Gl.inet slate review in Spanish (full analysis)

The GL.iNet Slate (GL-AR750S-EXT) is perhaps the smallest router that we can find on the market and it is the one that we will analyze today. It fits practically in a pocket and has a huge number of functions designed especially for traveling, and to take it with us anywhere and work safely over the Internet.

Its main advantage is to offer VPN connection both in client and server mode with the possibility of connecting to the WAN network or with a 4G modem that we place on its USB. For better mobility, it offers Wifi 5 Dual Band, including a Micro SD slot to configure even a file server. If you want to see everything that is capable, stay in this analysis. Let's go there!

Before we begin, we thank GL.iNet for trusting us in giving us this little router for review.

Technical characteristics GL.iNet Slate

Unboxing

Well, let's start with the Unboxing of this toy in the form of a GL.iNet Slate router, which will come to us in a very small box made of rigid hard cardboard. It comes with a very premium Smartphone-style texture and is black in color. Note that the router is small, this box only measures 163 x 140 x 47 mm weighing just over 300 grams. Due to its sliding type opening, it comes with a cardboard clamp to prevent everything from falling out when picking it up.

We open it, and in the first instance we find a quick installation guide and another one indicating all the ports and buttons of the router. In addition, the equipment comes discreetly at one end wrapped in a plastic bubble bag next to another cardboard box that stores the rest of the accessories.

The bundle in this case has the following elements:

• INet Slate Router Installation and Support Guides 5V / 2A European Type Power Plug USB Type-A Cable - Micro Power USB UTP Cable Twisted Pair RJ45 Cat.6

The truth is that the set is not bad, with a quality element such as this Cat.6 cable and a separate USB cable with respect to the plug in case we want to feed it directly from a PC which is great for portability.

We also have some useful and very simple installation guides that basically tells us to connect the router to the power and enter it to configure it. Later we will see the options we have to create our secure LAN network.

Exterior design

For now, let's start by analyzing the design of this GL.iNet Slate pocket router, because it really is pocket-sized, as it only measures a ridiculous 100 mm wide, 68 mm deep and 24 mm high with the antennas collected. The weight without the power plug is only 86 grams. Then we will see everything that this little one is capable of, because it is not little.

Let's start from the front, or at least the one we consider front, an area that does not have any buttons, but does have LED indicators. Specifically three of them, one to indicate that the router is on, and two others to inform us of activity on the two available Wi-Fi networks, as we remember, the router is Dual Band and works at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Perhaps a fourth light to indicate if we are connected to a WAN would be somewhat welcome, the truth, since there is space.

Continuing with the sides of the GL.iNet Slate, we found quite interesting elements. The common part is that we have two antennas that can be deployed by a simple upward turn of 90o. In this way the router will increase its wingspan to 7 cm high.

On these sides we have:

• RESET button Mode button with two positions, whose functions can be configured from the firmware MicroSD card slot with a maximum capacity of 128 GB, supporting Linux FAT32, NTFS and EXT 2/3/4 file systems.

In this case we do not have a WPS function implemented in the form of a button on the outside of the router, everything being quite concise and functional. In addition, these two sides have vents to let the hot air inside escape, and the truth is that they are very necessary, since the router heats up a bit if required.

Finally, the back is also quite full of ports, since we have:

• 3x RJ45 Ethernet 1000BASE-T. The one on the far left is for WAN and the next two for LAN. USB 2.0 port. With it we can connect a 3G / 4G modem or a Smartphone to supply the Internet through Tethering. It does not detect storage flash drives. USB Micro USB Power Connector

As we see a fairly complete set that in this case we will have to manage it from the firmware, since a priori it is not automatically configured as far as connection to 4G or Tethering is concerned, although it is in normal mode with WAN cable. Although it is obvious, we indicate that it does not have PoE functionality on the RJ45 ports.

Internal hardware

Although in this case the hardware of the GL.iNet Slate is not too important due to the limited power that we have, it is worth knowing that it has gotten into this small space. Furthermore, the manufacturer even gives us an image of the PCB with indications of the most important elements.

As a central processing core we have a Qualcomm QCA9563 CPU that runs at 775 MHz and will offer us Dual Band connectivity. The maximum bandwidth will be 300 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz frequency thanks to a 2 × 2 connection on IEEE 802.11n and 433 Mbps on the 5 GHz frequency with a 1 × 1 connection on IEEE 802.11ac. The encryption supported will be of type WPA2-PSK and WPA.

It would have been very positive to have a 2 × 2 connection in both cases in order to supply 1.73 Gbps in 5 GHz that supports the vast majority of laptop network cards and motherboards. We imagine that everything is due to lack of space and energy, since the Qualcomm QCA9880 CPU is just superior and gives us the benefits that we discussed.

