Specifications, Performance, Signal Coverage

First, let’s cover the Xiaomi Mi WiFi Router 2 1TB specifications:

• Wireless standards: Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 802.3/3u/3ab
• Maximum transfer speed: 2,4GHz max 300Mbps / 5GHz max 867 Mbps
• Interfaces: single USB 2.0 port (5V 1A power output), 1x gigabit WAN port, 3x gigabit LAN ports
• Wireless security: WPA-PSK / WPA2-PSK Encryption, wireless access control (blacklist), hidden SSID
• CPU: BCM4709C Cortex-A9 Dual-core 1.4GHz
• RAM: 256MB DDR3-1600
• ROM: 512MB SLC NAND Flash
• HDD: 1TB 3.5-inch
• Supported USB modes: external drive / printer / 3G-modem
• Supported platforms: Web, iOS, Android, Windows
• Dimensions: 18.4 cm x 16.9 cm x 13.1 cm
• Weight: 1264g

You can check out the full Xiaomi Mi WiFi Router 2 spec on the official product site.

We decided to compare the performance and signal coverage between the Xiaomi router and the D-Link AC750 (2,4GHz @ 300Mbps/5GHz @ 433 Mbps) router that was already installed at the test location.

Router bandwidth was tested using a desktop PC with an Asus PCE-AC68 AC1900 Wi-Fi adapter as a client and another PC connected to the gigabit LAN port on the router.

Of course, being an AC1200 spec router, we expected the Xiaomi to double D-Link's performance on the 5GHz band, but Xiaomi was even better. We got similar results on the 2.4GHz front, proving that the Xiaomi router is a very potent piece of kit.

The Wi-Fi signal strength was measured at two specific locations and results are compared on the following graphs:

Surprisingly, we got better signal coverage with the tested Xiaomi router in every scenario we tried against the D-Link router, at both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Even one floor below or above the router signal levels were acceptable on the 2.4GHz band.

Also as an illustration, we measured the bandwidth again at our second signal strength test location and we got 101Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 198Mbps on the 5GHz band. This just shows that the 5GHz band suffered a 40% decrease in bandwidth at this location, and the 2.4GHz band performance was virtually unaffected at 11 meters and two 20cm brick walls away from the router.

Overall, the new Xiaomi router exceeded our expectations in both bandwidth and signal coverage.