GoKawiilChinese tech giant Huawei has lined up a magical-looking Wi-Fi 7 router featuring the world’s first "metal mesh crystal antenna" (machine translation) on Japanese crowdfunding site GreenFunding. As well as the glowing crystal mountain at the center of the design, the router boasts a ‘shark fin’ heat exhaust system. It might be the nearest a home tech appliance has yet got to the gadget holy grail of combining sharks and laser beams.
ルーターは「隠す」から「魅せる」へ。「HUAWEI WiFi Mesh X3 Pro」 - YouTube Watch On
The lighting of the router and the mesh nodes can be configured or automatically change according to the time of day. Touch controls on the devices allow quick visual adjustments. A partner app facilitates greater control.
You will have formed your own idea about the visual appeal of the new Huawei WiFi Mesh X3 Pro. Whatever your opinion of its glowing physical presence, it seems like a bold move for Huawei to promote a piece of tech that is usually hidden away into the limelight. Actually, moving the router out of a hidden corner, into a central ornamental statement piece, will probably be good for the Wi-Fi signal in your home.
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Beneath the “sophisticated amber glow,” the 10-inch (250mm) tall WiFi Mesh X3 Pro packs in some attractive technology. For example, it supports technologies such as "MLO", "4K-QAM", and "Multi-RU" to stretch its Wi-Fi 7 capabilities. There are also two 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports on the main unit. All this is driven by the custom Huawei Gigahome SoC.
To maintain the router’s throughput across its six high-performance antennas, the “Shark Fin Heat Exhaust System” comes into play. Huawei boasts it can prevent any thermal throttling affecting which could adversely affect long hours of online gaming or large data transfers.
Huawei has made a matching mesh node/satellite unit, which is included in some of the crowdfunder bundles. This is a truncated but complementary glowing design, again encouraging the owner not to deploy it in a hidden recess.
Swipe to scroll horizontally Model Huawei WiFi Mesh X3 Pro Product type Wi‑Fi 7 dual‑band mesh router (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz) Wireless standards IEEE 802.11be/ax/ac/n/a/g/b, 2×2 MIMO Max wireless rate Up to 688 Mbps (2.4 GHz) + 2882 Mbps (5 GHz), ~3.6 Gbps theoretical total CPU / platform Huawei Gigahome SoC with Wi‑Fi 7 optimisations Antennas Internal “crystal” antenna structure (no external antennas) Ports (main unit) 1× 2.5 Gbps WAN, 1× 2.5 Gbps LAN Mesh support Multi‑node mesh (main + satellite units, seamless roaming) Security WPA/WPA2/WPA3, firewall, brute‑force attack detection, parental controls Management app HUAWEI AI Life (setup, diagnostics, lighting, and Wi‑Fi control) Dimensions Approx. 250.9 mm (Height) × 123.2 mm (Diameter) Weight Approx. 790 g (1.75 pounds)
Seemingly a Japan exclusive for now, the crowdfunding is going very well – raising 8,600% over target – so perhaps Huawei will see fit to roll out the visually appealing WiFi Mesh X3 Pro in more markets. Then we'll be able to check whether it stands up to comparisons with the best Wi-Fi routers we've tested. Converting the (regular non-early bird) Japanese Yen price to USD would suggest a U.S. price of $170 for the main router alone. Not that bad for what Huawei claims is a piece of “art.”
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