EnGenius ECW520 Cloud7 2x2x2 Test and Review – MBReviews Leave a comment

The EnGenius ECW520 is without doubt one of the most inexpensive WiFi 7 entry factors that the corporate presently presents and its purpose was to supply enterprise-level options, whereas holding the worth tag beneath $200. And that’s completely nice, however we do have the 2x2x2 ECW526 obtainable as nicely and just lately, EnGenius has additionally launched the inexpensive Cloud Lite ECW516L, so the place does the ECW520 place available in the market?

The Cloud Lite entry factors are clearly extra restricted each in {hardware} talents and by way of software program help, however the ECW520 and the ECW526 are extremely related. Both depend on the Qualcomm platform, the antenna acquire is comparable, with the previous truly being a bit higher on the two.4GHz radio, however there’s a main distinction by way of port. The ECW526 comes with a 10GbE PoE+ port, whereas the newer ECW520 is supplied with a 2.5GbE PoE+ port.

The three radios (together with the 6GHz) are provided on each entry factors and so are many of the newer WiFi7 options, so there’s fairly a little bit of overlapping between these two gadgets. Then once more, there could also be extra basic variations which might be lower than skin-deep, so let’s take a more in-depth have a look at the ECW520 and see the way it carry out in relation to its predominant rivals.

The Design and Build Quality

In phrases of design, the EnGenius ECW520 is nearer to the ECW130, than the newer, slimmer fashions. Sure, it’s a bit thick, however it’s additionally far smaller, standing at 15.8 x 15.8 x 3.5cm.

The entry level does include a bracket, so it’s straightforward to mount it on the ceiling, however there are additionally a few holes inside the metallic alloy backside, so it’s attainable to wall-mount the machine as nicely. Also, equally to the opposite EnGenius entry factors, the highest is plastic, so the metallic backside takes the function of dissipating the warmth away from the parts. So far, it has confirmed to be a dependable system. As for LEDs, there’s a single one which is way from being intuitive. It’s a mixture between inexperienced and blue to let you already know the standing of the AP..

Anyway, on the rear aspect, we get to see the ports space the place’s we are able to discover the recessed Reset button, a 12V DC port and a single 2.5GbE PoE+ port.

The Thermal Management

Now let’s speak concerning the warmth administration of the entry level. I did open up the machine and, whereas compact, EnGenius appeared to have made the ECW520 pretty environment friendly. But this must be confirmed by a thermal digicam.

And, after operating a number of checks to simulate a resource-heavy setting, the entry level does get fairly scorching going above 52C (125F), so we may even see some kind of throttling if there’s plenty of fixed stress placed on the community.

EnGenius ECW520 Teardown

As typical, it’s quite simple to open an EnGenius entry level, so in case it’s essential take away mud or restore the machine, the producer made the method easy. All I needed to do was take away the 4 screws from the underside of the machine and the highest half will pop off simply. Then, we are able to see the antenna array and, after taking out the screws, we are able to detach this half as nicely, however not earlier than the six antennas are eliminated as nicely.

And it’s not as straightforward as I anticipated it to be. That’s as a result of the antenna connectors are glued to the board for some cause. It’s not straightforward to detach them, so I don’t actually see the purpose, however the engineers thought in any other case. In any case, we are able to see the storage chipset on the underside of the PCB, whereas the remainder of the primary parts will be discovered on the highest aspect, beneath the aluminum covers. As a aspect notice, the EnGenius ECW520 has related {hardware} to the Xiaomi BE6500 Pro.

Hardware Comparison

Single Client Tests (6GHz & 5GHz)

I couldn’t assist however evaluate the throughput I managed to document testing the EnGenius ECW520 with the Cloud Lite ECW516L. And that’s as a result of each these entry factors include related worth tags.

From the seems to be of it, the ECW520 presents a greater throughput close to the consumer, however after going a bit farther away, even at 5 meters away, the efficiency is kind of related.

And that’s true each upstream and downstream. Notice how these two entry factors failed to take care of a connection father than 20 meters (or about 70 toes).

Things do change barely after checking the sign attenuation graph.

The WiFi 7 consumer is the winner when close to the entry level and the loser on the higher-range checks. The different purchasers did pretty nicely and it was attention-grabbing to see how reducing the channel bandwidth on the 6GHz radio displayed a greater throughput only a bit farther from the consumer.

Again, this stays true each upstream and downstream. When in comparison with different wi-fi entry factors, the ECW520 sits between the ECW230S and the FIT 4×4 Lite, so long as the 5GHz radio is used set at 80MHz.

After switching to the 160MHz width, the ECW520 sits between the ECW536 from the identical household of entry factors and the U6 Pro.

When utilizing the 6GHz radio and the 320MHz channel width, the entry factors sits between the U7 Pro Max and the U7 Pro.

Lastly, I made a decision to incorporate a longer-term efficiency graphic the place we are able to see some curious fluctuations, particularly when utilizing the 5GHz hi fi to the 160MHz.

Could they be heat-related? Not positive, however the entry level positively runs hotter than different gadgets from EnGenius.

Single Client Tests (2.4GHz)

Now let’s change to the two.4GHz radio efficiency. We can see that it’s a good throughput utilizing both a WiFi 6 or a WiFi 5 consumer machine and we do get usable throughput even when the gap is above 20m from the entry level.