To this is added a 128 MB DDR2 RAM, the maximum that this CPU supports. The firmware has been installed in a double flash memory with 16 MB of NOR type and 128 MB of NAND type. In addition to the two external antennas we do not have any more internal, one of them being shared between the two Wi-Fi bands.

Finally, the consumption of this GL.iNet Slate is less than 6W, although the connector is prepared to give at least 10W through the Micro USB.

Firmware, functions and configuration

Much more important than its design are the functions that this router brings us and especially the extreme simplicity of use, since it is designed for all types of people with or without network knowledge.

Various modes of operation and Internet connection

The versatility of the GL.iNet Slate is evident just by taking a look at the welcome screen. We will access this after connecting well with the Wifi and with cable from a PC or a Smartphone. The initial password for the wifi will be " goodlife ".

Once inside, it is time to configure the network, although if we have used a WAN cable, the router will do this configuration automatically. But we will have three more possibilities that are the true reason for this router:

• Repeater: perhaps the most useful and most direct, since the router will connect to public Wi-Fi or wherever we are to give us access to the Internet or our VPN in a completely secure way and isolated from other users of that network. 3G / 4G modem: and if we do not have the above possibility, we will be able to connect using a typical spike modem that works with the mobile network. Being this ideal for traveling. Tethering: this method is similar to the previous one, since we can connect a modem or a compatible Smartphone directly to the USB port to supply the network, for example the iPhone with its lightning port.

At the top we are shown a graph identifying the connection method, the state of the router and if it is using VPN and the clients connected to it.

Options as client or VPN server

With the GL.iNet Slate we have two simple options, both to connect the router as a client in a VPN and to turn it into a server. We can do it with just one click, nothing more.

Firstly, we have the OpenVPN method, which is one of the most widely used because it is open source and allows easy access and configuration through the router with the configuration file it generates and the software we install on our clients. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.

The other even simpler method is WireGuard, a proprietary method through this protocol with the latest generation cryptography. We also have software available for all types of systems, and we will only have to activate it and connect by capturing a QR code supplied by the router.

What's more, we even have a specific section for the Tor (The Onion Router) browser, the open source software that will allow us to anonymously browse the Internet and the Deep Web. We will be able to select the exit node and enable this function to connect to this network by strengthening the firewall.

Other possibilities

The firmware of the GL.iNet Slate is extremely complete for how small it is, so let's see the most important sections in a quick way.

From the second section we will have the possibility to configure the supplied wireless network, which will be in 2.4 and 5 GHz together with the types of encryption available. But we can also activate the guest network on both frequencies separately, something very useful in general to connect to the one we want according to the client's possibilities. It is possible to configure the power that we want it to deliver and the bandwidth in each case.

From the next section we can see the clients connected to the router as well as their IP and MAC. In each case we can configure the QoS of each client with a certain bandwidth. The next section is simply for GL.iNet Slate firmware updates.

It is just as simple to configure the opening of ports on this router in the firewall section, and it also explains it in detail. We have the DMZ function for unprotected area in case we have a server-type client or for free access to the Internet.

In the next batch of functions of the GL.iNet Slate we can mount our own file server with Samba using a MicroSD memory card. Remember that the USB port does not seem to detect flash drives, a pity.

The team gives us the possibility of remote management through the GoodCloud manufacturer's cloud just by creating an account and entering the router ID. As in other cases, it has the possibility of working as DDNS, configuring the IP range that it supplies to clients, and the possibility of configuring itself as:

• Router Access Point Wi-Fi Extender WDS

Two very useful functions for anonymous browsing are MAC cloning and DLS over TLS. In the first case, the router masks our real MAC and places a dummy pair that cannot identify the device from which we are browsing. In the second case, an encryption layer is added to the DNS so that it does the same function with a URL.

Last but not least, it gives the possibility of multicasting the Sennheiser LSP 500 speakers if they are used for conferences. This pack is a spatial edition available on the official page. The truth is that we cannot complain, many options, with a very smooth navigation through the menus and everything perfectly explained. Great job on GL.iNet

Test of performance

In this case we have been able to test the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks separately, so we will carry out the corresponding tests on each one. First with the two devices attached to the router, both Wi-Fi and RJ45, and then separated about 10 meters with two walls in between. We will also make a heat map with the Wi-Fi coverage of the device.

