I thought beryl ax size was quite good then I found the thickness made it hard to put into pockets or pouch
Mudi size is a suitable reference, don’t go over the width length and thickness
Mango needs a reboot with wifi 6 (ax).
My guess is that heating is the main issue impeding the super small form factor (ssff) for now. I am currently using a few BerylAx (more like a small form factor, sff), both at home and traveling, and it reaches 65C-70C in UK (summer, 25C-30C usually), with just a few devices. In hot countries like Spain around 75C-80C during summer. With a ssff case, you can add 5C-15C, depending of heatsink and fan included.
You can refer to the size of the E750.
Will it be Battery Powered + Option of Cable Powered (USB C) + 5G + USB C (for plugging phone in to charge and Hotspot) + Ethernet port?
All whilst having a 2cm thickness?
If so I am sold!
Yep,but the Ethernet port is still in limbo, and if we want an Ethernet port, the module we choose can’t be the global version. I’d also like to hear from you guys, is the global version more important or the Ethernet port?
To be honest I do not mind the ethernet port not being on the device. The current GL-E750 does not have ethernet on the device. I only wish it would have is that the ethernet dongle of that would have had a lan- and wan-port (obviously making the dongle bigger). But that would make it a very flexible device. Small/thin and completely wireless for really on the go, yet still able to do wired router task when its dongle is plugged in.
For the 5G router the most important thing is as big a battery as possible to provide true all day battery life.
5G I know is quite draining on my phones battery but it’s a 13mini with smaller battery
For travel, global version is more important than Ethernet port.
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It’s either global modem or fastest modem
Ethernet port is easy, you may have the port(s) on a seperate dock stand
Dock portable part of the device via usb c, then it can charge the device and supply wired connection
(Imagine the Nintendo switch dock)
You may also design with intent for the device to also act like an external modem that can add 5g connection to any other standalone wireless router
It’s similar to japanese market mifi device at an Airbnb host in hokaido Japan 2018, it’s quite thin device with color touch screen
It’s docked when I am in the house and I can take it out with me, quite convenient
Include a good USB c cable with voltage trigger
I think some people in this topic are completely missing the point of GL-iNet (GL) routers - first and foremost those are the routers running OpenWrt. When someone compares a GL router with a TP-Link and says “look it is only 1.8 cm vs 2.5 cm” he ignores the fact that with 1.8 cm thickness you are loosing OpenWrt. Personally for me (and I think for many other OpenWrt users) even if TP-Link could be 1 mm thick I would not get it because I want OpenWrt. Plus compare for example the speed and memory size of AR750 and TP-Link Nano - if it also does not matter for you then chances are you would be better with TP-Link indeed.
All in all, I think GL mostly does everything right - they continue shipping the routers with their build of OpenWrt, their hardware is compatible with vanilla OpenWrt, they have small size routers and they have more powerful, larger routers.
Would it be nice to have smaller size but more powerful and modern routers? Yes, sure, this wish is from the same category as “it is better to be young, rich and healthy than poor and sick” but the real life imposes its constrains and limitations.
Does smaller size make sense if performance and functionally are going to suffer - I would say “absolutely not”. Never routers come with USB-C, older have micro USB. I have 3 Slate AR650, GL-MT300N-V2, Beryl, Beryl AX, Brume 2 (MT2500), AXT1800 (Slate AX), Beryl AX (MT300) and Flint and I never had a problem with the USB port since I am careful with my stuff.
So, why would I make a drama over Micro USB if it just works as it supposed to work?
For people who are bashing GL for the routers not being able to connect in the hotels (I see it becomes more and more popular on this forum), for people who start value size over functionality and dont need Ethernet port(s) I would suggest (if I may) to get a cheap smart phone capable of sharing WiFi (not every smartphone can do that, for example Samsung S10E can and the never Pixel 7a cannot) and use it as a small travel router which will connect to each captive portal in each hotel without any hassle and will have USB-C. And we, OpenWrt users will continue using GL routers.
EDIT: and yes you can install OpenWrt on TP-LInk Nano but if one looks at the router’s hardware he will see that this is pretty weak by modern standards.
