Since Xiaomi entered the router market, the router is no longer the network device hiding in the corner. Now the Internet brand has turned the router into a work of art, which is a very good decoration anywhere in the home. Just a year later, people are no longer satisfied with having a router with a fashionable appearance. People want more attribute bonuses for routers. In this environment, Youku released the latest generation router X2. It not only has a fashionable and thin appearance, but more importantly, its antenna is made of gold-plated material, and its antenna signal is stronger, At the same time, it also inherits the important feature of Youku Routing - making money. The launch of this router is bound to cause tons of damage to other brands of routers. Before a new round of war starts, let's let Xiaobian give you a hands-on experience of this router.

brief introduction

The biggest highlight of Youku Router X2 is the four gold plated antennas. According to the official announcement, the antenna has a smoother surface and stronger signal transmission capability after gold plating, so that X2 can achieve a stronger coverage area than ordinary routes. In terms of hardware, The CPU adopts MTK7620A of MediaTek with the main frequency of 580MHz, 16MB flash memory and 128MB memory; Four external omnidirectional antennas can provide 300Mbps 2.4G+867Mbps 5G gigabit wireless connection, and the wireless standard is IEEE 802.11ac/a/b/g/n. The host has one WAN interface, two LAN interfaces, and one USB 2.0 interface. In addition, X2 also supports remote operation of mobile APP "Routing Treasure", which means that X2 also has the function of "making money".

Packaging and appearance

In terms of packaging, the Internet is as simple as ever. The striking "AC1200" number on the front seems to remind you that it is a gigabit router. X2 function highlights are printed on the back of the box.

Accessories: one X2 main body, one special power adapter, and one manual.

In terms of appearance, Youku RouteX2 still continues the simple and fashionable fresh style of the Internet brand. The slightly streamlined round shape has a strong visual impact. The front concave Youku "player" graphic logo is not processed in color, and is highly integrated with the entire design. The surface of the router is coated with matt matte, and it has the "baby like touch" that is often said by the mobile phone industry.

It may be that in order not to affect the overall beauty of the front, four power, 2.4G, 5G and cache LED status lights are designed on the front and side. The indicator lights can be set on the computer or mobile phone to turn on and off regularly or permanently. The light intensity is slightly dazzling at night. In addition, this cache indicator is a unique function of Youku Router. When watching Youku videos online with Youku Router, the router can cache video content in advance, and even low bandwidth networks can have a smooth viewing effect. Since the broadband environment of the author's home in this test is 100M optical fiber, it is temporarily to experience the effect of the video buffer function.

The side of Youku router is also simple and round.

In addition to some general hardware information of the machine, the sticker on the back also includes the QR code for downloading Youku APP "Routing Treasure". In addition, as the only place for heat dissipation, the back of the fuselage is of course densely covered with a large number of heat dissipation holes. Unfortunately, Youku X2 has not designed a foot pad to support wall hanging. Does the design think that X2 is an ornament that should be placed on the table

Rear side of fuselage From left to right, DC power interface, USB2.0 interface, 2 LAN interfaces, WAN interface, reset hole. With regard to the USB 2.0 interface, the official has not given an explanation of the use method at present. I wonder whether it can only be used as a plug-in to expand space or can be connected to the hard disk as a LAN storage space in the future.

X2 The biggest feature of the four gold-plated antennas is that in order to highlight this feature, the official specially made a 1cm hole in the traditional closed antenna shell to reveal the gold-plated material inside.

It is understood that compared with all copper antenna and gold plated antenna, gold has the following four advantages: among all known metals, gold has the strongest conductivity; The antioxidant capacity of gold is significantly better than that of copper; The copper body surface is uneven, and the signal is easy to be damaged. The surface is smoother after gold plating. Based on the "skin effect" of the conductor surface, the high-frequency signal is transmitted centrally to the greatest extent; In the aviation field, golden antennas are used to transmit signals at vast heights.

In addition to the special material, the Youku router X2 is also very unique in shape. The four antennas can hover 90 ° forward and backward, and about 160 ° left and right. With the fashionable router body, the four antennas have different shapes, which is another versatile experience.

Computer interface

Youku Route X2 has a different style home page style from other Internet brand routers. The computer side home page of other routers is generally a very common display of routine data of various routers, and the most intuitive feature of Youku's home page is to reflect its other major feature "how much money you have made today". A wallet with gold coins in it is easy to make people feel motivated to make money. Such interface design will definitely make you have the impulse to log into the router control interface every day. We will explain how to make money later.

Other "Connection Settings", "WIFI Settings", "Device Management", and "More Settings" interfaces are simple, and users who first contact the router interface can quickly master them. In general, the PC end interface eliminates the complicated and difficult terms of the traditional router setting interface, and is very suitable for small white users who only use the router as an ordinary 30000 tools.

Mobile terminal interface

As the so-called smart router, it is also necessary to control the router function on the mobile phone. The mobile terminal control software of all Youku routers is unified as "Routing Treasure". The first impression of the login home page interface is that it is more brief than the computer end interface. The intuitive money bag on the computer end has disappeared. Instead, it is replaced by the more rigid words such as "how much profit today". The two "Personal" and "Share" menus on the left and right sides of the top of the home page are not very useful for normal use.

The other four function keys on the home page interface - speed measurement, gold coin exchange, WIFI analysis, anti scratch network, can respectively check the current router network speed and profitability; Products that can be exchanged with gold coins; What devices are currently connected to the router; Check and set the WIFI signal strength and other common functions around the phone.

If you need to set other detailed settings for the router, you must click the "Manage Routing Treasure" icon to log in to the router. Generally speaking, the interface is as rich as the computer setting interface, such as panel indicator light, signal strength, etc.