Testing equipment

• GL.iNet Slate Router (GL-AR750S-EXT) First team (Wi-Fi): Asus PCE-AC88 First team (LAN): Intel I211 GbES Second team (Wi-Fi): Intel Wireless-AC 7260 Second team (LAN): Intel I218-LM GbESoftware: jperf 2.0.2

Wi-Fi coverage

We will make a map for the 2.4 GHz band and another for the 5 GHz band, to see the coverage offered by each one.

2.4 GHz

5 GHz

We have found that the coverage is surprisingly good for the small size of the router. in fact, these values ​​are similar to those obtained by larger equipment and 4 or 8 transmitting antennas. Taking into account the situation of the router in the house, it almost provides coverage to the other end with a large number of walls in between.

The 5 GHz network, being its shorter frequency, costs you more to enter through the walls and therefore its coverage is reduced a little. However we see that it is an excellent router to adequately cover a medium-sized apartment or house.

Bandwidth

We can see that the bandwidth is quite discrete, and certainly superior hardware would have been somewhat less limiting. In this case, we do not want this router to play, but rather to browse, work or broadcast by chat, and that is enough for us. We also did not want to buy it with other gaming routers analyzed because it makes no sense.

Final words and conclusion about the GL.iNet Slate router

The GL.iNet Slate could be one of the most different routers that we have tested both for its size and for everything it offers us from its firmware and ease of use. Not for nothing has he won the innovation award at CES 2019.

It is clearly a team oriented to travel, we deduce it because it fits in a simple pocket and for being able to connect to the Internet from the WAN port, Tethering, a 3G / 4G modem or directly connecting to a public network and knitting secure access. But something very interesting that you could see implemented is the possibility of using a SIM card directly, we hope they will do so in a future version.

The hardware obviously does not give much bandwidth, having in this case 433 Mbps at 5 GHz and 300 Mbps at 2.4 GHz 2 × 2, although it works at a little less, but at least it gives us the possibility of dual band. We have been surprised by the excellent coverage it has, covering a medium-sized house with solvency. It offers the possibility of being configured as access points or integrated into a mesh network.

We also recommend our guide on the best routers on the market

We loved the Web UI 3.0 firmware, very easy to use, with all the options perfectly explained and a huge number of useful functions. Among them the possibility of creating our own VPN server with OpenVPN or WireGuard in a very simple way. DNS over TLS and MAC cloning options come perfect for anonymous browsing.

Finally comment on its good accessibility of ports, with a USB 2.0 for 3G / 4G modems but not for flash drives, MicroSD slot with the option of creating a Samba file server, and two RJ45 ports that work in the second layer next to the res Wifi. We cannot ask much more for the truth.

The GL.iNet Slate version GL-AR750S-EXT can be found currently for a price on the official page of $ 69.99, or 91 euros on Amazon. It is not too cheap, but it offers us much more options than a normal router, especially in mobility. For those who travel it will come phenomenal for secure connections, so it is inevitable to have to recommend it, as there is nothing like it.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ INCREDIBLY SIMPLE FIRMWARE	- WITH SIM SLOT IT WOULD BE PERFECT
+ WAN, TETHERING OR 4G CONNECTION VERSATILITY	- BASIC WI-FI BANDWIDTH
+ VPN SERVER
+ GOOD AMOUNT OF EXTRAS
+ COMPLETE CONNECTIVITY OF PORTS
+ TIGHT SIZE

The Professional Review team gives you the gold medal and recommended product

GL.iNet GL-AR750S-Ext Gigabit Travel AC Router (Slate), 300Mbps (2.4G) + 433Mbps (5G) Wi-Fi, 128MB RAM, 128MB NAND Flash, MicroSD Storage Support, OpenWrt / LEDE pre-Installed, Cables Included

• DUAL BAND AC ROUTER: Simultaneous dual band with wireless speed 300Mbps (2.4G) + 433Mbps (5G). Convert a public network (wired / wireless) to a private Wi-Fi for secure surfing.OPEN SOURCE & PROGRAMMABLE: OpenWrt / LEDE pre-installed, backed by software repository.VPN CLIENT & SERVER: OpenVPN and WireGuard pre-installed, compatible with 25+ VPN service providers.LARGER STORAGE & EXTENSIBILITY: 128MB RAM, 16MB NOR Flash and 128MB NAND Flash, up to 128GB MicroSD slot, USB 2.0 port, three Ethernet ports.PACKAGE CONTENTS: Slate (GL-AR750S-Ext) router with 1 -year limited warranty, USB cable, Ethernet cable and user manual. Please update the latest firmware at the following link before using:

91.23 EUR Buy on Amazon

GL.iNet Slate

DESIGN - 100%

PERFORMANCE 5 GHZ - 70%

SCOPE - 84%

FIRMWARE AND EXTRAS - 87%

PRICE - 84%

85%