In the past few days I’ve been looking for a new router for my home, and after a long and intense search I ended up purchasing the Huawei Q2 Pro, a solution that provides connectivity to both Wifi and cable for the entire house.
A few weeks ago I moved and began to live with some good friends. The floor is great, but I had a serious problem, and the solution that they had raised it was terrible. We had the main router and a PLC that was connect to a router giving Wifi access from the hallway to the rooms.
If this solution was acceptable for my day-to-day has been a martyrdom. The speed of the connection coming to my computer, where work and play was very slow and unstable, with several falls and specific problems of latency, something that made that could not play comfortably. I needed a solutionand I found a Huawei that I found very interesting.
Huawei Q2 Pro: technical features
- Measures:
- Base: 112,0 mm x 73.3 per mm x 183,5 mm
- Satellite: 75,0 mm x 46.3 mm x 103,0 mm
- Connectivity:
- Cable:
- Base: 1 x GE WAN, 2 x GE LAN.
- Satellite: 1 x GE LAN.
- Wifi:
- 802.11 ac 2 x 2 (2.4 GHz) and 802.11 n 2 x 2 (5 GHz), MU-MIMO, 1167 Mbps.
- PLC: Up to 1 Gbps with Huawei PLC Turbo.
- Cable:
- Functions: Protocol 802.11 v, and 802.11 s, methods of connection WAN PPPoE / DHCP / static IP address, timer, wifi, Wifi invited, to speed limitation of the device, MAC address filtering, parental control, a step of VPN, virtual server.
- Security features: Algorithms brute-force, encryption WPA-PSK / WPA2-PSK Wifi, firewall, DMZ, PAP / CHAP authentication, protection against attacks DMZ / DoS.
- Physical buttons:
- Base: H Button for pairing of a key and is compatible with WPS. Reset.
- Satellite: press reset button.
- Compatibility with satellites: up to 15 satellites.
A router minimalist and full of functions
When you use the internet at home I am a person that has a few requirements for very specific, not so much in having the highest possible speed, but better stability. Despite how much he has evolved the Wifi connection, I am of the that the main computer (on which I’m writing these lines) follows by plugging in via an ethernet cable.
The solution of fashion are the networks Wifi Mesh– networks that are made up of a number of access points that communicate with each other to provide maximum coverage with the same network, solving the traditional problem of repeaters. The problem that I see with the Mesh networks is that to work in a more operational way you have to do a study on where to place each one of the nodes for which the communication is perfect.
This is one of the main strengths of the Huawei Q2 Pro. The model I purchased has a base and two satellites, which replicate the connection and communicate with the base. Between them share the work load, connecting each device’s Wifi to the best access point for coverage. Imagine that you switch from the living room to the kitchen, because the moment that you have better coverage of the satellite, the mobile phone, tablet or computer changes automatically without that you can keep up.
Until here the description fits with a mesh network, but the interesting thing of the Q2 Pro is that the connection between devices is made through the electric network. Your you plug cable the base to the router from your operator and connect it to the electrical network. After that, you go to the points of the house where you want to expand your network and you plug the satellites. After you do the initial setup themselves, they will be communicated.
This brings one advantage and one disadvantage to a mesh network traditional. On the one hand you don’t have to make sure that the Wifi connection of each access point is perfect, while on the other hand, when running through the electrical network you will have to allocate a plug specific to each device to avoid interference problems.
So it lights up the router when the connection is functional (the light can be turned off in the application).
This technology, known as powerline or PLC also allows a wired connection from any part of the house (for example, the main router is in the living room and the computer in my room is connected by cable). As a PLC works particularly well, although it has the same technical limitation that any other PLC, and is dependent on the quality of the electrical installation in your home.
Comparison of speed in my room with the PLC+router (left) vs Q2 Pro (right).
Even so, it has improved compared to our previous configuration. It is more a merit of Huawei because of the difficulty of the electrical installation, since this same PLC in my mother’s house, worked great.
And by the way, we have a Wifi connection that works throughout the house. By connecting to the same network, the router manages if to offer Wifi 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz, depending on the compatibility of the device.
A very complete application
Huawei has two apps available in the Google Play to configure and monitor the router, and both have the same quality of features. The first one is Huawei HiLink (specific to routers) while I have finished using is Huawei AI Life, to be an application with a more modern design and compatible with more devices from Huawei that you have (in my case, none, but you never know).
The initial vision shows us the router, the satellites, the use of current traffic and shortcuts to devices, parental control, diagnosis, and / or Wifi network for guests. In the time that we connect to devices we have a granular control for each one of them, being able to restrict Internet access to each one of you, impose a speed limit or to limit the hours of use by using the parental control.
In other functions, you also have the possibility to manage the intensity of the signal with a power saving mode or the ability to manage updates (which by default is performed between 3 and 5 in the morning if there is no activity), turn off the activity lights of each device or change the channel Wifi is more optimal.
I was not expecting for nothing that was so good
The Huawei Q2 Pro was a product that from the first moment I saw it I was thrilled, but whose information I took with calipers. Would it be really so good to become the ideal solution for the home?
Tend to be skeptical with this kind of slogans, but this Huawei Q2 Pro it is a productazo.
The model that I bought I is of a base and two satellites. I bought it refurbished through Amazon WareHouse, an option that guarantees lower prices, in exchange for which the product is not brand new, but always keeping intact the functionality.
The Huawei Q2 Pro is not perfect, but it is one of the easiest solutions to set up and practices.
If you have a small house, the model with base + 1 satellite costs 99 euros on Amazon (and in these times, 70 in Amazon WareHouse) while the model with base + 2 satellites goes up to 172 (112 at Amazon Warehouse). Taking into account the chances of having a mesh network with PLC, it has seemed to us a product very competitive and I hope that you keep a Wifi and PLC quality in my house for a long time.
- Huawei Q2 Pro Base + 1 satellite:
- For 99 euros at Amazon.
- For 129 euros at the official store of Huawei.
- Huawei Q2 Pro Base + 2 satellites:
- For 172 euros on Amazon.
- For 189 euros at the official store of Huawei.
The input The best product of Huawei is not a mobile, but this router: analysis of the Huawei Q2 Pro is listed first on The Android Free.
