Huawei crowdfunds world’s first ‘Mesh Crystal Antenna’ Wi-Fi 7 router — stunning glowing ornament also has a ‘shark fin’ heat exhaust, but is currently a Japan market exclusive
The optional mesh nodes look quite handsome, too.
Chinese tech giant Huawei has lined up a magical-looking Wi-Fi 7 router featuring the world’s first "metal mesh crystal antenna" (machine translation) on Japanese crowdfunding site GreenFunding. As well as the glowing crystal mountain at the center of the design, the router boasts a ‘shark fin’ heat exhaust system. It might be the nearest a home tech appliance has yet got to the gadget holy grail of combining sharks and laser beams.
The lighting of the router and the mesh nodes can be configured or automatically change according to the time of day. Touch controls on the devices allow quick visual adjustments. A partner app facilitates greater control.
You will have formed your own idea about the visual appeal of the new Huawei WiFi Mesh X3 Pro. Whatever your opinion of its glowing physical presence, it seems like a bold move for Huawei to promote a piece of tech that is usually hidden away into the limelight. Actually, moving the router out of a hidden corner, into a central ornamental statement piece, will probably be good for the Wi-Fi signal in your home.
Beneath the “sophisticated amber glow,” the 10-inch (250mm) tall WiFi Mesh X3 Pro packs in some attractive technology. For example, it supports technologies such as "MLO", "4K-QAM", and "Multi-RU" to stretch its Wi-Fi 7 capabilities. There are also two 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports on the main unit. All this is driven by the custom Huawei Gigahome SoC.
To maintain the router’s throughput across its six high-performance antennas, the “Shark Fin Heat Exhaust System” comes into play. Huawei boasts it can prevent any thermal throttling affecting which could adversely affect long hours of online gaming or large data transfers.
Huawei has made a matching mesh node/satellite unit, which is included in some of the crowdfunder bundles. This is a truncated but complementary glowing design, again encouraging the owner not to deploy it in a hidden recess.
Model |
Huawei WiFi Mesh X3 Pro |
Product type |
Wi‑Fi 7 dual‑band mesh router (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz) |
Wireless standards |
IEEE 802.11be/ax/ac/n/a/g/b, 2×2 MIMO |
Max wireless rate |
Up to 688 Mbps (2.4 GHz) + 2882 Mbps (5 GHz), ~3.6 Gbps theoretical total |
CPU / platform |
Huawei Gigahome SoC with Wi‑Fi 7 optimisations |
Antennas |
Internal “crystal” antenna structure (no external antennas) |
Ports (main unit) |
1× 2.5 Gbps WAN, 1× 2.5 Gbps LAN |
Mesh support |
Multi‑node mesh (main + satellite units, seamless roaming) |
Security |
WPA/WPA2/WPA3, firewall, brute‑force attack detection, parental controls |
Management app |
HUAWEI AI Life (setup, diagnostics, lighting, and Wi‑Fi control) |
Dimensions |
Approx. 250.9 mm (Height) × 123.2 mm (Diameter) |
Weight |
Approx. 790 g (1.75 pounds) |
Seemingly a Japan exclusive for now, the crowdfunding is going very well – raising 8,600% over target – so perhaps Huawei will see fit to roll out the visually appealing WiFi Mesh X3 Pro in more markets. Then we'll be able to check whether it stands up to comparisons with the best Wi-Fi routers we've tested. Converting the (regular non-early bird) Japanese Yen price to USD would suggest a U.S. price of $170 for the main router alone. Not that bad for what Huawei claims is a piece of “art.”
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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jp7189 The title makes me think the mountain design is functional, but the body of the article doesn't give any detail. Is the metal mesh crystal the mountain looking thing, or is the mountain just decoration? Assuming it is the mountain, how does that shape help with signal propagation?Reply -
pclaughton When a huge, multinational conglomerate "crowdfunds" a new product, we've really lost the plot.Reply -
ButtermilkBiscuit This & those batman display glasses gives me the inclination that humanity has too much disposable income.Reply -
ezst036 Reply
I fail to see why.pclaughton said:When a huge, multinational conglomerate "crowdfunds" a new product, we've really lost the plot.
Internally company management may have believe it would be a total failure but some employee with clout was insistent.
"Ok Bob, go crowd fund it then. Prove to our department that it is viable."
Customers putting their money where their mouths are is the ultimate proof. -
LordVile Reply
Not really as a few people wanting a product doesn’t mean there’s a large enough market for it.ezst036 said:I fail to see why.
Internally company management may have believe it would be a total failure but some employee with clout was insistent.
"Ok Bob, go crowd fund it then. Prove to our department that it is viable."
Customers putting their money where their mouths are is the ultimate proof. -
ezst036 Reply
Sure, that's true.LordVile said:Not really as a few people wanting a product doesn’t mean there’s a large enough market for it.
However now Bob doesn't just have to rely on Bob's intuition and a serious look is likely to occur by management and others. You're right Bob, there's some sort of a "here" here.
In any case, no plot is being lost. Crowd funding is just a tool. That is all I was getting at. -
LordVile Reply
Again no you haven’t understood the point. Just because a project is backed through crowdfunding doesn’t mean it’s a valid commercial idea or even a good idea in principle. For example the Ouya was extremely successful in crowdfunding, not so much out of it.ezst036 said:Sure, that's true.
However now Bob doesn't just have to rely on Bob's intuition and a serious look is likely to occur by management and others. You're right Bob, there's some sort of a "here" here.
In any case, no plot is being lost. Crowd funding is just a tool. That is all I was getting at. -
DougMcC <8Gb of bandwidth. Who is throwing away money on these when you can get 20+ for a few dollars more.Reply -
ezst036 Reply
OkLordVile said:Again no you haven’t understood the point. Just because a project is backed through crowdfunding doesn’t mean it’s a valid commercial idea or even a good idea in principle. For example the Ouya was extremely successful in crowdfunding, not so much out of it.
I'll defer back to post 3. Have a good day. -
olaf Its been available at about 2x 3x price of a normal to tp-link in Romania for months now. Altex.ro sells it. Never seen it in showroom tho. But since they have a ton of stuff they can cram it all in ...Reply