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Although you make some good points there, most of these routers are marketed as travel routers and for your average user, they should really work out of the box as such and should not require you to have a PhD in openwrt or be a networking guru spending hours or days trying to sort them out when you are meant to be using your precious time for other more important stuff. Why should anyone need to carry more than one device (with all the restriction on luggage size and weight these days) when these are also marketed as the jack of all trades when it comes to networking capabilities? I am also getting a bit fed up of people coming up with all sorts of excuses for the shortcomings of these devices when their retail value has also gradually escalated beyond any functionality improvements offered in my opinion. A lot of the promising new functionalities (not to mention the main older function of being a solid wifi repeater) like dual WAN, drop-in gateway, Tailscale, VPN policies…etc. remain broken while GL.iNET continue to produce new products before trying to fix the older ones first.
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Yes, but that’s a “dumb” power-only usb-c. It’s not an usb-c where you can plug whatever you want and charge, like a laptop or phone. (Mudi is the lone exception – and I don’t know how it does it)
Of course I understand it’s that way to keep the price down.
I would love a refreshed Shadow (gl-ar300m) - don’t make it bigger!
I am sorry, I think you still can’t see the forest for the trees, I will try one more time.
Yes, the routers are marketed as travel routers and yes they should and they do work out of the box and yes that should not require you to have a phD in openwrt or be networking guru to USE THEM AS IS IN SIMPLE SCENARIOS.
I will repeat it again - GL-iNet routers use modified OpenWrt, GL-iNet builds their GUI on the top of OpenWrt and adds some additional packages when required. It means that if OpenWrt has an issue with a certain package then GL-iNet will have it too and most likely it will be fixed in OpenWrt and be ported later to GL-iNet .
What if one does not want to be bothered with all this “OpenWrt nonse”, he simply wants to get
“routers which are marketed as travel routers and routers that should work out of the box and dont require you to have a phD in openwrt or be networking guru spending hours or days trying to sort them out when you are meant to be using your precious time for other more important stuff”?
The answer is simple and it was given above - I think he has to use TP-Link or something else.
I don;t know why anyone needs to carry more than one device. And yes OpenWrt is one of the best when it comes to networking but the user has to learn how to use it. How else?
Most of those things work for me just fine, I use mulitple WANs, VPN servers/clients, ZeroTier, Adguard, multiple policies, DNS over HTTPS, USB connected LTE modems (Quectel) . And yes, sometimes it requires hours of tweaking and learning new things. And yes most often answers to my questions were found on OpenWrt forum and not here and that it is understandable.
And as far as I am mostly concerned (nobody asked 
but still) I am ok with the way how GL-iNet development goes - it is tightly linked to OpenWrt development cycle as was stated above.
Users who say “I don;t care if it is OpenWrt or CloseWrt or something else, I simply want it to work because they are called travel routers, I am not going to spend my time to learn how to use it, it just must work because I paid 30$ -100$” may not go very far and become frustrated which is perfectly understandable.
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I think it is not different. Power in on USB-C, power out on the USB-A. The USB-C is not PD, and doesn’t charge other devices. Since we are talking about a battery, this is a place where PD would make sense.
As I have written before, I’m fairly satisfied with the business model (rapid introduction of devices, close linkage with Openwrt, common GUI skin to simplify most things) and with the capabilities of the line up. My usage pattern may be atypical. My wife and I go some place by air for a week or two or four. When we arrive, I set up the travel router and the charging station (a travel power strip and two GaN chargers that allow me to charge seven PD devices and four USBA devices at once, plus plug in the travel router). With that in place, the laptops, iPads, phones, kindles are immediately connected with the familiar setup (VPN, adblock). And the headphones, sleepbuds, and power banks can be charged. Everything is wifi, except once or twice I tried a wired connection for the mango to improve speed–it was better to move it more centrally for range. When we are out and about or taking a longish train ride, we usually carry the phones and a power bank but not the travel router. So the travel router is only part of the whole kit.
With that in mind, I think I am less inclined to try to pack everything into a travel router, as opposed to breaking the kit out into different pieces. I don’t think I want the travel router to be a power bank for other devices; I don’t think i want it to be powering other devices except dongles, I’m fine with having an ethernet port or ports be part of a separate dongle. I like the fold up antennas of the Beryl, etc., and perhaps that is something that would help the Mango, but I wouldn’t like big SMA antennas. Dual band, AC, AX are good but less critical. Power usage and a fan are less critical. And I don’t expect to be also using the travel router as my home router.
There is no need for PD over 5V there. My worry is there would be something proprietary going on and it only working with its own dongle instead of whatever usb-c hub for laptops. But I don’t know if that’s the case.
Travel routers are 2x2 mimo at most. At home you want 4x4 at least, if not 8x8.