Say goodbye to Wi-Fi dead zones in your home — Xiaomi Mesh System AC1200 review

In today’s connected world, a strong and reliable Wi-Fi connection is no longer a luxury — it’s a necessity.

Yet, many standard routers that South Africans receive with their home Internet packages cannot provide sufficient connectivity to every corner of their homes.

• Click here to purchase the two-pack Xiaomi Mesh System from Takealot
• Click here to purchase the one-pack Xiaomi Mesh System from Takealot

As a result, subscribers may be left with the frustrating “I need to move to the lounge to get a better signal” situation when trying to watch a simple YouTube video.

The Xiaomi Mesh System AC1200 offers an alternative solution — multiple affordable routers that provide extensive signal coverage throughout your home.

This provides you with improved stability, broader reach, and faster speeds throughout every room of your house.

The best part is that the entire setup process, as well as switching between routers, is seamless.

We decided to put the Xiaomi Mesh System AC1200 to the test, and below we detail our experience using it.

How it works

The Xiaomi Mesh System AC1200 promised to eliminate dead spots and improve Wi-Fi coverage throughout our home.

We received two AC1200 mesh router units, which connect to and share Wi-Fi with each other using their own dedicated wireless connection.

Xiaomi also pairs the devices in the factory, simplifying the setup through the Xiaomi Mi Home app.

Together, the two mesh routers provided a single unified connection, allowing our devices to automatically switch to the closest router without affecting our connection as we moved around the coverage area.

This network can cover an impressive 260 square metres — significantly more than single router setups, which typically don’t extend beyond a 150 square metre area.

We found that using two Xiaomi Mesh System AC1200 routers is more than enough for an average-sized South African home, and if your home is particularly large, you could add a third router.

• Click here to purchase the two-pack Xiaomi Mesh System from Takealot
• Click here to purchase the one-pack Xiaomi Mesh System from Takealot

The Xiaomi Mesh System AC1200 achieves its broad coverage thanks to its multi-router setup, as well as its dual-band deployment across the 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands.

The 5GHz band provides higher bandwidth for next-level transfer speeds, while 2.4GHz reaches further and is great for penetrating walls to ensure every room in your home has connectivity.

The 2.4GHz band is also great for all your smart home devices, some of which will only connect to the slower but more stable band.

In combination, the Xiaomi AC1200 routers support 1,200Mbps of bandwidth across their two frequency bands.

There is also the option for Gigabit ethernet ports if you want a wired connection.

Putting it to the test

We tested this system in a 210-square-metre home, where our existing, single-router connection doesn’t allow the signal to extend much beyond main areas like the lounge, dining room, and kitchen.

Areas like bedrooms and bathrooms had suffered from poor connectivity — until we implemented this Xiaomi mesh system.

We set the routers up at equidistant intervals between the two furthest points of the house, and the results were incredible.

The two-router Xiaomi Mesh System AC1200 didn’t only provide coverage in each room — it completely eliminated dead spots.

We moved around to every previously dead spot in the house, running MyBroadband speed tests on a smartphone in each area, and achieved impressive download and upload speeds across the board.

In the house’s office area, which had been the most troublesome area for connectivity, we were blown away by the stability of the connection.

This made a noticeable difference, particularly during video calls, gaming, and streaming 4K content.

• Click here to purchase the two-pack Xiaomi Mesh System from Takealot
• Click here to purchase the one-pack Xiaomi Mesh System from Takealot

A key reason for this was its automatic band steering, which intelligently assigned devices to the faster 5GHz band or the far-reaching 2.4GHz band, based on their performance and proximity to a router.

The Xiaomi Mesh System AC1200 also offered several other useful features, such as the ability to control and monitor the system through the Xiaomi Mi Home app. This lets you pause or block devices and give others priority bandwidth.

The system also allows over 120 devices to be connected at the same time — ensuring your smartphones, laptops, TVs, and smart home devices can run on the mesh network with ease.

Its extensive features and recommended retail price of R1,500 make the Xiaomi Mesh System AC1200 a standout choice in the mesh Wi-Fi market.\

• Click here to purchase the two-pack Xiaomi Mesh System from Takealot
• Click here to purchase the one-pack Xiaomi Mesh System from Takealot