Slate vs Slate Plus ( GL-AR750S-Extv s GL-A1300 ) Travel router

Technical Support for Routers
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The idea is to have a travel router (outputting both wifi OR ethernet) with a wireguard vpn connected to a home router

my pros and cons list

Pros:

  • Slate has SD Slot (but I do not have any use for the card slot as of now)

  • Slate Plus overall has a higher speed

Cons:

  • Slate: Some users reported the Slate was not so durable (some issue in a circuit)

  • Slate Plus: Heavier; Some users reported wifi instability (although this seems resolved) ;

    • Not sure if the Chipset is better on the Slate Plus, in the long term - also the fact that the router is newer makes it more likely to have “unknown” issues…

The price on amazon is basically the same right now, which surprises me because Slate Plus is just out and Slate is 3-4y older

What would you advise?

Thanks

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I have both routers and prefer the GL-AR750S Slate for travel mainly because it is smaller. If size/weight and lack of microSD are not significant issues for you, then go for the newer GL-A1300 Slate Plus.

Personally, the lower speed of the Slate is not an issue for me because hotel wifi is not very fast anyway. The Slate Plus firmware will continue to improve with more releases.

I do not work for and I do not have formal association with GL.iNet

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Thanks for the quick answer, appreciated it!

May I ask - in your opinion do the Slate Plus looks more durable than the Slate? (I do not really understand why the Plus is so much heavier for so similar specs…) For me, durability is of high importance! (of course, I do not intend to let it fall to the ground… but I ask in terms of construction / materials, and loose components on the inside )

Another question - for what uses might the microSD card slot be useful? (I do not have any idea actually, might be escaping something)

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I do not see a huge difference in durability, but the antennas on the Slate Plus look heftier and the body has more plastic around it :rofl:, which may explain the weight, not so much from the electronics. I think the Slate Plus has better cooling because of its volume/vents.

If durability is important to you, then the Slate Plus seems better. There are no loose components and they are probably equivalent in this regard.

One use of the microSD is to save music mp3’s and video mp4’s that can be streamed over DLNA, which you can do by plugging in a USB flash drive on the Slate Plus. Another use is to Exroot the Slate to expand its storage for installing more packages, which is likely not necessary on the Slate Plus. I do not use microSD for NAS storage because speed of access is slow.

The Slate Plus already has a nice UI and features under Firmware 4, while the Slate is on Firmware 3. It also has USB 3.0, instead of USB 2.0.

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Have to agree with this. I have multiple Gl.inet routers but my original Slate is my goto router because of the balance of power, weight, size and power consumption.

It’s worth noting (maybe) that the Slate is end of life. It will still get Gl.Inet firmware updates for at least 2 years and hopefully that includes an upgrade to version 4.0. It will probably still get vanilla OpenWRT upgrades going forward however.

The Slate Plus uses the same chipset as the Gl-AP1300 enterprise AP, so it is a much more powerful unit.

Extra weight is most likely the housing and potentially some heat sinks to allow for having a more powerful chip inside such a small unit (there’s no internal photos on the FCC listing).

If you’re not a weight weenie, then the Slate Plus is probably a better, more future proof unit going forward giving it’s a new product. Have you considered the AXT Slate AX as well?

I’ll sometimes load some TV shows/Movies onto the sdcard for the family to watch or sometimes backup my holiday photos onto it so I’ve got a backup.

Just came back from 3 weeks in Japan and my Slate did a great job. Meant family didn’t have to attach to new WiFi everytime we moved accomodation, gave me security while using the shared accomodatio WiFi and let me Wireguard VPN back home to my Flint Wireguard server for streaming local contact from Australia. But obviously any of the Gl.Inet range will do this :stuck_out_tongue:

In reality either would probably do the job for you, really depends on exact requirements.

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The only durability issues I had with my Creta/Slate (same basic chassis) was that two of them eventually had issues with the power connector, necessitating replacement. The USB-C connector is a substantial improvement on that, so I would expect the entire line of USB-C powered devices to be more durable in that sense.

While from a pure weight/performance perspective the Slate is still (I think) the winner, I would go with the Slate Plus from the standpoint of future proofing.

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Wow this community is indeed amazing! Thank you a lot for the feedback!
Because they are the same price right now (Slate Plus on discount on amazon) - I will go with Slate Plus :slight_smile:

Best,

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Slate Plus has quad-core CPU, faster VPN speed than Slate, especially on WireGuard,
Slate plus has 256MB RAM double with Slate and can run AdGuardHome
Slate Plus has type-C power port and USB3.0 port.
1300Mbps wifi
Slate plus comes with OpenWrt21.02 and SDK 4.0 Firmware which provides better or improved user interfaces and experience.

Only no TF card slot is a cons

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I can also highly recommend Beryl (GL-MT1300), it’s much faster than the old slate. And it shares the usb-c power en the USB3.0 port with slate plus. Most likely Beryl will also get an update to Openwrt 22.03 soon (first betas out already).
In addition because of the mediatek CPU it’s rather easy for Openwrt to support (mediatek works well with developers). This means that after Gl-iNet might stop support you can most likely still keep using it safely with vanilla Openwrt.

And it also has a card slot if that remains a consideration.

And on Amazon.nl (i’m from the Netherlands) it’s currently available for €70,- which is a good deal.

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Part of the answer might depend on what your internet speeds on the home router are now/in the near future. One reason the A1300 has faster wireguard speeds is the multithreading, but another is because Openwrt 22.03 has wireguard moved into the kernel. My Asus home router doesn’t have wireguard in the kernel but is quad core; but my upload speed is only 35mpbs so it doesn’t really matter.

I’d definitely go for the A1300 instead of the Slate/Opal/Beryl.

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Although not a native driver, the Slate Wireguard drivers are in the Linux kernel on the Slate AR750S and other older GL iNet routers. The Wireguard drivers have been back-ported to many older Linux kernels.

# lsmod | grep -i wire
ip6_udp_tunnel          1687  1 wireguard    
udp_tunnel              2863  1 wireguard
wireguard              97332  0
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Thanks for sharing this, that’s cool!

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