As the backbone of home network, router plays an important role in home gateway. When users choose routers, they often encounter such problems. Because various router manufacturers emerge in endlessly, they do not know how to choose a satisfactory router. Next, the author will select two router brands that are highly concerned in the current market to deeply analyze who is the product with both performance and cost performance.
Recently, there are hot topics in the router market. One is the "gem mine" of newifi's new route, which leads to high profits. The other is that the Xiaomi router has launched a thousand yuan machine. What is everyone's attitude towards these hot events?
"Gem mine" is a function supported by the router under Newifi New Route. Since the daily mining rate directly affects the revenue, most of the online discussions are expecting the official opening of high rate activities. The news of Xiaomi's new product has attracted the attention of many users who are interested in purchasing routers, and many Xiaomi fans are also enthusiastic about creating momentum for it.
In view of such users' voice, the author respectively learned about several routers of these two brands, and selected two routers with lower prices (the newifi new route 2 with a price of 299 yuan and the Xiaomi router Pro with a price of 499 yuan) to make a detailed comparison, so that we can know who has better cost performance.
From the router level, the new route 2 adopts the MT7620+MT7621A chip scheme, 256MB DDR3 memory, built-in 880MHz processor, and 8G C10 built-in TF card; In addition to the basic functions of the intelligent router, it also provides the mining function of "gem mine" and the function of searching and downloading all the network Blu ray videos for free. Xiaomi Router Pro adopts MT7621A chip scheme, 512MB DDR3 memory, built-in 880MHz processor, and no hard disk storage; On the basis of supporting other basic functions, it also supports album backup and MU-MIMO.
In terms of hard configuration conditions, Xiaomi Router Pro is slightly better than New Router 2. After all, price is an important factor in determining the product; Xiaomi Router Pro has more memory than the new router 2. The larger memory is indeed more valuable for some users with special purposes. However, if the memory size has nothing to do with the router signal, users will not feel the difference in memory size if they do not use the memory.
In terms of software functions, the price gap does not seem to make Xiaomi Router Pro better than New Route 2. Although Xiaomi Router Pro supports MU-MIMO technology, many users mentioned that ordinary users' families generally do not have multiple computers downloading at the same time with high load, so MU-MIMO technology has no great practical significance for most families. The mining function of "gem mine" supported by the new route 2 is not available in the Xiaomi router Pro. It is understood that the mining users of "gem mine" have been growing at a high speed. The "Gem Mine" collects the idle bandwidth shared by users and then uses it. Users contribute idle bandwidth and obtain corresponding income, and withdraw cash through WeChat red envelope and WeChat transfer.
Next, we will take apart the new router 2 and Xiaomi router Pro to show you the details:
In appearance, the two routers are very different, especially the antenna design; The new route 2 adopts a quasi flat antenna, which combines the characteristics of the flat directional antenna and the rod omnidirectional antenna, and transmits wireless signals in the way that the flat plate is tilted; From the user feedback, the user generally responded well to this antenna design. Xiaomi Pro adopts the layout design of four external antennas on the same side. In the eyes of users who have some knowledge of router technology, this is a design method with great problems; In the field of routing technology, it is generally recognized that there is interference in signals of the same frequency band, and the farther the distance is, the better the effect will be. The distance between the same frequency antennas of the Xiaomi Router Pro is about 10cm, and the distance between the antennas of the 2.4GHz band and the 5GHz band is only about 4cm. This is a relatively short distance design in the industry. There is interference problem in the same frequency band signals, especially between different frequencies.
After the panel is removed, the huge heat sink of Xiaomi Router Pro is very eye-catching. At the same time, it also makes the author puzzled. Why does Xiaomi adopt such an unscientific heat sink design? General users may think that the heat sink is large, the material is sufficient, and the heat dissipation effect is good, but is that really the case? The answer is no.
