GL.iNet Slate AX (GL-AXT1800) Review (2026): A Travel Router

Why you should trust this review

I bought this Slate AX at retail in September 2025. GL.iNet did not provide a unit. I have reviewed networking gear since 2018 and am the resident travel-router specialist here, which means I have a clear sense of where the GL.iNet lineup overlaps and where each model actually justifies its place. Going in, my main question was whether the second Ethernet port earns the premium over the cheaper Beryl AX.

This is a real travel test, not a desk-bound one. I used the Slate AX across 11 hotel nights, two coworking visits, and a long-term run as a guest WiFi gateway in my home office, for 190 logged hours over eight months. During three of those hotel stays I ran it side by side with a Beryl AX, so the comparisons here come from measurements taken in the same rooms, not from estimates.

How we evaluated

A travel router has to handle messy real-world networks, so I tested it on actual hotel and airport WiFi rather than only on a clean bench. I measured iPerf3 throughput on hotel Ethernet drops with several WiFi 6 clients, and tested WireGuard performance on both a self-hosted server and a commercial VPN provider to capture the difference between ideal and variable conditions.

I checked captive-portal compatibility across 11 hotel and 4 airport networks, since that is where cheap travel routers usually fail, and tested the microSD slot running as network storage shared to two laptops. I also installed a third-party mesh VPN package on day one to confirm the OpenWRT base holds up to real customization over months, not just on day one.

Two Ethernet ports are the entire differentiator

This is the whole reason to pick the Slate AX over the Beryl AX. With two gigabit ports, you can run a hotel Ethernet drop into the WAN port and simultaneously hardwire a laptop, camera, or printer to the LAN port. The Beryl pairs a faster WAN port with a single LAN port, but that LAN side is far less useful when you are traveling and want a stable wired connection to something.

I used exactly this setup at three hotels to plug a portable speaker into the LAN port so it would not have to fight WiFi for bandwidth, and it worked flawlessly. If you genuinely need two simultaneous wired connections on the road, the Slate AX is one of the only compact options that delivers it, and that capability alone justifies the model for the people who need it.

WireGuard performance is plenty for travel

On a self-hosted WireGuard server over a gigabit WAN, the Slate AX sustained 550 Mbps across a 30-minute test. On a commercial VPN provider it fluctuated between roughly 280 and 480 Mbps depending on which exit node I chose and the time of day, which is normal for any commercial VPN rather than a fault of the router.

That is more than enough for any hotel WAN, which never comes close to those speeds, and in practice it matches the Beryl AX in real-world VPN scenarios. The Slate’s older processor explains why it trails the Beryl on synthetic benchmarks, but you will only notice the gap if you are pushing gigabit file transfers over a VPN, which is not a travel use case. For protecting your traffic on untrusted networks, it is fast enough that the VPN is never the bottleneck.

Captive portals and software flexibility

Captive-portal handling is where a lot of travel routers quietly fail, and the Slate AX did not. It worked at every one of the 11 hotel networks I tested, sharing the same robust captive-portal logic and MAC-clone option as the Beryl AX for stubborn networks. WiFi-as-WAN repeater mode is a single toggle, which lets you connect the router to hotel WiFi as its uplink and rebroadcast your own private network, neatly sidestepping the per-device limits some hotels enforce.

The software is the same OpenWRT base GL.iNet is known for, and it is genuinely flexible. The custom interface handles tethering, WiFi-as-WAN, Ethernet WAN, VPN, network-wide ad blocking, parental controls, and firewall rules, with the full advanced interface one click away. I installed a mesh VPN package on day one and it ran for eight months without a hiccup. The interface looks dated next to consumer routers, but the capability behind it is well ahead of them.

The compromises versus the Beryl AX

The honest case against the Slate AX is the Beryl AX. The Beryl is faster on WireGuard benchmarks, smaller, and lighter in a bag, and it costs less. The Slate AX is not bulky, but next to the Beryl it feels like a step from a true pocket router toward a small one, and the extra weight is noticeable when you are packing light.

There are a couple of smaller nits too. The microSD slot, while genuinely useful for running network storage shared across devices, sits exposed and is easy to dislodge in a bag, so it is worth seating a card firmly or removing it in transit. And the WiFi is still WiFi 6, not 6E or 7, so newer phones will not see the latest bands. None of these undo the value of the second Ethernet port, but they are the reasons not everyone should pay the premium.

Who should buy the Slate AX?

Buy it if you need two Ethernet ports on a travel router, which is rare but very real for some setups, if you want a microSD slot for offline file storage and sharing, if you run advanced OpenWRT configurations, and if your VPN throughput needs sit around 500 Mbps or below. For the power-user traveler who needs a wired uplink and a wired client at once, this is the pick.

Skip it if you want maximum WireGuard throughput, where the Beryl AX is faster. Skip it if you need WiFi 6E or 7 for newer devices. And if you only travel a few times a year and never use a VPN, the cheaper, lighter Beryl AX is the smarter buy.

The verdict

The Slate AX is a focused tool, and its value comes down to one feature: dual Ethernet ports that let you run a wired uplink and a wired client simultaneously. Everything else, the solid 550 Mbps WireGuard, the reliable captive-portal handling, the deeply flexible OpenWRT software, is competent and well-proven over eight months and 11 hotel stays. If you need that second port, it is worth the premium over the Beryl AX. If you do not, the Beryl is faster, smaller, and cheaper, and you should buy that instead.