Page 5 - Conclusion
When we received the EnGenius ESR580, I was excited to see what new things we could see from a mesh router in 2020. On first glance, the ESR580 system has good points, including its small body and footprint. Its white glossy plastics are pretty typical of mesh routers, but I do appreciate its unassuming, laid-back design to fit into a home environment. Furthermore, its mobile application has many quick access features or options that are straightforward to use. For a Wi-Fi 5 AC2200 router, the EnGenius ESR580 performed exactly as expected. Furthermore, the benefits of adding the second node to the mesh setup was noted with an increase the wireless coverage and overall speeds. However, both the download and upload numbers were notably lacking compared to our 802.11ax routers we tested this year. In addition, setting up and customizing the EnGenius ESR580 was a bit clunkier than expected. The mobile application, while it exposes most of the common options that users will want to change, lacks in terms of advanced customization options. The long timeouts between changes also make the whole experience quite user unfriendly. In the advanced browser configuration, there are several omissions of features like scheduling uptime and downtime of networks, built-in anti-virus, and offering more parental control options. Furthermore, updating the firmware on the non-primary ESR580 unit was bothersome and frankly requires some fixing. Looking at the price of the EnGenius ESR580 2-Pack, it is currently available on online retailers for around $250 USD. At this price point in 2020, there are newer and better performing routers available, including ones that support the new Wi-Fi 6 standard. Even so, I look forward to see what else EnGenius can deliver in future iterations and updates to their product stack.
EnGenius provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH Networks Review Focus Summary:
6/10 means A product with its advantages, but drawbacks should not be ignored before purchasing.
5/10 means An average product with no real advantages; drawbacks and advantages just seem to cancel each other out.
-- Final APH Networks Numeric Rating is 5.2/10
Please note that the APH Networks Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other publications.
The EnGenius ESR580 performs as expected for an AC2200 mesh wireless router, but you can get better performance for a similar price with a single Wi-Fi 6 router -- not to mention its configuration options and user interface leaves a lot to be desired.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Configuration and User Interface
4. Performance Tests
5. Conclusion
