The cheapest Wi-Fi 6 router couples a shocking price with a groovy design

With working from home made compulsory for many of due to the ongoing pandemic, a decent hard-edge router has never been more important - especially as ISP offerings often deliver notoriously poor performance.

Enter the Xiaomi AX1800 router, the most affordable Wi-Fi 6 router out there right now. Gearbest sells it for a jaw-droppingly low $65.99 (£56.37/AU$106.75) using a $2 coupon, which is less than most Wi-Fi 5 (AKA 802.11ac) models cost.

This Mi Router 802.11ax router is powered by two processors; the first is the Qualcomm IPQ6000 with four cores and the second a dedicated NPU with one core clocked at 1.5GHz. It also comes with four GbE ports, support for mesh networking and can connect to up to 128 devices concurrently.

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The AX1800 features four independent signal amplifiers and supports ODFMA technology for more efficient transmission. As expected, it runs the MiWiFi operating system (based on OpenWRT), which can be managed via the router’s web admin interface.

The funky pillar-shaped device ships with a user manual, an Ethernet cable and power supply.

If you're looking for something even cheaper, there’s the Xiaomi Redmi AC2100 Gigabit router, which retails for a mere $45.50 (£37.86/AU$71.58). Just bear in mind, Xiaomi has likely used Chinese in the backend for both routers, so you might have to break out Google Translate.

Note, while Gearbest ships to most territories worldwide via expedited shipping, you may be levied additional charges and fees by customs. Exact prices will also vary region by region depending on the day’s exchange rate.