Xiaomi Mi WiFi Amplifier 2 Review

Maybe you have a WiFi Router at home but the connection doesn’t reach certain regions of your house and you don’t know how to hack it. Or maybe you live in an area where the phone has to be in a particular window for the network to work, but the hotspot connection doesn’t reach where you want it to, or it is too weak. There’s a simple and cheap solution for that: have a repeater to extend the range.

Repeaters or Ranger Extenders are good tech but many of the existing ones are really pricey for no reason. I have wanted one for a while, but local eCommerce sites all have ones that cost more than Ksh. 1000 and they’re still to be imported.

During Black Friday, I ordered for this Xiaomi Mi WiFi Repeater 2 from Gearbest. I got it for $4 and shipping cost $1 which seems cheap, but I’ve waited for over 60 days for delivery. So you’re stuck with ordering it through Jumia for Ksh. 1600 and waiting 3 weeks if you want it really fast.

Specs

• WiFi Frequency – 2.4GHz
• Up to 300Mbps speeds
• Allows up to 16 users
• Doubles WiFi Range
• Input 5V/1A

What I like:

Design

Its minimalist design and colour makes it look like a slightly huge Flash Drive. So you can have it in your bag anytime if you’re to use it say at an event or an office.

Range

I couldn’t access WiFi two rooms from the router. But with this the connection is really good and accessible throughout the house.

USB for power

The Repeater needs to have a constant input of power since it doesn’t have a battery. But it is very easy since the input mechanism is via USB. So you can connect it to anything even a powerbank as I have been using at an event. As long as whatever source of power you have can output 5V/1A, you’re good to go.

Easy Setup

If you have a Xiaomi Router, all you do is add it to the router and wait a few minutes for it to take the settings and for a light on the device to turn blue. You can then move it to any part of the room.

If you have your normal router or phone, you need to have the Xiaomi Mi Home App. Connect the Repeater to a power source and then wait for the app to recognise the Repeater. After that connect the WiFi you want to extend to the Repeater and you’re done.

You’ll see the light turn blue once connection is done.

So the extended WiFi gets to be called “SSID_plus”. For example if your original WiFi name was Techish, if you extend it with this repeater, you get a new stronger connection called Techish_plus. You can also change the network name (SSID) by going to its administration interface via the URL 192.168.1.1.

Easy Reset

All you need is a pin. Hit the reset point under the LED light, and wait for it to reset so you can extend a different connection.

Good Speeds

Supporting up to 300Mbps means your connection isn’t slowed down when you connect it to the WiFi you want to extend. Get this, the 2nd Generation Repeater if you want fast speeds as the 1st Gen didn’t have these speeds.

16 Users

If you just want to expand your phone’s hotspot, this is a good solution as it now allows 16 new users. Meaning a phone that only supports 8 users connection can now allow 24 users.

Get many

You can get as many of this as possible to extend your connection across a big office space or home. Though setting up the different repeaters may prove tedious at first, you will be assured of a strong connection and good speeds wherever in the house you may be. Also, it is an easy and cheap way to have many more users access a limited network.

So those are my thoughts. How do you normally fix your WiFi problems?