Performance test Xiaomi MI AloT AC2350

Today, our workshop has been equipped with a Xiaomi AloT AC2350 router. The product has been equipped with as many as seven antennas - one of them is an AloT antenna which detects Xiaomi accessories available in our home. The device provides data transmission up to almost 2200Mbps, and thanks to MU-MIMO technology the router guarantees high performance of wireless connection. The Xiaomi AC2350 works with Wi-FI 5 and runs on a Qualcomm QCA9563 SoC processor, and 128MB of RAM allows to connect up to 128 devices simultaneously. All this sounds promising, but is it really so? Let's find out.

As we mentioned earlier, the device has been equipped with seven external MU-MIMO antennas, guaranteeing stable connection. A built-in AloT antenna automatically detects and connects to Xiaomi devices within the Smart Home system located in the building with one click. On the front of the Xiaomi AloT AC2350 you will find two LEDs - one to operate the device, the other to verify the Internet connection. At the back of the device there is a reboot hole, power connector and four ports, where one of them is a WAN port and the other three are LAN ports, each of them is gigabit. Thanks to the two-channel technology 2.4 GHz (450Mbps) and 5 GHz (1733Mbps) the router is able to reach a speed of up to 2183 Mbps.

The asian manufacturer Xiaomi is well known for the good quality of its equipment and it is no different in this case. Xiaomi MI AloT AC2350 is made of black matte plastic, which is perfectly assembled. We will not see any gaps, loosening or other typical problems with this type of devices. It is also worth noting the large number of ventilation holes, which are located both on the top of the router casing and on the bottom of the device. AC2350 is very well cooled and has not exceeded room temperature even once during the test.

Turning to the specifications, it is important to mention the Qualcomm QCA9563 SoC chipset, which is responsible for data transfer for both Gigabit Ethernet ports and dual band Wi-Fi. The built-in 128MB of RAM allows you to connect up to 128 devices simultaneously while maintaining stable data transmission for each device. Thanks to 5GHz (2183Mbps) and 2.4GHz (450Mbps) dual channel technology, the router is able to reach a data transfer rate of up to 2183Mbps.

The router's installation and configuration process is quick and intuitive. After connecting the network cable to the WAN connector, a Wi-FI network appears, to which you should connect. If you are using a desktop or laptop, the network interface should turn on automatically in our browser. Then you should go through a few simple installation steps.

• Select a language
• Select your region
• Set a password for the Wi-Fi network

If everything has been done correctly, the lights on the router will change to blue.

* If the network interface does not appear, enter the following IP address in your browser: 192.168.31.1 or 192.168.28.1.

After installing and logging in to the admin panel, you gain access to all settings. The main menu is divided into five sections:

• The first section contains general information about the router, here you can change the network name and password.
• The second section is responsible for changing the connection type, WAN port speed and MAC address.
• In the security section you will find login information or password change to the settings panel.
• The fourth section is the local network point.
• The last section is responsible for language changes and software updates.

The Xiaomi MI AloT AC2350 router can also be configured using the mobile MI-FI application, available for Android and iOS smartphones. Installation and configuration procedure is exactly the same as above.

WARNING: After the first run, we recommend that you upgrade to the latest version of the router software.

Besides, Xiaomi has prepared a very pleasant application that has all the functions of the web interface. On the main screen we can immediately see which devices are connected to the network, we can also create a network for guests, look at the current speed and perform a speed test.

The purpose of the tests is to verify the network coverage in terms of signal coverage of all rooms, as well as to verify the real speed available in the building. Due to the lack of possibility to configure the width of channels on which the Mi AIoT AC2350 radio works, it should be assumed that for 2.4GHz frequency it is 40MHz, and for 5GHz it is 80MHz.

The testing device was the MacBook Pro A1502, equipped with a built-in AirPort Extreme wireless card (Broadcom BCM4360 3x3, 1.3 Gbps PHY) working in the 802.11a/b/g/n/ac standards.

Before the speed tests we verified the maximum performance of the LAN and iperf3 server. We obtained the following maximum speeds for a single TCP stream:

• Download:894Mbps
• Upload:958Mbps

We also did speed tests with WiFiPerf

Speed test

Download 736Mbps

Upload 741Mbps

Download 578Mbps

The tested device started to cause problems when the router was loaded with Wi-Fi traffic above 100Mbps. The WEB interface and Wi-Fi application stopped connecting to the router even on the second band. This is most likely due to a problem with radio interface responsiveness at higher load. Problems also occur when connecting to the device on another radio band (a decrease on 5GHz and a new connection on 2.4GHz).

Enabling the "Smart Connect" function, i.e. transmitting of 2.4GHz and 5GHz together under the same SSID in a few test moments led to limiting the network throughput from 600-700Mbps to 160-250Mbps. A restart of the router solved this problem.

Upload 508Mbps

Download 493Mbps

Upload 400Mbps

Download 373Mbps

Upload 275Mbps

Download 32Mbps

Upload 20Mbps

Download 100Mbps

Upload 81Mbps

Measurement with a radio analyzer

The measurement with a radio spectrum analyzer came out very well. It can be seen that the manufacturer has narrowed the actual channel on which the device operates with maximum power in order to improve its characteristics.

Signal coverage map

We used the AirSurvey software to map the signal. To read the signal levels correctly please pay attention to the color legend at the bottom of the picture. The AccessPoint location is marked with an appropriate icon. The device on "ground floor" was connected to the switch via Ethernet 1Gbps port.

I must admit that Xiaomi AC2350 is a really good choice for those looking for a solid wireless network at a small price. The Xiaomi MI AloT AC2350 is definitely dedicated to users who have devices connected to the Xiaomi Smart Home system in their home. With its built-in AloT antenna, the router automatically detects Xiaomi devices such as sockets, switches or lights and adds them to the management list. Such a design allows for quick and easy control of intelligent devices in our home. It is also worth mentioning the high performance of 5GHz, which reaches even over 700 Mbps of real bandwidth in TCP packets with Wireless PHY1300. The signal coverage of the whole house is also surprisingly good.

Disadvantages:

• No Polish on the package.
• The WEB software does not include a router interface in Polish.
• The mobile application was written partly in English and partly in Chinese.
• With a high load of the radio network at 5GHz (over 350Mbps), the mobile application and the WEB application cannot download data from the router correctly (using 2.4GHz).
• The QoS setting on a single device in not very precise although it does limit speed.
• Larger load on one WiFi client (e.g. 5GHz band with transmission > 100Mbps) may limit the ability to connect to clients on 2.4GHz/5GHz.

The advantages

• First configuration of the router's interface works like a HotSpot service.
• LAN/WAN ports in 1Gbps standard.
• Mobile application - communication and terms and conditions in Polish.
• One Xiaomi cloud account allows you to log in to multiple portals (Mi WiFi / Mi Smart Home etc).
• Ability to set limits via mobile application.