ASUS ZenWIFI AX Mini is a small brother of ZenWIFI AX XT8 “RT-AX95Q” router with combined dual-band speed up to 1800Mbps of 802.11ax “WIFI 6 standard”, by which, in general, faster than the old 802.11ac generation wireless standards. As an entry level router in an AC generation router, the XD4 include some premium features such as Smart Connect, AiProtection Classic and AiMesh.

Highlighted Features

• VPN Server and VPN Client.
• SmartQoS
• Ai Mesh
• Ai Protection Classic

Comparison of ZenWIFI AX & ZenWIFI AX Mini

	2.4Ghz	5Ghz	5Ghz-2	USB Support	AX Support	160Mhz Channel	LAN Ports	Ai Protection
ZenWIFI AX	574Mbps	1201Mbps	4804Mbps	Yes	Yes	Yes	4	Professional
ZenWIFI AX Mini	574Mbps	1201Mbps	No	No	Yes	No	2	Classic

Purchase
ZenWIFI AX Mini 2 packs – $329 Black and White Lazada & Hachi
ZenWIFI AX Mini 3 packs – $429 Black and White Lazada & Hachi

Specification

Model	ZenWIFI AX Mini XD4
CPU	Broadcom BCM6755 – 1.5Ghz Quad cores ARM-A7
SPI chipset	Macronix MX30LF1G18AC-TI – 128Mb
RAM	Nanya NT5CC256M16ER-EK – 256Mb DDR3 1866mhz
Ethernet	1 WAN / 1 GbE BCM6755
2.4Ghz	2T 2R up to 574Mbps [Support MU-MIMO
5Ghz	2T 2R up to 1201Mbps [Support MU-MIMO]
Operation mode	Router / Access point / Ai Mesh

The XD4 look mini design of ZenWIFI AX, but the hardware similar to RT-AX55 budget router.

The XD4 is a Wi-Fi 6 system that uses the latest 802.11ax technology. As such it supports WPA3 encryption, 1024 QAM, Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) data transmissions, 20/40/80 MHz bandwidth, MU-MIMO simultaneous data streaming, and direct to client signal beamforming. It’s a dual-band AX1800 system that can reach maximum data rates of up to 574Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 1201Mbps on 5GHz band. Each node is equipped with two internal antennas, a 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, and 128MB of SPI memory. The wireless standards are supported, including OFDA, MU-MIMO, beamforming, and the latest security standard of WPA3-personal, but lack of support 160Mhz channel. The router is also fully backward compatible to 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) and 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) devices.

On the bottom you have one Gigabit Ethernet ports along with a Gigabit WAN port, WPS, DC in and reset buttons.

Main Menu UI

Once the initial setup is complete, we can get into router Menu for more advance configuration. The router’s features are easily navigated via the left-hand panel.

We installed latest beta version to ensures that all the latest security updates are applied, along with bug fixes. For our testing, the XD4 was running firmware version 9.0.0.4.386.41994.

Security

The Asus ZenWIFI AX Mini includes a  number of security features, but it’s runs Ai Protection Classic so you will see lesser feature compare to Ai Protection Pro. Network Protection with Trend Micro can provide anti malware on a network level, for no additional charge. Also, malicious sites are blocked at the router to keep the entire network secure, but lack of Two-Way IPS protection.
[We have been placing this router as our main use to test the Ai Protection for 4 days and see the result below]

Performance/ Benchmark Testing

We tested the Router directly using Speedtest on WAN to Internet directly.

When it comes to wireless bandwidth, the Asus ZenWIFI AX Mini performed quite well. We test routers in three location a “Living room” location, “Computer room” and also at a “Bedroom” location. The bandwidth test uses Speedtest, Netflix, cloudflare and internal file transfer to benchmark the performance, with a Wi-Fi 6 client. For the latter, we have a laptop ASUS Zenbook UX435EGL with an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz wireless adapter on latest driver, set to use the widest 80 MHz channel width on the 5 GHz frequency.

We will test three difference location using ASUS Zenbook UX435EGL and out internet service provider is M1 – 1Gbps. Please take note that our testing is using “Smartconnect” technology on 5Ghz bandwidth.

• Location “A” Living room
• Location “B” Computer room “Disable/Enable mesh node”
• Location “C” Master room “Disable/Enable mesh node”

 

Cloudflare speedtest

Cloudflare Speedtest
Location	Download	Upload	Latency	Jitter
Living Room	447Mbps	454Mbps	5.32ms	1.25ms
Computer Room “With Mesh”	479Mbps	612Mbps	6.22ms	3.27ms
Computer Room “Without Mesh”	306Mbps	175Mbps	5.51ms	2.81ms
Master Room “With Mesh	290Mpbs	200Mbps	6.89ms	2.89ms
Master Room “Without Mesh”	314Mpbs	241Mbps	4.95ms	2.35ms

Netflix speedtest

Netflix Speedtest
Location	Download	Upload
Living Room	690Mbps	520Mbps
Computer Room “With Mesh”	630Mbps	710Mbps
Computer Room “Without Mesh”	330Mpbs	180Mbps
Master Room “With Mesh	310Mpbs	180Mbps
Master Room “Without Mesh”	260Mpbs	88Mbps

Ookla speedtest – M1 Server

Ookla Speedtest
Location	Download	Upload	Ping
Living Room	549.06Mbps	545.09Mbps	4ms
Computer Room “With Mesh”	588.85Mbps	710.45Mbps	3ms
Computer Room “Without Mesh”	418.53Mpbs	302.58Mbps	4ms
Master Room “With Mesh	276.23Mbps	196.11Mbps	3ms
Master Room “Without Mesh”	313.51Mpbs	152.40Mbps	3ms

Internal Transfer speed to ASUSTOR AS6204T – 3Gb file

Internal Transfer speed
Location	Download	Upload
Living Room	617.61Mbps	282.45Mbps
Computer Room “Without Mesh”	391.24Mpbs	169.65Mbps
Master Room “Without Mesh”	308.81Mpbs	116.17Mbps