With practically every major brand releasing its own Wi-Fi 6 products, it has been the buzzword this year. But simply purchasing a new Wi-Fi 6 phone and leaving it at that doesn’t make sense if your home router supports it. After all, your phone can’t beam a Wi-Fi 6 signal on its own – it must receive that from a Wi-Fi 6 router!
While the market has already started getting flooded with Wi-Fi 6 routers, Huawei recently launched the HUAWEI AX3 Router that supports Wi-Fi 6 Plus. But what does this “Plus” refer to?
Buy Link: https://amzn.to/3oq8K3W
At first glance
The HUAWEI AX3 (Dual-Core Band Wi-Fi 6 Plus) Router with an all-white exterior is extremely comfortable on the eye and fits in perfectly in any home. The quad-antenna design is a classic approach, clean but also vaguely futuristic.
On the top surface, the rounded key with the H-shaped symbol serves as a pairing button for the router and other Huawei products. The four foldable antennas certainly make a distinct impression, seeming to indicate its rock-steady and reliable nature. A conspicuous, iconic silver Wi-Fi 6 Plus logo is a visual representation of the advanced wireless network capabilities.
Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 6 Plus
Wi-Fi 6 is the latest generation in wireless communication technology and features marked improvements from Wi-Fi 5 standard. Wi-Fi 6 boosts network speed, capacity, and energy efficiency, while reducing latency and enhancing connection stability when a bunch of devices are on the same network.
However, Huawei’s Wi-Fi 6 Plus is based on the powerful Wi-Fi 6 standard but includes further performance optimizations credited to proprietary Gigahome Wi-Fi 6 chips. Wi-Fi 6 Plus boosts the speed for individual devices and penetrates walls or other obstructions more easily without being significantly weakened.
The HUAWEI AX3 series routers are the first product line to feature the latest Wi-Fi 6 Plus technology.
HUAWEI Wi-Fi AX3 Router: Specs
The standard AX3 dual-core edition offers a 160 MHz frequency bandwidth and can hence reach up to a speed of 3000 Mbps. Enjoy an unhampered streaming and gaming experience with OFDMA, short for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access – that allows multiple devices to share the same channel. The HUAWEI AX3 supports simultaneous transmissions of four devices over the 2.4 GHz frequency, or 16 devices over 5 GHz, or up to 128 devices on two ranges together.
HUAWEI AX3 router also reduces power consumption by 30% as it negotiates wake-up time among the connected devices to abstain from consuming power while waiting or on standby.
HUAWEI Wi-Fi AX3 Router: Speed and coverage
With Wi-Fi 6 Plus, HUAWEI AX3 routers come with 160 MHz bandwidth, a major improvement over the 80 MHz offered under Wi-Fi 5. Huawei’s solution also facilitates reliable signal beaming from a Huawei Wi-Fi 6-supporting phone to the router, via Dynamic Narrow Bandwidth, automatic network slicing and chipset collaboration. This framework boosts the power spectral density to ensure that the phone’s data reaches the router as intended, ultimately enabling the Wi-Fi signal to bust through an additional wall and deliver robust internet for everyone in your household, regardless of which room they are in.
The AX3’s backward compatibility with Wi-Fi 5 makes it all the more versatile, allowing Wi-Fi 5 supporting Huawei phones to tap into the 160 MHz of channel bandwidth as well. You can rest assured that your older devices will still benefit from the unique Wi-Fi 6 attributes!
HUAWEI Wi-Fi AX3 Router in action
An impromptu test with the HUAWEI AX3 router revealed a download speed of 1,498 Mbps and upload speed of 1,594 Mbps, with a mere 2.82ms latency. This is a major upgrade from a Wi-Fi 5 router which usually maxes out at 369 Mbps for downloads and dropped precipitously to 182 Mbps behind a wall. But now, with the HUAWEI AX3, the connection is still a more-than-sufficient 282 Mbps with a wall in between.
Setting up a HUAWEI Wi-Fi AX3 Router
Plug the router in, connect its WAN port to your modem, then download and open the AI Life app, and follow the on-screen instructions – that’s it. While doing this, there’ll be an option to sync the broadband account name and password from the old router, a lifesaver for someone like me, who has trouble keeping track of that information!
If you live in a large home and are worried that one router won’t be able to cover every room, get two AX3 routers by all means, or even three – or if your old Wi-Fi 5 router is also a Huawei product, re-use it by linking it up with the new AX3 – to form an expansive mesh network under a single Wi-Fi name. Then as you move around in the house, the optimal channel will be intelligently chosen for you based on your real-time location, maintaining a stable signal on your phone.
The AI Life app is great for router management, in case you want to check its/their status or have a specific need that requires customized settings – such as activating an accelerated network channel for live remote learning or gaming, setting daily screen time limits for children, or configuring guest Wi-Fi.
Takeaway
It’s time to upgrade from the frequent video buffering, gameplay stuttering or network dropping. If your home has the same networking issues, and houses a dozen or more smart devices, all of which are hungry for a smooth connection, you owe it to them to take a long, hard look at Wi-Fi 6, or Wi-Fi 6 Plus (and the AX3 router)!
Buy Link: https://amzn.to/3oq8K3W
Huawei Store: https://amzn.to/3v7E3EJ
