and professional in software management.
