Testing:

Testing the Edimax EW-7438RPn Mini was a simple matter of running the test at Speedtest.net to see what kind of results could be achieved. I chose a local server sponsored by my ISP, and then proceeded to run the test three times in order to create an average score to report in the graphs below. The EW-7438RPn Mini was tested in both access point and extender mode, and those results were compared to my existing network's hardwired and AC1900 wireless performance. In access point mode, a CAT-6 cable connected the EW-7438RPn Mini to the router, and a laptop was used to run the test from about 10 feet away. In access point mode, the EW-7438RPn Mini was placed about 10 feet from the router, and the laptop was another 10 feet away from the extender. With the AC1900 test, the laptop was 10 feet from the router, and for the hardwired test, the same CAT-6 cable was used as was in the access point test.

The first result Speedtest.net gives you is for Ping. This is an indication of how quickly a remote server is to respond to you, and measures the time for this round trip communication in milliseconds (lower is better). Here we see that the hardwired and AC1900 wireless router are the fastest, but the "Mini" in access point mode is just about as fast. And while not slow, the slower 14ms time while in extender mode makes sense since the same communication is making two hops on your local network in each direction. These numbers are intended to be averages, but honestly, the numbers repeated identically each time.



Next we have the download speeds in MB/s (higher is better), which may be the most useful value to any user. This shows how quickly content from the Web can get down to your device - key when it comes to streaming videos, etc. In this test I was first able to document the inconsistent performance I mentioned on the previous page. In my opinion, access point mode should be faster than extender mode, and on one of the three tries it was. Its just that you don't know what you are going to get and it stalled out on two of the tests and really brought the average down. That said, in extender mode, one of its results was just over 72 MB/s, fast enough to beat the AC1900 connection, but the other two were well lower and the average reflects that. The test results were all over the place, showing that when it is working - it works well - but otherwise you have to be patient and/or ready to do some troubleshooting.



Upload testing gives you a value in MB/s (higher is better), and this time it is for how quickly files move from your device to the Web. This round of testing was equally frustrating, and further documented my experience with the "Mini" in everyday use. In access point mode, the average score looks bad enough, but considering two of the three results were actually less than 0.2 MB/s, you can see that it can be even worse than the graph shows. But look at the extender mode results... they beat the speeds put up when directly connecting to my AC1900 router. So, it can be fast, but you can't count on it.



In everyday use the speeds seemed to vary greatly, and the device seemed to be unresponsive quite enough - running a handful of Speedtest.net tests just confirmed it. You don't really know what to expect, as the "Mini" can be quick and pleasant to use, but don't count on it lasting for too long.

While the numbers above may not look bad in terms of performance for the EW-7438RPn Mini, it was very inconsistent, and obviously had to be executed in a window where the devices were actually functional.