Nobody wants a screen. We want a no frills, cheapish travel router that can be picked up in the palm of your hand.
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I have next to me a Cudy TR1200, it’s the same chipset as the Original Mango, just with added AC WiFi and USB C instead of Micro USB.
It’s far too big though.
Delighted to hear that Mango is getting a new lease of life. Used them for years both V1 which is now obsolete and had around 40 V2 around as hops for VPN ,
As the MT300N V2 is pretty much already now unsupported as not had any updates for a long time before good to get another well supported device available.
Like everyone else Small and Functional with USB C power rather than Micro USB.
Price of these is what makes them sell.
- Keep the device as small as possible. Small like the current shadow if possible.
- OMG I would love to have the ability to utilize vpns and tailscale! That might be asking for a lot but man I'd love to have tailscale to EASILY connect back home to important devices. I mean, isn't that what a small pocket device would excel the most in? Quick and easy reconnection back home through tail scale or vpn. I want that more than 2.5gbps or faster wifi. This feels more important than any other upgrade. A small little pocket router, the size of the current mango and shadow, that connect VPN or tailscale with speeds that DONT SUCK. More than anything… do this.
- Wi-Fi AC 5ghz is a must. At this point.
- 2 Ethernet and 2 USB c. 1 USB for charging and 1 USB for 4g dongle or hdd/ssd.
Honestly I think that's it. The biggest thing is upgrade the CPU to handle a vpn. Maybe that's a lot to ask for…but what I wouldn't give to have a tiny little mango size router that can connect back home. I'd sacrifice wifi 6/7 and 2.5gbps Ethernet for that. Obviously, upgrade to 5ghz (I mean 2.4ghz isn't acceptable for speeds anymore). If you can fit more in that small package, then awesome.
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Wait 40 mangos? Why so many travel routers? Do you mind explaining your VPN hops setup
Well, if you get good speeds from your hotel, maybe that would help.
I’d settle for same size, usb-c and faster cpu to make the wireguard client a bit quicker.
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I really like my Beryl AX on the 4.8 firmware because of policy based routing over two or more tunnels. I can't do that with my Mango, so I thought I would try moving it over to Openwrt. I thought I could duplicate most of what the Beryl does with travelmate and pbr, and it turns out I can't really. I could get travelmate and wireguard up on 25.12 and do a form of routing with allowed IPs, but as soon as I installed pbr it bricked the Mango. Since we can't do imagebuilder anymore, the attendedsysupgrade package was a really cool way to strip out a lot of what I don't use (goodby nodogsplash!), and I can get wwan to wlan wireguard speeds around 20/20. So it is fairly robust, but nowhere as easy as the GL-iNet GUI. Don't know if others have gone down that road.
I should like a Mango-like device that will take a SIM card to eliminate the need for a separate dongle for 4g connectivity, uses USB-C for power, has Wireguard capability, and if possible has dual-band radios. No need for an internal battery that would add bulk, expense, and have a limited lifespan when a powerbank can be used instead.
Built my own wireguard server with several hosting companies iOnis, OVH etc, different locations US , UK, DE. And have used Mango routers in several locations including my own offices as well my customers to allowing me to have the ability to remotely connect to them over good cloud, adjust VPN tunnels, reboot, create bypass rules or add as S2S.
One thing on that which I would like but had never really worked well is a way to run a client side speed test on the router.
Tried the packages in add-ons but never worked.
As several others have said, @eric pretty mich nailed it from my perspective. The only comments that I would add on top are:
- VPN support as is available today with Wireguard and OpenVPN. Personally, I moved all my VPNs to Wireguard and did away with OVPN but I know there will be many who still want that support. Tailscale, nice to have but no must.
- Ability to use ad-guard as an option.
- Port wise, I dont care about adding storage or a modem. 1 USB-C for power, if it supports tethering at the same point, nice to have but no additional port need. 2x1Gb, 1 WAN and 1 LAN. Job done.
Keep it small and simple. After years of travelling for work the less I have to carry the better.
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Single Network 1GB port (LAN/WAN) just in case I can find a hardwire port.
No USB A
Power via USB C
“Low” power consumption
No microSD slot
Good VPN (Wireguard) support
AC wifi only required
NO screen (Don't even think home routers need screen let alone travel units)
Make size between Mango and Creta and make sure that the chip used doesn't generate so much heat you need a heavy heatsink.
(when international one bagging and watching weight I still use Creta over original Slate because of the 20g saving 
)
About portability and function not about speed and latest technical specifications.
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Agree with above. Ideally it's no bigger or heavier than the original Slate or Creta and it's about functionality , not pure speed and feeds or keeping up with technology 
When I'm travelling I don't expect 8k video nor expect to connect to fully functional high speed public networks and don't need the speed anyway for what I need to do.
I just posted that my current favourite is the original Slate even though I have much more powerful and “modern” units…
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No screen
Detachable antenna’s using SMA connectors
Power through USB-C PD 12Vdc
Option to connect wires directy to power up in parallel to a USB-C connection
Power over Ethernet (PoE) would be useful!
Maybe we should have a poll, responding to a list of features with "definitely not--meh--definitely" ranges
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I should like a Mango-like device that will take a SIM card to eliminate the need for a separate dongle for 4g connectivity, uses USB-C for power, has Wireguard capability, and if possible has dual-band radios.
You’re in luck! That’s a great description of the Mudi line of devices 
I answered in a survey, but to repeat my desires here:
- Make it as small as possible in all dimensions with only a single USB-C port for power and no Ethernet
- Make it cheap: <$50 (the cheaper the better while maintaining quality/reliability), don’t include a power adapter
- Keep it fanless
- WiFi AX/6 w/ dual band support
- 100Mbps+ Wireguard client throughput
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Close, except for the bit about the internal battery.
I was thinking along the same lines but since I have my mobile phone surgically attached to me at all time and since I tried the UniFI travel router working flawlessly by just hooking it up to my phone, I lost any desire to have a router with SIM/eSIM facility especially with the price hikes that this usually involves.
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My idea would be a Brume 2 with the addition of dual-band wifi 5 - in effect, an updated Brume-W. This would provide really good WG speeds, have the necessary overhead for apps and have WiFi connectivity
5ghz is less prone to interference unlike 2.4. plus, 2.4ghz can never really achieve any reliably fast speeds unlike 5ghz. Youre right, faster hotel speeds can help. But at an airbnb where 300, 500, and even 1gbps speeds are common? 2.4ghz is just ultimately unacceptable anymore