ASUS ZenWiFi AX Mini (XD4) Review – Cute and Small Mesh WiFi 6 System
3 Years
RM918
-Small Compact Size
-Mesh WiFi supported
-WiFi 6
-Ethernet Backhaul
-2 Ethernet Port
-Second LAN port will not work as normal port with IPTV settings
Do you like small and cute routers that would fit anywhere in the house? ASUS has you covered as the ASUS ZenWiFi AX Mini (XD4) is just the thing you need. Small yet delivers a good performance, who thoughts such a small size factor would perform reasonably good as other ASUS ZenWiFi product ZenWiFi AX Hybrid XP4 and ZenWiFi Pro XT12.
ASUS ZenWiFi AX Mini (XD4) Specifications
| Network Standard | IEEE 802.11a IEEE 802.11b IEEE 802.11g WiFi 4 (802.11n) WiFi 5 (802.11ac) WiFi 6 (802.11ax) IPv4 IPv6 |
| Data Rate | 802.11a : up to 54 Mbps 802.11b : up to 11 Mbps 802.11g : up to 54 Mbps WiFi 4 (802.11n) : up to 300 Mbps WiFi 5 (802.11ac) : up to 867 Mbps WiFi 6 (802.11ax) (2.4GHz) : up to 574 Mbps WiFi 6 (802.11ax) (5GHz) : up to 1201 Mbps |
| Antenna | Internal dual-band antenna x 2 |
| Transmit/Receive | MIMO technology 2.4GHz 2×2 5GHz 2×2 |
| Memory | 256 MB Flash, 256 MB RAM |
| Operating Frequency | 2.4 G Hz / 5 GHz |
| Ports | RJ45 for Gigabits BaseT for WAN/LAN x 1, RJ45 for Gigabits BaseT for LAN x1 |
| Buttons | WPS Button, Reset Button |
| Power Supply | AC Input : 110V~240V(50~60Hz) DC Output : 12 V with max. 1.5 A current |
| Package Content | Router (XD4R) RJ45 Ethernet cable Power adapter Quick start guide Warranty Card Router (XD4R) Node (XD4N) RJ45 Ethernet cable Power adapter Quick start guide Warranty Card |
| AiMesh | AiMesh : Yes Primary AiMesh router : Yes AiMesh node : Yes |
| Game | Game Boost/acceleration : No WTFast : No |
| IFTTT | Yes |
| AiProtection | AiProtection : AiProtection Classic Router Security Assessment : No Malicious site blocking : Yes Two-Way IPS : No Infected Device Prevention and Blocking : Yes |
| Traffic Control | Adaptive QoS : No Bandwidth Monitor : Yes Bandwidth limiter : Yes Traditional QoS : Yes Maximum Traditional QoS rule : 32 Traffic Monitor : No Real-time traffic monitor : Yes Wired Traffic Monitor : Yes Wireless Traffic Monitor : Yes Traffic Analyzer : No Website history : No |
| Wireless | IPv6 : Yes MU-MIMO : Yes Wi-Fi Encryption : WPA3-Personal, WPA/WPA2/WPA3-Personal, WPA/WPA2-Enterprise, WPS support UTF-8 SSID : Yes Guest Network : Yes Maximum Guest Network rule : 9 Guest Network Connection time limit : Yes WPS : Yes Wi-Fi MAC address filter : No Wireless scheduler : No Airtime fairness : No RADIUS Server : No Universal beamforming : No Explicit beamforming : No |
| WAN | Internet connection Type : PPPoE, PPTP, L2TP, Automatic IP, Static IP Dual WAN : No WAN Aggregation : No 3G/4G LTE dongle : No Android tethering : Yes Port forwarding : Yes Port triggering : Yes DMZ : Yes DDNS : Yes NAT Passthrough : Automatic IP, Static IP, PPPoE(MPPE supported), PPTP, L2TP Let’s Encrypt : Yes |
| LAN |
DHCP Server : Yes IGMP snooping : Yes IPTV : Yes LAN Link Aggregation : No Manually assign IP address : Yes Maximum manually assign IP address rule : 64 |
| VPN | VPN Client L2PT : Yes VPN Client OVPN : Yes VPN Client PPTP : Yes VPN Server IPSec : Yes VPN Server OVPN : Yes VPN Server PPTP : Yes VPN Fusion : No |
| USB Application | HDD hibernation : No Safely Remove disk : No AiCloud : No Download master : No AiDisk : No Media Server : No Time Machine : No Samba Server : No FTP Server : No Shared Folder privileges : No |
| Administration | Operating system : ASUSWRT Free OS upgrade : Yes Firewall : Yes Maximum Firewall keyword filter : 64 Maximum Firewall network service filter : 32 Maximum Firewall URL filter : 64 Wake on LAN (WOL) : Yes SSH : Yes Configuration backup and restore : Yes Diagnosis tools : Yes Feedback system : Yes System log : Yes |
| Dimensions (LxWxH) | 90 x 90 x 80 mm |
The ASUS ZenWiFi AX Mini (XD4) comes in a twin pack, where you will get 2 units of ZenWiFi AX Mini (XD4), giving you a whole Wi-Fi coverage for your home.
