EnGenius ECW220 Wi-Fi 6 access point review: A viable alternative to Ubiquiti

You’ll be able to simply pick out up some of the best possible Wi-Fi 6 routers if you wish to have to free up the entire possible of your own home broadband connection; with Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers providing tri-band programs with a devoted wi-fi backhaul, fashionable routers can ship multi-gigabit speeds to your hooked up units.

However I just like the extensibility that includes a stressed router, so for the ultimate 4 months, I used Ubiquiti’s UniFi Dream Device Professional as my router, and the UniFi 6 LR and UniFi 6 Lite to blanket my house with rapid Wi-Fi 6 protection. Going with the UniFi construct offers me the liberty to arrange regulations round web access and higher insights into the site visitors that is flowing out and in of my house community.

Ubiquiti has constructed its identify round catering to the prosumer section, providing various switches, access issues, and routing answers. It’s not the one one to achieve this; EnGenius is every other logo that provides access issues aimed toward indoor and outside use in addition to multi-gigabit switches. The most important promoting point for the logo is its cloud-managed interface that makes it smooth to organize its access issues from anyplace.

So in case you are in search of a very easy method to prolong the wi-fi protection in your house or are attempting to arrange a house community from scratch and desire a robust access point, let’s check out what the ECW220 has to be offering.

The EnGenius ECW220 is to be had in North The united states, and you’ll pick out it up from Amazon for $365. It is to be had for significantly much less at commit networking shops, the place it typically is going for less than $300. It is bought in one variant, and is derived with a two-year usual guaranty.

EnGenius ECW220: What you can love

The ECW220 is a wi-fi access point with 2×2 MIMO antenna and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, and it might ship up to 1,200Mbps at 5GHz. Like several access issues, it does not include any routing options of its personal, so you are going to want to use it with a stressed router. Then again, in case you have Ethernet cabling in your house and wish to prolong wi-fi protection, you’ll all the time attach the ECW220 to a transfer that is connected to the router.

The ECW220 is an effective way to prolong wi-fi protection during your own home.

As for the design, the ECW220 has a sq. chassis with rounded edges, and it’s constituted of plastic. The minimum design works smartly for the product, and you can to find LED signs for the two.4 and 5GHz bands, LAN connectivity, and gear. The bottom has a metal end at the side of mounting issues that makes it simple to set up the AP at the ceiling — you can to find the needful mounting brackets throughout the bundle.

The ECW220 wishes up to 12.8W of energy, so you’ll use it with PoE switches out there. There may be additionally the choice to use a normal energy adapter if you do not want to cross with PoE.

The standout characteristic at the ECW220 is the license-free cloud control. All you want to do is join an EnGenius account and sign up the ECW220 the use of the QR code on the again. After it is registered, it is possible for you to to set it up and configure the entire options. The EnGenius Cloud dashboard offers you an summary of real-time site visitors and the entire units hooked up to the ECW220, and also you get to alternate the SSID and radio settings, arrange further VLANs, and configure schedules as wanted.

The ECW220 excels the place it counts; you can get dependable bandwidth even with over 20 units hooked up to the community.

Coming to the {hardware} itself, the ECW220 is in a position to ship up to 574Mbps at the 2.4GHz band and 1,200Mbps at 5GHz. You can to find beamforming, MU-MIMO, and OFDMA over Wi-Fi 802.11 ax and OFDM for 802.11 ac/a/g/n. I examined the ECW220 with each Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi ac units; the use of the most efficient Android telephones for the previous.

With a Wi-Fi 6-enabled instrument, I were given bandwidth of up to 364Mbps from 15 ft away, happening to 250Mbps at 35 ft and with two partitions in the way in which. At a distance of 45 ft, I averaged 140Mbps, and those rankings are in step with what I typically see from the UniFi Wi-Fi 6 {hardware}. The ECW220 holds up simply as smartly for Wi-Fi 5 trying out as smartly, and generally I have had 0 problems with throughput within the time I used the access point.

I typically have over 20 units hooked up to the similar node, or even then the ECW220 used to be in a position to ship constant bandwidth with none bottlenecks. Clearly, no longer all units use a large number of bandwidth without delay, however even with simultaneous use there may be a large number of overhead right here to make certain dependable connectivity.

Whilst the internet control has so much to be offering, you can be the use of the EnGenius Cloud To-Pass cellular app to arrange the ECW220, and EnGenius did a excellent process providing many of the options throughout the cellular shopper. There’s a first rate feature-set right here, and the easy-to-use settings blended with the flexibility make the ECW220 an ideal general selection.

EnGenius ECW220: What wishes paintings

The ECW220 does a excellent process masking the fundamentals, and whilst the {hardware} stands by itself, the truth that you aren’t getting a PoE injector or energy adapter within the bundle is a bit of of a letdown. It’s not tough to discover a PoE transfer that may energy the ECW220, however making an allowance for what the access point prices, it will were great to see an influence connector bundled with the bundle.

Any other omission is the 160MHz channel; this prevents the ECW220 from being in a position to ship multi-gigabit bandwidth. Once more, that is a type of options that might be great to have, however for a majority of customers choosing up the access point, it mustn’t make an excessive amount of of a distinction in real-world use. The 80MHz channel has ok headroom, and for low-latency use circumstances, you might be at an advantage connecting your tools over Ethernet anyway.

In any case, the loss of an offline control interface might be a deal-breaker to a subset of the target market. EnGenius Cloud has been a revelation, however you are going to want an web connection to pair the access point and organize it.

EnGenius ECW220: Festival

The most obvious alternative to the ECW220 is the UniFi Wi-Fi 6 LR. It’s extra inexpensive at $179 and has 4×4 MU-MIMO, and it integrates seamlessly with Ubiquiti’s UniFi dashboard. I’ve spotted problems with prime latency on a couple of units and restricted bandwidth if I am getting over 50 ft away, however for probably the most section, the UniFi 6 LR is a cast selection.

The Aruba Rapid On AP22 may be a excellent alternative to believe. It is the same to the ECW220 in a large number of techniques; its energy threshold is going up to 10.1W, it connects over Wi-Fi 6 and has 2×2 MIMO, and it has a powerful control interface.

EnGenius ECW220: Will have to you purchase it?

You will have to purchase this if …

• You need a wi-fi access point with Wi-Fi 6 connectivity
• You wish to have a license-free control suite with a number of configurability
• You need an access point that works with a PoE transfer

You should not purchase this if…

• You need to arrange an AP and organize it offline
• You are out there for the most efficient worth
• You need an access point that has the 160MHz band

All issues thought to be, the ECW220 will get so much proper. It has the {hardware} to ship rapid Wi-Fi 6 connectivity to a number of units without delay, and EnGenius’ tracking dashboard offers you a large number of options and makes it smooth to organize the ECW220.

4
out of five

Positive, it is lacking offline access, there is no 160MHz band, and you aren’t getting a PoE injector within the field. That mentioned, the ECW220 delivers the products the place it issues, and in case you are in search of a Wi-Fi 6 access point with low energy use and nice connectivity, it is a nice possibility.