Since the rise of intelligent routing last year, the intelligent routing products of major manufacturers have successively launched their second generation products, and the new routing newifi mini is the second generation intelligent routing jointly launched by Baidu Cloud and Lenovo NBD. Although the name is "mini" more than that of newifi, and the price of 129 yuan is really very friendly compared with its configuration, how will its actual performance be?
parameter
Product name: new route newifi mini
model: R6830
Size: 130.2 * 120.8 * 26.6 mm
Weight: 168g
Chip: MT7620A（580MHz）+MT7612E
Memory: 128 M
ROM：16M Flash
Wireless standard: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Wireless transmission rate: 300Mbps in 2.4G band; 867Mbps at 5G frequency
Others: 2.4G/5G dual band antenna and support USB expansion
Unpacking and accessories
The kraft paper box is very compact, with the product characteristics and parameter table on the back.
The interior is placed in two layers, and there is a disposable label on the plastic bag of the machine. The accessories are quite simple, only the manual, warranty and power supply.
The 12V/1A output power supply is a bit bulky, but the material is solid. The common "squeak" sound of low-end power supply is not heard during use, and the heat dissipation is good.
Appearance and workmanship
The dual antenna can be folded, and the indicator light and logo are under the top mirror.
There are three layers of heat dissipation grids inside and outside at the bottom, four soft silicone feet around, and the red one on the left is a warranty sticker for disassembly prevention.
In addition to the top mirror, the whole body is frosted.
Below the top mirror are the indicators and logos arranged vertically.
Provide 1WAN+2LAN interface, entity reset key and USB interface.
The antenna supports 180 degree rotation and 90 degree opening and closing.
The top material is similar to glass, and the side transparent panel has a unique reflective effect. The lateral groove at the side is also provided with a heat dissipation grille.
The route is small in size and looks like a sandwich cake.
Operation and use
The new routing system is based on O The team leader of the development of penWrt is the founder of OpenWrt Chinese website, whose pedigree is quite pure.
Network Configuration Wizard
The newifi mini provides a web terminal and a mobile phone client. The web terminal is designed with left and right double columns. The left column is a big menu, and the right column is a function page. On the first entry, there will be a simple network connection wizard, and Baidu account binding prompt.
Basic functions
The home page is the status overview, showing the machine model, running time, real-time network speed, average speed, peak speed and other parameters.
At the lower end of the page, there is also traffic statistics with pie chart, which looks more intuitive and is convenient for users of the website and bt.
On the device management page, you can see the IP address, MAC address, real-time speed and link time of each access device, and provide the device name labeling and blackout functions, but it is temporarily unable to carry out detailed uplink and downlink speed restrictions.
In wifi settings, since the machine supports 5G wifi, two independent wifi signals can be sent (5G wifi can only be received if the receiving device supports 5G band).
Compared with 360 Route and other intelligent routes known as "simple" routes, newifi mini has also incorporated advanced functions, but advanced functions such as AP wireless relay, custom gateway, MAC address cloning and so on have been reserved conscientiously.
Intelligent application
The intelligent functions of newifi mini have been made into extension plug-ins. Its expansion page has "plug-in market". When the mouse hovers over the plug-in icon, it will automatically display complete functions and configuration prompts, which is very considerate.
The plug-in details page contains version number, update time, size, introduction, and usage information. You can configure the page to adjust the plug-in functions in detail.
Among them, there are "wifi timing switch, signal strength, timing restart, panel light timing switch control" which are biased towards the foundation. After being made into independent plug-ins, the adjustment is very meticulous.
The multimedia server (miniDLNA) plug-in is used to share USB extension files to the internal LAN. For Tencent Video and Xunleikan players that support the UPnP protocol, they can directly play the stored video files.
LAN file sharing, sharing files in USB devices through samba protocol. The user can directly access the USB storage device on the route in the network neighbor page on the PC, or map it to a network disk, transforming the mobile hard disk and USB flash disk into a network hard disk (NAS) in disguise.
