In 2016, the router market can be said to be a red sea. All households are publishing their own routers under the banner of intelligence, and the prices are also available from low to high. Whether they can stand out in such competition, in addition to performance, the more important thing is the firmware they carry. Xiaomi, as the first group of mobile phone manufacturers to launch attacks, Everyone has more expectations for it Xiaomi router 3C As a lightweight router with a price of 99 yuan, can it bring us surprises?
1: Appearance
The overall style of this year is followed on the packaging, with the product appearance on the front and the related functions and parameters on the back.
After opening the package, the first layer is Xiaomi router 3C, and the second layer is power adapter
As an entry-level router, the accessories of Xiaomi router 3C are simple, with only simple instructions and power adapter.
The overall appearance follows the style of Xiaomi Router 3. The straight board model plus 4 antennas is simple but not simple. As a router within 100 yuan, it has a good appearance. In terms of size, it is a circle smaller than Xiaomi Router 3
There is an LED indicator on the front of the router, which is red blue phase change, and can also be turned off. There is only one MI LOGO on the top.
From right to left, the back of the router is a power socket, a 100M WAN port, and two 100M LAN ports. It can only be said that it is just enough. The most unfortunate thing is that there is no gigabit network port. After all, 100M optical fiber is widely used in most cities today, and 100M ports cannot run 100M network at full speed. There are heat dissipation openings on the top of the back.
At the bottom is the relevant information of Xiaomi router 3C, and around it are made cooling holes.
Xiaomi Router 3C is equipped with four external omnidirectional high gain antennas, with folding angles of 45 degrees, 90 degrees and 180 degrees. The horizontal direction supports 180 degrees of stepless adjustment. It is much easier for users to adjust the antenna angle according to the use environment, but the antenna material is backward compared with Xiaomi Router 3.
Appearance summary:
Perhaps due to cost considerations, Xiaomi Router 3C has adopted the appearance setting similar to that of Xiaomi Router 3, but it is smaller in size. The workmanship is still excellent. The corners of the mold and the opening of the heat dissipation hole are neat and free of burrs. As a router that costs only 99 yuan, it is worth praising.
2: Hardware parameters and system introduction
In terms of hardware, the Xiaomi Router 3C uses the MT7628N processor, with 16MB ROM and 64MB memory. WiFi only supports 2.4G slightly worse, and the maximum speed is 300Mbps. On the whole, it is a standard configuration of an entry-level router, and the lack of 5G band does not meet today's market demand. After all, compared with the crowded 2.4G band, 5G band can provide mobile devices such as mobile phones with a more smooth and fast network experience, while 2.4G is more just a supplement to long-distance connections. In short, there is no surprise or disappointment.
The Xiaomi Router 3C is also equipped with MIWIFI system, which continues the simple and easy to use feature. After networking, the basic operation of the router can be completed after simple settings according to the system prompts. After entering the background, you can view the current network status and hardware consumption on the home page. The overall design is intuitive and easy to understand. Compared with Xiaomi Router 3, Xiaomi Router 3C has shrunk in terms of QOS. This may be due to the reduced performance of the processor, which only provides simple QOS switches, but no custom settings. For some well-known reasons, the QOS of the system is generally weak. It is more reliable to manually set the network allocation and priority when multiple people use it, I hope Xiaomi will add this function in the subsequent firmware update.
Of course, as a positioning "smart" router, users can set and expand more functions by installing a mobile app. In the mobile app, users can not only view the current connected devices, but also make relevant settings for each connected device. Customized functions such as access panel indicators and Internet scene optimization can also be set directly through mobile phones, Very convenient operation.
The popular functions such as security center, anti scratch network, channel detection and so on are also available. The anti scratch network function of MIWIFI system is still relatively strong through small editing test, and it is almost impossible to break through general methods. Although channel detection optimization is not as accurate as manual testing and adjustment, But it can also provide Xiaobai with a good network environment (unfortunately, there is no 5G). In terms of plug-ins, I don't know whether they can't be installed due to firmware problems. It's a pity.
3: Summary
As a router product with traffic positioning, Xiaobian is disappointed, not that it is bad, but that it is too popular and has nothing to show. The hardware performance has just reached the standard, the lack of 5G frequency band in WiFi, and the lack of MIWIFI functions compared with other big brothers all make the small editor feel its charm. The only advantage is that the attractive appearance settings and MIWIFI system are relatively simple and easy to use compared with traditional router manufacturers, and the positioning of 99 yuan is similar to that of the Xiaomi router mini, which is our big brother, but its function and hardware are not as good as that of our big brother, which is quite embarrassing. To put it simply, if you use it yourself and the device can only connect to the 2.4G band, the Xiaomi router 3C will be a good choice. Otherwise, Xiaobian recommends that you choose the Xiaomi router mini, which will be more reliable.
