Is there any information if GLiNet is still working on travel-friendly routers?
I am looking at the Mango/Shadow, or even something like the revered OG Slate or Creta (still quite travel-friendly at 70-80g).
Opal, Beryl AX and the new “Slates” are chonkers, at 4-5 times the weight of the Shadow/Mango. Closer to a home router than a mini.
Shadow/Mango appear to be extremely outdated, with 10-year-old components, including the CPU, micro-usb port, and most of all a painfully outdated single-channel 2.4ghz wi-fi N connection. 2.4ghz support is quickly waning from public spaces.
There are no modern replacements for the Mango/Shadow, and nothing to even replace the Creta/OGSlate in their size.
Are any refreshes of truly small products on the immediate horizon? The size/weight of all devices launched in the last couple of years is similarly large, and I don’t believe we’ve seen any sub-100g devices since… 6 years ago?
There are significantly more power-efficient chips on the market, and tiny and very powerful radios supporting modern wifi standards. I really hope they are being picked up into small devices considering how fast and efficient the small stuff has become.
I am not sure which ones GL iNet would consider, but anything released within the last 5 years would be a major improvement. Qualcomm and MediaTek both release chipsets nearly every year, many of which could fit in something significantly smaller and lighter than the Beryl.
The performance jump since Shadow/Mango has been so substantial, seeing how they use ~10-year old chipsets, that even the old Qualcomm smartwatch chip (Wear 4100) is much faster than what is available in these.
Is chipset pricing an issue? The power envelope? Or did the team manage to find something, and is something already in the works?
The problem is not price, it is the power and functions. Chipset are more complex, powerful and big now. So we already use the best chipset from Qualcom and MediaTek.
Thank you for the explanation! Does it mean that we can’t expect any sequels to the Shadow or Mango anytime soon? Or devices significantly smaller than the Beryl AX?
On Reddit many people miss the size and weight of the original Slate (and design, being likely the prettiest Gl Inet device, before they adopted the rounded aesthetic).
I would be very happy with something in that footprint as well. The Slate Plus is 2.5x as big in terms of volume and weight.
I also find size and weight are very important, as I spend most of my time traveling. I’m not happy with the size and weight of any of the newer GL iNet routers.
I’m not sure what I will replace my original Slate or my USB 150 as my primary and backup travel routers if they ever break.
I’m sorry, but I just saw the Puli AX announcement, a 700+ gram 5G router with a built in battery, and I’m confused at what niche is GL Inet trying to target with these recent launches at this point. Sorry to be blunt, but to call it a miss would be an understatement.
I am worried that the company is missing its direction here, considering the average customer looking for GL Inet devices. It’s such a shame there isn’t a product that truly iterated over the original small Slate, which is how a lot of us even heard of GL Inet. We are getting a large number of devices that now all miss increasingly severely on the portability front. There seem to be a lot of product launches that all target a particular small niche compared to a similar already existing device, and nothing new that slots into the original GL Inet mainstream that brought us to Gl Inet products in the first place.
The product catalog now consists of a large number of chunky boys that differ very little that you guys have to support, 2 portable devices with a decade-old hardware, and nothing in between.
It’s nearly 200g though. The OG Slate was truly impressive at 86g and less than half the volume, which is a big difference for travel. It was the perfect device imho that was discontinued and there’s nothing like it in its place. The Shadow is impressive at less than 40g, but it’s ancient with a decade-old chipset and 2.4ghz n radio only with a single antenna.
The Brume 2 fit a MT7981B! The Brume 2 has an excellent chassis size, and incredible performance, but it lacks wifi. Something in that size with wifi, even with a quarter of its performance, would be a killer product.
I don’t think we’d need something with the performance of ipq6000 in something the size of the Mango/Shadow. But a refresh with ANY dual band wifi, USB C and ANY faster processor than the 10+ year SKU would make for a great product. Or at least something in between the Shadow and the Beryl AX, as there is currently an enormous size gap between the two in the current GL Inet product line.
I think Gl Inet got so caught up in increasing the specs, which are already way beyond what most users expect in an ultraportable router, that the product vision got lost in the process. As evident from recycling the bulky Slate Plus / Beryl cases for at least 5 similar products. Igoring that the majority of the market that was looking at the OG Slate and hoping to upgrade would simply find ALL upgrade paths to be too big and heavy.
The rounded plastic packaging GL iNet is now using for all the new products just wastes space and does not conduct heat. I am impressed with FriendlyElec’s R4S and R6S NanoPi packaging. Smaller than the newer GL iNet routers, and being metal, it conducts heat. I would love to see something like this from GL iNet.
Not exactly mango sized, but way closer to Mango than Beryl and the rest, at a third the weight. It is indeed missing wi-fi - otherwise I’d be so happy.
I have my server running on it so at least there’s that. The Brume 2 would have been perfect if it had wi-fi.
I’m also looking for a solution for this.
Brume 2 looks pretty nice, apart from not having WIFI.
I do have the Puli AX which I really like, it’s way to big for frequent travel though.
What would be perfect would be something like the Brume 2 with WIFI, that has the possibility to connect to a external WIFI (eg. hotel WIFI) and SIM card internet at the same time, for improved speed and reliability. It’s a feature of the Puli AX.
I could then only use one connection though, could I?
Because buying an external high-speed/5G USB dongle additionally is something I’m considering.