Xunlei offline download can bind the route to Xunlei account through the activation code provided by the device. Files and BT download tasks can be directly executed on the web side of Xunlei remote download. At ordinary times, you can even use your mobile phone to control the router to download movies by yourself. After you go home, you can use DLNA or directly open the video in the network neighborhood. The availability is quite high.
IQIYI video acceleration is actually part of the PC iQIYI client. The PC client can download videos. After binding the router and iQIYI account, you can set the route as the download address for offline download. But I regret to tell you that even in the PC client and downloaded videos, there are video advertisements
Corresponding to the offline download function of Xunlei and iQiyi, the plug-in also has the disk automatic sleep function, which will automatically enter the sleep mode 30 minutes after stopping reading and writing.
Mobile client
The mobile phone client supports both Android and iOS, and its most important use is to remotely control the router, because the route web side is always inaccessible (if the PC and mobile phone are not connected to the route, the web side cannot be accessed). What's even more surprising is that the client has more expanded functions than the webpage
The client model is very simple. Device management, remote download, file and management management, and routing wifi, bandwidth management, and other functions are dropped once and for all in the setting interface.
Device management still checks the device list and network usage details (the two figures on the left). In file management, you can directly read the USB storage device file on the route (the first one on the right), which is even more convenient than that on the PC side.
The expansion page can fully manage all routing plug-ins. When you see the mobile terminal, you can understand why Newifi needs to use routing, wifi timing switch, panel switch and other functions as plug-ins. After being made into a plug-in, these small settings can be controlled remotely by the mobile phone.
The expansion page also has a mobile exclusive "album backup and Baidu Cloud" plug-in, which is the advantage of Lenovo's marriage with Baidu. The former can automatically back up the phone album to an external USB device (first from the left), while the latter can download the bound Baidu Cloud files offline (two pictures from the right).
signal intensity
The comparison object here is still Leike's Q3 route (also a dual antenna 5dBi gain). The test adopts the automatic channel selection mode uniformly, and the signal strength of newifi is adjusted to medium.
The above test results are respectively 0m, 5m (with non bearing wall barrier) and 10m away from the two routes. The red box on the left is the signal of newifi mini, and the red box on the right is the signal of reference to Leike Q3. The red peak on the right side, which is like a bug, is high because the tester is connected to its wifi, which directly leads to high readings of wifi signals in the same channel.
Although both are dual antennas, the signal strength of the newifi mini is generally about 5 dBm higher than that of the comparison object.
Strangely, after setting the WiFi of newifi mini to the through wall mode, the test results at the same location as before are shown in the figure above. Its WiFi strength has not been significantly improved, and the strength is still about 5dBm higher than that of the comparison object.
When the author reached about 15 meters (left picture), both signals fell below - 60 dBm; After the whole elevator hall is separated (right picture), the signal of newifi mini almost falls below - 80dBm, while the signal of the comparison object disappears
Its through wall mode does not significantly improve the signal strength, but it improves the signal transmission distance. This setting is much more humanized and healthy than the through wall mode that simply increases the power, which deserves praise.
summary
After testing the castrated version of intelligent routing of a digital manufacturer, I was deeply moved when I encountered an intelligent routing that was not castrated normally. For geeks who are accustomed to native DD and openwrt, the current intelligent routing has been simplified for ease of use, but they still give good consideration to the needs of entry-level players and users who are too lazy to bother deeply.
With Baidu Cloud's various videos and unusually rich offline download resources, you can easily download or transfer file management through Baidu's online disk, making it easy for you to download videos in various formats (cough...), which is quite satisfactory. In addition, its wireless signal penetration capability and system stability are good, even as a common route.
If you are a user of Baidu Online Disk, or a user with various file download requirements, and you do not have the routing and NAS with hard disk, newifi mini will be a good choice.
