Review: Zyxel MultyX is a decent Airport Extreme replacement for the home, with a big configuration problem

Now that the AirPort is completely gone, there's an opening for easy to configure and reliable networking hardware. Zyxel's Multy X system is fast, with excellent hardware —but not without some rough edges. By the numbers

The Zyxel Multy X is what Wi-Fi networking types call an "AC3000" system. As such, the unit has a 5Ghz radio with up to 1733Mbps speeds used for backhaul between the mesh node and the main unit. For the device-facing radios like your iPhone, you get 5Ghz up to 866Mbps and 2.4Ghz up to 400Mbps. When you sum all these numbers, you get 2999, which is nominally 3000. 

On the wired side, it delivers one gigabit WAN port and three gigabit LAN ports. The specific CPU in the unit isn't really relevant, but it has 4GB of eMMC and 512MB of RAM. Each unit of the pair in the box weighs just under 2 pounds, and are a sizable 9.3 x 7 x 2 inches.

The Good

The Zyxel Multy X has excellent signal strength and speeds. It performed excellently in some of the most demanding environments we could find in the environs we tested it in. We used it alternately in the same environ as the Amplifi HD mesh system we examined, and found that it consistently delivered better speed to connected devices. Zyxel's Multy X app provides a decent amount of features, including speed tests, checking the bandwidth and signal strength between base and nodes, and parental controls for blocking a device or limiting access to specific times. The parental controls cover the required basics: setting time limits, and blocking a device, but they don't go further: you can't block specific content like YouTube or Facebook, for example.