Asus ZenWIFI AX Mini XD5 Review: A welcome upgrade

At a glance

Expert assessment

Advantages

• Stylish & compact
• Good performance and range
• Lots of features

cons

• Not the easiest to manage
• Backhaul sometimes drops out
• Only two wired network ports on each node

Our verdict

Asus’ new mini-mesh is clearly better in the most important things than its predecessor. It can be challenging to get the most out of the router with its many features and inconsistent interface, but once you get the hang of it, it’s worth it.

Price at review

$130 (1 pack), $220 (3 pack)

Best prices today: Zenwifi AX Mini XD5

The main advantage of Wi-Fi 6 over Wi-Fi 5 is range. Simply put, a Wi-Fi 6 router can maintain high-speed communications with a range that is 40 to 50 percent greater than a Wi-Fi 5 router. And this makes Wi-Fi 6 mesh packages particularly interesting. You could get by in a bigger house with a two-pack instead of three or more nodes. Less hassle to set up and cheaper.

However, Asus didn’t seem to understand this. With the ZenWIFI AX Mini XD4 I tested in early 2022, you get all the other Wi-Fi 6 benefits: high top speed, increased security in a stylish and feature-rich little router, but only about 50 feet of range per node while keeping acceptable speeds persist.

Asus has solved this in the successor: the ZenWIFI AX Mini XD5.

Now I can place a second node two rooms away from the main unit and still get stable wireless backhaul speeds of over 200 Mbps, so you can download, browse, and stream in high definition without any issues. The top speed of a laptop with 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 in ideal conditions, about ten feet from the router in the same room, is still around 800Mbps over 5GHz.

Mattias Inge

More bandwidth, but not faster

When configuring the system, you can choose between a single SSID for 2.4 and 5 GHz, or split them up and choose which devices you want to connect to from each. Since the 2.4 GHz bandwidth is limited to just over half a gigabit, it might be a good idea to keep them separate, connect your smart home gadgets to the slower frequency, and then connect computers and phones at 5 GHz, where you have more bandwidth to work with.

Not much more: this is a dual-band AX3000 system with 2400 Mbps bandwidth for devices and the mesh system itself for sharing. This is an increase over the ZenWIFI AX Mini XD4 which only had 1,200Mbps at 5GHz. So if the old model was suitable for one or two people in a two-room apartment, the ZenWIFI AX Mini XD5 can be considered suitable for two to three people in three to five rooms. Maybe even a balcony or terrace, if you put the second node in the best position. Asus claims 3500 square feet of coverage for the XD5 two-pack and 5000 square feet for the three-pack.

During a week-long test where I used two XD5 devices as my main home Wi-Fi network, things generally went well. A few times the backhaul between the nodes was interrupted and the system had to reconnect, which happened automatically, but took about two minutes. A bit annoying, but not a big deal. When this happened I was able to connect to the main router (further away) and continue surfing albeit at a slower speed.

While testing with a Wi-Fi 6E equipped laptop, I measured a speed of 820 Mbps at a distance of 3 meters from the main node: about what you’d expect from a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 system at this price point . And the range is about 20 meters (with two interior walls between the laptop and the node) to maintain a minimum of 200 Mbps.

Mattias Inge

Same shape, new color

A two-pack of the XD5 costs £213 from Amazon, and a three-pack is £315. In the US, they’re much more affordable, with Amazon selling the pack of three for $219.99. You can’t easily find the two-pack on sale.

It’s also sold as a single unit, in case you want to add additional coverage later. Think carefully about what you need, though, because you save a lot by buying the right amount from the start, rather than getting loose extras and then expanding.

The XD5 units retain the compact design of the XD4: cubes with rounded sides, with all external dimensions less than 100 mm / 4 inches, two gigabit network ports below, one of which can be used for a WAN connection (usually to main unit to your existing router) and a discreet LED at the bottom of the front. The XD5 is available in both white and black of the XD4. There are now also brackets on the bottom, making them easy to mount on the wall, something that is not possible with the XD4.

Functionally, the XD5 offers the same rich feature set as the XD4. That means you get both a VPN server and a VPN client, granular QoS control, parental controls with scheduling and content filtering for the kids, versatile guest networking capabilities, and Trend Micro’s built-in lifetime virus monitoring. These are the kind of features that other vendors charge extra for, but Asus doesn’t.

Mattias Inge

Setting it all up and managing it can be a challenge. You can do a lot through the Asus app, with more detailed network and Wi-Fi settings than many competitors, but full control sometimes requires you to log into the much messier web interface. But it’s worth exploring and getting familiar with it so you can get the most out of the system.

Specifications

Product name: Asus Zenwifi AX Mini XD5 2 pack
Wireless protocols: Wi-Fi 6
frequency band: 2.4GHz + 5GHz
Performance: 574 + 2400 Mbit/s
Connections per device: 1 gigabit WAN/LAN, 1 gigabit LAN
Wireless Security: WPA/WPA2, WPA3, WPS
Speed, 3m*: 820 Mbit/sec
Reach per unit**: 20 meters
File server/write server: No no
Other: guest network, parental controls, qos, antivirus, vpn server and client, Alexa and IFTTT support
User environment: Web application
Remote management: With app
Dimensions. antennas: 9 x 9 x 8 cm

* Measured on the main unit of the system facing the laptop with 2×2 Wi-Fi 6E
** Longest distance, including two interior walls, where a new mesh node is needed to maintain a minimum surfing speed of 200 Mbit/s.