Characteristic function and test

First, let's talk about the test conditions:

Router: Youku router X2360 security router 5G version

Youku router firmware: 2.1.1026.16796

Width: Sichuan Telecom 100M optical fiber

Test mobile phone: All Netcom version Hongmi NOTE 2

Test computer: a laptop can only receive 2.4G WIFI signals, and a desktop computer with 2.4G and 5G dual frequency signal network cards.

House structure: brick concrete, with an area of 90 square meters

one signal intensity

The router signal test varies according to the use environment of each user. Therefore, the majority of people cannot see the effect of various tests on a single router. Therefore, this test uses the 360 security router 5G version to compare various projects.

Since the author's home is relatively neat, and this test is a comparison test, only two representative points are selected to compare the signals of the two routers. Point A is far from the router, and there is a load-bearing wall in the middle; Point B is located in the washroom, with a small space and two non load bearing walls for isolation.

A Point position 2.4G and 5G mobile terminal signal

First, let's take a look at the signal strength of the two routers at Point A for the Hongmi mobile phone. The green "Youku-AE70" waveform is Youku router X2, and the red "360" waveform is 360 security router 5G version. The 2.4G and 5G signals of the two routers at point A are all full in the cell phone notification bar. However, from the WIFI signal strength diagram of the test software, it can be seen that both 2.4G and 5G Youku Route X2 are slightly better than 360 routers.

B Point position 2.4G and 5G mobile terminal signal

Let's look at the signal performance of the two routers at Point B. Although there are two non load bearing walls at this time, the signals of the two routers are only slightly attenuated compared with point A. It can be seen from the signal status of the mobile notification bar that they are still full. At the same time, according to the test data of mobile phone software, Youku X2 is slightly better than 360 router.

two Signal strength stability

The desktop computer with dual band network card at point A is selected to test the stability of signal strength. In the above two figures, the green line represents Youku Route X2 in 2.4G status, and the blue line represents 360 router; In 5G status, blue represents Youku router X2, and white represents 360 route. From the long-term test of professional test software, it can be seen that the signal strength of Youku router is slightly higher than that of 360 router no matter in 2.4G or 5G state, but the signal fluctuation amplitude of X2 in 2.4G state is significantly more than twice that of 360 router. However, the fluctuation amplitude difference between the two is not big when the signal is 5G.

three TCP response time

TCP The response time test is similar to the built-in Ping command in Windows, which allows users to understand the time required for TCP communication with another computer. This measurement is generally called "delay" or "delay". This test also selects A, which is the same desktop computer with dual band network card. At the same time, a notebook with only 2.4G network card is placed beside it. The notebook sends test signals through the notes. After passing through two test routers, it reaches the desktop computer. Each router repeats the test 10 times, sending 10000 bytes of data packets each time. Test results show that the average time of 360 router is 25ms, and the maximum time is 155ms; The average time of Youku X2 is 7ms, and the longest time is 9ms. From the important data of average time, Youku router X2 is significantly better than 360 router by about three times, which means that there can be lower latency when playing games through computer connecting X2 via WIFI signal. Low latency means better game experience.

Summary of signal test: From the above three signal test items, Youku X2 is slightly better than 360 router in terms of other dual frequency signal strength, data delay, etc., except for 2.4G signal fluctuation items. Of course, 360 router has been put on the market for a long time, and the firmware is relatively stable. X2 has just been put on the market, and the firmware stability is still slightly poor. It is hoped that the X2 signal stability will be greatly improved through firmware upgrade in the later stage.

four Earning power

Maybe everyone is as concerned about Youku router as the author is about how it can make money and how much money it can make in one day. Here is the most important experience for the author.

Strictly speaking, Youku Router has three modes of making money, one is to earn "Youjin coins", the other is "advertising free". While earning premium coins can be divided into two types: "more for more work" and "fixed income". In general, there are three models. "More pay for more work" is suitable for users with higher bandwidth at home, while "fixed income" is obviously suitable for users with lower bandwidth.

First of all, let's talk about the role of Eugene. You can use it to exchange physical objects or cash at the Eugene Mall. However, according to the author's observation, physical objects can only be purchased with a small amount of Eugene and a certain amount of cash. For example, the computer bag in the above figure requires both 800 Eugene and 75 yuan, so the author feels that it is very difficult to exchange physical objects and does not recommend that you choose this one. Then look at the exchange of premium coins for cash. 8000 premium coins is equal to 20 yuan, and 1 premium coin is equal to 0.0025 yuan. In terms of the 100M bandwidth in my home, the radical mode can earn about 150 premium coins a day. Compared with 0.375 yuan a day, it can earn 11.25 yuan a month, and 136.875 yuan a year. I'm sure you have a good idea when you see here. In fact, Youku Router can only be regarded as a free gift. It's unrealistic to really make money on it. In addition, as for the problem that the moneymaking mode does not affect the network speed, it is also explained here that the amount of bandwidth occupied by the moneymaking mode is only about 10% according to the upload and download data of the router, which will not have any impact on watching movies and playing games.

After talking about the moneymaking mode, let's take a look at the advertising free mode. It can be seen from the official description that the advertising free is really just the advertising free of binding accounts, and does not provide other member type additional services. However, according to the actual experience of the author, after selecting the advertising free mode, in addition to the advertising free status when logging in to the account, there is also an additional "1080P" HD service available to members who can watch. The specific value of this mode depends on your needs.

summary

After a few days of use, there is still much room for improvement in the firmware of Youku router X2 in general, but it depends on the gold-plated gain antenna The PA+LNA module and other professional signal enhancement hardware still make it perform better than most routers in their own work - signal capability. In addition, X2 also has a fashionable and elegant appearance, which is equivalent to giving away the additional attributes of the router. As a router for home use, Youku router X2 is a product worth getting started with.

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