The cheapest Wi-Fi 6 router couples a shocking price with a groovy design

By Desire Athow
published

And you’ll never guess who makes it

With working from home made compulsory for many of due to the ongoing pandemic, a decent hard-edge router has never been more important - especially as ISP offerings often deliver notoriously poor performance.

Xiaomi AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 router  - $65.99 from Gearbest (opens in new tab)

Xiaomi AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 router  - $65.99 from Gearbest (opens in new tab)
(£56.37/AU$106.75)
This Wi-Fi 6 router from Xiaomi is astronomically cheap compared to the competition. In fact, it's even cheaper than most Wi-Fi 5 equivalents. Four independent signal amplifiers, support for mesh networking and a groovy aesthetic are the cherries on the cake.

View Deal (opens in new tab)

Enter the Xiaomi AX1800 (opens in new tab) router, the most affordable Wi-Fi 6 router (opens in new tab) out there right now. Gearbest sells it for a jaw-droppingly low $65.99 (£56.37/AU$106.75) using a $2 coupon, which is less than most Wi-Fi 5 (AKA 802.11ac) models cost.

This Mi Router 802.11ax router is powered by two processors; the first is the Qualcomm IPQ6000 with four cores and the second a dedicated NPU with one core clocked at 1.5GHz. It also comes with four GbE ports, support for mesh networking and can connect to up to 128 devices concurrently.

The AX1800 features four independent signal amplifiers and supports ODFMA technology for more efficient transmission. As expected, it runs the MiWiFi operating system (based on OpenWRT), which can be managed via the router’s web admin interface.

The funky pillar-shaped device ships with a user manual, an Ethernet cable and power supply.

If you're looking for something even cheaper, there’s the Xiaomi Redmi AC2100 Gigabit router (opens in new tab), which retails for a mere $45.50 (£37.86/AU$71.58). Just bear in mind, Xiaomi has likely used Chinese in the backend for both routers, so you might have to break out Google Translate.

Bear in mind...

If this product comes from mainland China, it will take at least a month to reach either the US or the UK (and potentially more). You may be levied a tax either directly or through the courier. 

Have you managed to get hold of a cheaper product with equivalent specifications, in stock and brand new? Let us know and we'll tip our hat to you.

Note, while Gearbest ships to most territories worldwide via expedited shipping, you may be levied additional charges and fees by customs. Exact prices will also vary region by region depending on the day’s exchange rate.

Desire Athow
Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.

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