Look at how small the ZenWiFi AX Mini (XD4) is compare to my palm.
Other accessories included in the box are two power adapter with two different types of detachable pins and a LAN cable.
When it come to compact sizes of a product, there must be something to trade off. In the case of the ZenWiFi AX Mini (XD4), I/O ports only consists of two ports; 1 WAN/LAN and 1 LAN port.
For those who want a fully wireless network system, I don’t think there is much an issue as you can always add another Switch to make i[ for the lack of LAN ports on the ZenWiFi AX Mini (XD4). The problem is when you have an internet package that comes with IPTV, the LAN port will be reserved for the IPTV and the LAN port will not work as a normal, thus the functionality of the Ethernet Backhaul with Mesh System will not work.
Size comparison between ZenWiFi AX Hybrid (XP4) and ZenWiFi Pro XT12.
The main router and Unifi fiber connections are located in my room. My Unifi fiber comes with IPTV set-up box but I dont use it. My main desktop PC uses LAN (white cable) while the blue cable is for my secondary Access Point in the living room for mobile devices, TV, Astro and LAN network cable distributions to other rooms. with only one available LAN port on the ZenWiFi AX Hybrid (XP4), my desktop PC wont be able to connect to the XP4 but this can be simply solved with a Network Switch.
Problem: Unifi user with IPTV has the secondary LAN port reserved for IPTV and will not work as a normal LAN port.
Unifi User with IPTV
For those who are using Unifi with IPTV, when you select ISP profile Unifi-Home, your ZenWiFi AX Hybrid (XP4) LAN port will be reserved for IPTV. Simply connect your IPTV device to the second LAN port on the ZenWiFi AX Hybrid (XP4).
Unifi User Without IPTV
For Unifi user without IPTV, even you select the profile with Unifi-home setting, the second LAN port will not work as a normal LAN port. Even with custom VLAN settings, the LAN port still not able to use as normal, and this is something ASUS need to fix because with other ASUS routers, I have no issues with the IPTV LAN port working as a normal port.
In order to make the second LAN port to work, you have to use the Unifi-Business ISP profile even if you have a home Unifi package. This will make the second LAN port work as intended.
Wi-Fi Performance
The main Mesh node is located in my bedroom while the second node is in the kitchen.
Using my laptop with the ASUS USB-AX56 Wi-Fi 6 adapter in the same room with the main node, it is able to deliver the full speed of my internet plan.
Moving further away to my kitchen (connected to the main node), the performance starts to drop a little but still reasonable for gaming or streaming UHD Movies. The Wi-Fi signal here isn’t particularly good, which will affect the speed even more if there are more users hogging the connection.
In theory, if I connect my laptop to the second node of ZenWiFi AX Hybrid (XD4), I should get the full speed of my internet connection but when connected to the second node, the performance drops even more but I’m getting an excellent Wi-Fi signal which brings a good, stable connection.
Features
AiProtection by Trend MICRO is also included in the ZenWiFi AX Hybrid (XD4) but it lacks the Two-Way IPS System which is available only in the higher end routers.
Basic QoS is also available with standard traditional settings that you have to configure yourself as to which port and protocol to prioritize.
ASUS ZenWiFi AX Hybrid (XD4) Verdict
ASUS Zen Wi-Fi AX Mini (XD4) AX 1800 Dual-band Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System is a mid range product by ASUS at RM918 for a twin pack. It is an excellent product for a small network system with no more than 10 heavy users in a cute, compact size while still delivering reasonable speeds and Wi-Fi coverage. The downside here is the limitation of 2 LAN ports and only the basic features of protection, which is good enough for me.
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