Wi-Fi Adapter from China: Choice, Review, Is it Worth Buying

I recently went to AliExpress to see what there is interesting among networking devices. And I saw just a huge number of Chinese-made wi-fi adapters. There are a lot of them there. The most different: with antennas, small, large, with support for the 802.11ac standard (5 GHz band) and without it. The choice is very large. Prices start at about two dollars.

These Wi-Fi adapters are plentiful not only on Aliexpress, but also on eBay and GearBest.

I decided to order some of these Wi-Fi adapters on AliExpress. To see what they even are, how they work, and if they can be used. I don’t really need them, I ordered them for the sake of looking, testing and writing about them. Many people now buy goods from China, especially such small electronics. So the article can be useful.

Back to my purchases. For the trial I decided not to buy expensive models. In case some nonsense will come, I will only waste money.

How I chose Wi-Fi adapters on AliExpress and which ones I ordered

On AliExpress in a search for “wi-fi adapter”. You can also “wi-fi adapter”, or go to the section “Network Cards” and on the left in the filter settings set the parameters of the device you need.

I chose the two most popular and, in my opinion, the best. From inexpensive. Each adapter has many orders and reviews.

And so, one bought with an antenna. It has no name, as far as I understand. On the adapter itself it says “easy idea wifi N”. This model has a detachable antenna. Costs about four dollars. Very modest specs. Up to 150 mbps, and a 2dB antenna. Came in a bag. Adapter, antenna, and a disk with drivers. They didn’t even put the disk in an envelope. It was just lying around with the adapter in the bag 🙂 .

It looks like this:

What about the quality? Not great. Like 4 dollars worth. The assembly and plastic, including the antenna is a three. But it’s an adapter, you plug it in and forget it. RT or MTK21 NOV chipset. If it matters to you, then see the characteristics of a particular adapter, or check with the seller.

Second EDUP (802.11N) adapter. There are a lot of different adapters from the manufacturer EDUP in Chinese stores. There are different models. I ordered one of the cheapest. For three dollars. This is a compact Wi-Fi receiver, which I recommend buying only for laptops. For desktop computers, it is better to take with an antenna. Especially if the router is far away from the PC. The kit also has a disk with drivers.

Assembly is not bad. On a four. Maybe because the adapter is very small, and because of this the case seems more reliable. I didn’t pay attention to crooked inscriptions and other trifles. The speed is also up to 150 Mbit/s. It works on the MTK7601 chipset (MediaTek). It is specified on the disk with drivers.

In both cases, the seller promises support from Windows XP to Windows 10. Also support for Linux and Mac OS. If there is a driver for the chipset on which the receiver works, everything will work.

My review and opinion about Wi-Fi receivers from China

Of course, to begin with, it would be good to work through such an adapter for a few weeks, check many different models, test them under load, check the speed in different conditions, etc. But to be honest, I have no desire to do that.

Both adapters I tested of course. Both work, that’s already good 🙂 In Windows 10 everything worked at once, without installing drivers. Just plugged the adapter into the USB port, the computer immediately saw the available Wi-Fi networks. It was very pleased with that. It is clear that in Windows XP, Windows 7, 8, and even in some cases on Windows 10 you will have to put drivers manually.

Many people do not order such equipment from China, because they are afraid of problems with drivers. But in most cases this is not a problem. Since the driver is installed either from a disk, which is most often in the kit, or downloaded from the Internet. You can find it by the ID of the equipment. I think to prepare a separate material on this topic.

When checking, at first glance the adapter “easy idea Wi-Fi N” (which has an antenna) is not inferior to TP-Link Archer T2UH. The omen level is the same. The speed is the same. True, I have it limited to 25 Mbps. Yes, most likely the nameless adapter from AliExpress will lose to the adapter from TP-Link in reliability and speed (if you have it at the rate of 100 Mbps). But it’s six times cheaper!

On the second one, which is from EDUP, I didn’t really like the reception level. Very poor signal. And because of that, the speed is slow. It’s understandable, it doesn’t have an antenna. But in the area of a more stable signal works quite well.

In our stores Wi-Fi adapters with the same characteristics from Tenda, Edimax, Mercusys, TP-LINK, D-Link will cost about two or three times more expensive.

Conclusions

The devices work. There are drivers in the kit (I can’t say for all models and different sellers), in Windows 10 most likely everything will work right after connection. At first glance, they are no worse (at least not much worse) than more expensive, branded adapters. The price is lower by about half compared to models from popular manufacturers.

On the downside: it takes a long time to get an order from AliExpress and other similar stores. You can get a non-working adapter (but you can return it, get your money back). No warranty. In terms of stability and speed, they are likely to be inferior to more expensive adapters from well-known manufacturers of network equipment. But here a lot depends on what Wi-Fi receiver you order and on your tasks.

Try to choose the most popular (as I did), do not fall for a very low price, read reviews, look at the seller’s rating.

In general, I am satisfied with the devices. They are worth the money I paid for them. But if I were choosing a Wi-Fi adapter for myself, I would still buy something from those sold in our stores. From TP-LINK, ASUS, D-Link. For some reason I have more confidence in them. Although, as practice shows, there are enough problems with them too. And they break too.

I have shared my opinion on this topic. It’s up to you. Be sure to write in the comments how you feel about such equipment from Chinese online stores. You can share your own experience. Many people will find this information useful.

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Ramón

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