For many of us, offices and schools have moved inside our homes, and with most of our time being spent indoors, home entertainment has also become more important than ever before. The one common thread among all these activities is the availability of a wireless broadband connection, which is why it has become extremely important to ensure all wireless devices inside the house get their dose of fast, stable Wi-Fi. And for that, not only do you need a fast connection, but a good way to distribute that connection to all the devices placed in different locations inside the house too. Xiaomi’s Mi Router 4A Gigabit Edition seems like a good option. Let me run you through some of its features so you can get an idea of what it’s capable of.
Featuring a signature look so typical of routers, thanks to its four high-gain antennas that look capable of transmitting to Mars, the Mi Router 4A Gigabit Edition comes encased in a slim white body. On top is a Mi logo and a couple of LEDs that indicate status. At the back is a one gigabit WAN port and two gigabit LAN ports. In terms of core specs, the router comes powered by a dual-core CPU clocked at 880MHz and features 128MB memory. It’s rated for theoretical data speeds of up to 1,167Mbps, and as is quite apparent, supports dual-band Wi-Fi too.
The key highlights of the Mi Router 4A Gigabit Edition include a simple setup, and a wide range of features that give you complete control over your Wi-Fi network. While most routers would need you to dive into browser-based setup utilities that can be a pain to figure out and use, the Mi WiFi app makes setting up the Mi Router 4A a breeze. So much so that you can get the router up and running yourself within a matter of minutes, even if you don’t have any technical expertise or experience in setting up a Wi-Fi network. Of course, there is an option for setting it up via a browser, but the app really is the simplest way to do it.
Of course, the setup is just a one-time process, but the Mi WiFi app packs in quite a few useful features. For one, you can monitor your network remotely, no matter where you are. You can schedule router reboots, and even make use of scheduled downtime, a feature Xiaomi refers to as ‘Health mode’. There’s a built-in firewall that can be enabled via the app, and you can update the router’s firmware too. As far as I’m concerned though, the most useful features are one-tap Wi-Fi optimisation, and device-level control. The former optimises the Wi-Fi network automatically for the best possible throughput and least interference with just a single tap. The app provides a list of all connected devices, and from there, you can either deny internet access to specific devices (manually or automatically based on set schedules) and even set up access control in terms of blacklisting certain URLs. This can be quite handy, especially in households where parents would like to limit their kids’ screen time and make sure they don’t access content not appropriate for their age.
Given the kind of features it offers and the level of control it provides, I think the Mi Router 4A Gigabit Edition makes for a compelling option for anyone looking to replace their Wi-Fi router. The price, you ask? Rs 2,199… which isn’t much to pay for this handy device.