The sign attenuation graph merely enforces the earlier outcomes as we see near 40Mbps even when the attenuation is -88dB.

When in comparison with different entry factors, the EnGenius ECW520 sits between the TP-Link EAP773 and the EAP670 which is a good efficiency, particularly because it’s higher than what I noticed with the ECW512L.

The Multi-Client Tests

I don’t check networking {hardware} that usually anymore, however I nonetheless most well-liked to go pretty in depth when testing the EnGenius ECW520, so I as soon as once more relied on net-hydra, a set of instruments developed by Mr Jim Salter and which can be found for anybody on GitHub. The preliminary check includes simulating 1080p streaming on 5 consumer gadgets.

And sure, solely a few them are an identical, the WiFi 6 laptops, however I suppose a various forged could present a extra sensible efficiency that may be anticipated in most households.

The outcomes present that one WiFi 6 consumer and the WiFi 5 ZimaBoard 832 carried out the worst, whereas the MacBook Pro did a bit higher, the final two purchasers doing decently nicely. Not good, however usable.

Switching to the 4K streaming graphic, we are able to see an analogous efficiency throughout the identical purchasers, with two purchasers doing nicely, whereas the others displaying unusable latency.

If I have been to check it to the ECW512L, it’s nonetheless nicely higher contemplating that each one consumer gadgets went above 100ms just about from the start. Now, I made a decision to incorporate intense shopping and run it alongside the preliminary 1080p streaming.

It’s clearly higher to restrict the variety of purchasers if that is one thing that usually occurs in your community, however it’s nonetheless good to know that we do get sub-100ms latency on three purchasers for about 95% of the time. Not superb, however usable to a sure extent.

The intense shopping graphic exhibits that one consumer is pushed near the restrict, however the remainder behave properly. Moving ahead, I ran the extraordinary shopping site visitors alongside 4K streaming and I acquired the next outcomes.

The 4K streaming graphic exhibits that it’s probably not a good suggestion. Sure, we get to see a latency close to 150ms for the 4 purchasers which might be close to the entry level, however it’s probably not usable. Still, as soon as once more, it is a higher efficiency than what I noticed with the ECW512L.

That being mentioned, let’s additionally obtain a 10MB file repeatedly, however restrict the variety of purchasers to 5, every with its personal kind of simulated site visitors.

Of course, I began with a few downloading purchasers, one staying close to 300ms more often than not, the opposite going to 600ms nearly instantly and staying there for your entire length of the check. There is impression on the opposite purchasers as nicely, rendering them unusable so I made a decision to restrict the variety of downloading purchasers to 1.

And the outcomes are peculiar. Sure, the downloading consumer stood close to of beneath 250ms more often than not, however the two 4K streaming purchasers had a pointy rise for five% of the time. The intense shopping consumer had a excessive latency, however inside affordable limits.

As a comparability, it’s not that a lot totally different than the ECW512L’s efficiency.

Next, I restricted the variety of purchasers to a few, however downloading a 10MB file continues to be too taxing, so I made a decision to obtain a 1MB file and change the 4K streaming to VoIP.

And the outcome is definitely respectable. Of course, I additionally included the latency when all 5 purchasers have been downloading a 10MB file repeatedly only for enjoyable.

The MLO Performance

Moving on the MLO efficiency, we get to see some attention-grabbing issues.

We instantly discover that no matter whether or not set to 320MHz or the 160MHz channel bandwidth, the 6GHz radio doesn’t get very far, however it does have one of the best near-the-access-point throughput. I did undergo all of the obtainable MLO configurations and it’s attainable for the throughput to go above 2Gbps in sure cases, however that’s simply upstream.

Downstream, the efficiency is a little more subdued, however nonetheless pretty respectable. If you need a good throughput each close to and farther from the entry level, I counsel going for the 5GHz and 6GHz combo, each set to the 160MHz channel width. Otherwise, 2.4GHz and 5GHz is a good mixture as nicely. At the tip, I’ve included the info I collected when operating FLENT.

The Standalone Mode

The EnGenius ECW520 does have a standalone mode, however it’s barely helpful. You get some fundamental monitoring information and what is named Local Setting. It features a few network-related settings and nothing extra, so that you do must depend on the Cloud for the correct expertise. This could possibly be an issue sooner or later if EnGenius decides to not help this mannequin anymore.

The Cloud Platform

I did point out the ECW512L a number of instances, however whereas this one get the Lite model of the Cloud, utilizing the ECW520 provides you with full entry to the EnGenius Cloud platform. The areas of curiosity are, as anticipated, the Dashboard and Access Points for the monitoring instruments of which there are fairly a number of.

But for configuration, there’s the SSIDs and radio sections the place you possibly can set the final settings which will likely be utilized for all entry factors that will likely be added to the community. You do get the choice to overwrite these settings on the machine degree with ease and we additionally get the long-lasting Diag instruments which do come to life should you get the Pro subscription. Then once more, even in its present default state, it’s nonetheless loads sufficient for many community admins.

The Conclusion

OK, so must you contemplate the EnGenius ECW520? SMBs will certainly have plenty of enjoyable with it. The worth is pretty low, whereas getting many of the superior WiFi 7 options plus the flexibility of the Cloud platform. It’s straightforward to observe, configure and the Diag instruments will likely be of nice assist to sys admins. Is it higher than the ECW516L? Not actually. I feel the ECW520 is the higher choice.