GL-Inet is, to put it conservatively, among the best 3 routers I’ve used in my life. It’s insanely user-centric, meant to satisfy exact and real pain points its buyers may have. I bought Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) for the purpose of being my travel router. I needed a small, but reliable device, which at the same time followed open source principles, and which could operate as wifi repeater along with routing all my traffic through VPN.
- I was blown away by the physical product quality. It’s small, handy, durable, and hardware specs are amazing;
- Everything worked out of the box just as expected;
- Both before and after my purchase, I was simply impressed by the quality of documentation, user guides and forum support;
- The shipping time was crazy fast, transparent, and the device was even delivered quicker than estimated;
- User Interface is rich, empowering and intuitive, and it’s open source;
- The device comes with all necessary accessories, including power socket extensions, which is just lovely for a travel router.
As for the points of improvement:
- The only significant drawback in my opinion, is related to the power socket extensions; The router came with EUR, US and UK power plugs; While EUR and US plugs are symetrical, and hence can be plugged from any side, the UK plug is not; Additionally, the power adaptor is built so that the UK plug extension can only be attached with its top side pointing towards the adaptor’s side from which the power cord continues; While this doesn’t matter for horisontal power sockets, on vertical power sockets (such as those mounted on the wall), it has for a result that the power cord comes out from the adaptor’s top, instead from the bottom; Such position is impractical (takes up more space), and ugly (looks like a flying cable!), but most importantly it makes the power cord bend sharply under its own weight at the exit from the adaptor; That will significantly reduce life span of the cord, and hence the power plug;
- I’ve noticed that, by the means of input validation, the User Interface does not allow setting a WiFi password which uses non-latin characters; This is unfortunate, as it is discriminatory, but more importantly it may be considered a security issue, as it limits the possible combinations for the password;
- It would be insanely useful to add to the package a puch of an appropriate size to fit the device and all its accessories; Since the router is meant to be used for travelling, the pouch would mean quicker and more reliable packing, and would help not lose any loose small accessories, such as LAN cord, or power extensions.
I hope this can be useful for future product development.