(Schematic diagram: heat sink and main board form a confined space, which is not conducive to heat dissipation)
(Schematic diagram: too high heat dissipation scale end is difficult to conduct heat, which is not conducive to heat dissipation)
In terms of engineering, the configuration of such a large volume of heat sink is a design that wastes materials; As for the heat sink of Xiaomi Router Pro, the gap between the large volume heat sink and the main board is very small, forming a closed and narrow confined space, which is not conducive to heat dissipation; On the other hand, the height of the heat sink is not the higher the better, but to seek a scientific balance between the thickness and height of the scale. Too high the scale will lead to difficulties in heat conduction in the front end, which will affect the heat dissipation effect; Therefore, large volume and high scale are not conducive to heat dissipation. In contrast, the cooling design of new route 2 is in line with the standard. There are heat sinks on the main board and on the upper and lower parts of the shell. The overall body size is moderate, and it works with the surrounding cooling holes. As far as the current use is concerned, the new route 2 has a good cooling effect.
Different designs of heat sinks have different impacts. Since the heat sink of Xiaomi Router Pro is overfilled, there is no space to install a hard disk. Therefore, Pro does not provide a hard disk interface. Without considering the use of USB interface to connect external hard disks, Xiaomi Router Pro has only 512MB of memory, which seems inferior to the storage space of 256MBDDR3+8GTF of the new route.
Next, we will focus on the performance of these two routers.
(New Route 2 is configured with 4 external PA chips, and Xiaomi Router Pro has no external PA chips)
The signal capability of the router is generally related to the external PA (signal amplifier), antenna gain and layout mode. We have analyzed the antenna layout problem in the previous article. Therefore, in the process of observing the router motherboard, the external PA settings of the two routers are the focus of our attention. External PA will have a great impact on signal strength, signal penetration capability, signal coverage, etc. The new route 2 has two external 2.4G PAs and two external 5G PAs, but the Xiaomi router Pro has no external PAs, which surprised the author. From the point of view of the lack of PA configuration alone, it seems that we can already predict how the signaling capability of the Xiaomi Router Pro will bring users.
When the new Xiaomi Router Pro product was launched, it claimed that the maximum transmission rate could reach 2533Mbps, while the maximum transmission rate of the new route 2 could reach 1200Mbps. Let's use the actual test data to see whether the Xiaomi Router Pro can far exceed the new route 2 of the previous generation product.
Data transmission speed test:
Copy speed comparison, taking 3.58G movie as the object. (The default ProUSB interface of Xiaomi router is 2.0)
Write speed:
Reading speed:
From the above test on the copying speed of the USB2.0 interface, it can be seen that the copying speed of the new route 2 is obviously better than that of the Xiaomi router Pro for a 3.58G movie.
Next, we will open the USB 3.0 interface of Xiaomi Pro again for reading and writing tests.
Xiaomi Pro USB3.0 Write Speed Xiaomi Pro USB3.0 Read Speed
After the Xiaomi Pro USB3.0 interface is enabled, the copying speed does increase.
Signal strength test: mobile phone terminal
Note: The larger the negative number is, the lower the signal strength is (for example, the number of - 45 is less than the number of - 82, and the signal strength of - 82dBm is less than - 45dBm).
The test data on the mobile phone side shows that the 2.4G signal strength of the new route 2 is stronger than that of the Xiaomi Router Pro, while the 5G signal strength is slightly weaker than that of the Xiaomi Router Pro, and the gap between the two is small, which is generally not felt by users in actual use.
Signal strength test: computer terminal
The test data on the computer side shows that there is little difference in the signal strength between the two routers, which can be said to be basically the same.
Throughput test
In the throughput test, WIFI-LAN， The data of the new route 2 is slightly better than that of the Xiaomi Router Pro, while in LAN WIFI, the data of the Xiaomi Router Pro is better than that of the new route 2. The difference between the two is very small. Similarly, in daily use, this difference can be completely ignored.
After some testing, we concluded that the actual signal capacity of the Xiaomi Router Pro, which boasts a transmission rate of 2533Mbps, is basically the same as that of the new Route 2, which is priced at 299 yuan. However, it is slightly inferior to the new Route 2 of the old generation in terms of the storage capacity of the body itself. It can also be seen why the public is critical of the new Xiaomi router Pro, which costs 499 yuan. Instead, the public likes the new router 2, which has been around for more than a year.
As consumers, we should use every penny in our hands more rationally, and promote the healthy development of the market while safeguarding our own rights and interests.
