Zyxel NWA240BE review: A high-performance Wi-Fi 7 access point priced right for SMBs

Zyxel is rapidly becoming the go-to place for Wi-Fi 7 access points as it offers a remarkable range of solutions with a sharp focus on performance, features, and value. The NWA240BE on review is the latest to join the club and stands out for its meaty BE15000 rating and competitive price.

The NWA240BE presents eight spatial streams, with two each for the 2.4GHz and 6GHz radios and four handed to the 5GHz radio. Its BE15000 rating claims maximum speeds of up to 688Mbits/sec for 2.4GHz, a stonking 8,646Mbits/sec for 5GHz, and 5,764Mbits/sec for 6GHz.

The NWA model designation indicates it's designed to offer SMBs a more affordable solution with a reduced feature set. It can be managed in standalone mode or using Zyxel's Nebula Cloud Control (NCC) portal, but unlike the WBE models, the price doesn't include a 1-year NCC Pro Pack license.

Zyxel NWA240BE review: Build and design

Tipping the scales at 848gms, this hefty lozenge is very well built from high-impact plastic and has an embedded 4G/5G interference filter so it can coexist happily with cellular networks. It can be mounted on the wall or ceiling, and the kit includes a universal mounting plate with an optional 5-pack of T-rail clips costing around £17.

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All of its performance potential is unleashed by a fast 10GbE multi-Gig uplink port, and the AP can be powered over 802.3at PoE+ or 802.3bt PoE++ without any restrictions. The AP also offers a USB-C port, which can be used to power it with an appropriate 2A USB PD 15 supply.

The rear panel has plenty of ventilation slots, which work well, as we didn't find the AP getting overly hot during testing. There isn't much to see at the front with the single multi-color LED showing AP, boot, uplink, plus wireless status, and if wireless clients are connected.

Zyxel NWA240BE review: Standalone mode

Installation is helped along by the AP's web console wizard, which starts by offering two choices for standalone or cloud management. After selecting the former, we were guided through changing the default admin password, setting the country of operation, creating our first SSID, choosing the active radios, and accepting the offer of an automatic firmware upgrade.

The AP supports up to eight SSIDs, which are created using a combination of profiles and objects. It takes a little while to get the hang of their relationships, but AP management objects use radio profiles to define their active bands, operating mode, and channel width.

Each object references SSID profiles, which control the active radios and can be used to apply upload and download rate limits, QoS (quality of service) for prioritising voice or video traffic, and a time schedule that controls when the SSID is active. Each SSID profile is also assigned a security profile, which sets the encryption method.

MLO (multi-link operations) is supported in standalone mode, but you won't find a toggle switch in the web console for it. Setting the operating mode for the radios to 11be brings Zyxel's auto-MLO into play, which will enforce the mandatory Enhanced Open, WPA3 Personal, or WPA3 Enterprise encryption.

Zyxel NWA240BE review: Cloud management

Swapping the NWA240BE to our NCC account was a breeze as we used the Nebula iOS app on an iPad to scan the QR code on its base and choose the site it should take its settings from. The portal presents an informative dashboard with customisable widgets showing the status of all Zyxel cloud-managed devices, total wireless traffic, APs by usage, all connected wireless clients, along with their detected OS and PoE consumption for our Zyxel switch.

As with standalone mode, up to eight SSIDs per site are supported, and tags can be applied so they are only broadcast by APs that have a matching tag. For guest wireless networks, you can present custom captive portals with your own logos and messages, use a variety of authentication methods, including 2FA with Google Authenticator, and enforce L2 isolation so guests only get internet access.

Network coverage can be easily expanded as the NWA240BE supports Zyxel's Smart Mesh technology, which uses the 5GHz or 6GHz radios as backhaul connections between a root and repeater APs. Upgrading devices managed by NCC with a Plus Pack enables features such as 7-day logging, topology views, and scheduled firmware updates, while a Pro Pack adds client diagnostics, Wi-Fi health reports, remote SSH, and a 1-year report history with Broadbandbuyer, showing a Pro price of around £27 per licence.

Zyxel NWA240BE review: Wi-Fi 7 performance

For performance testing, we connected the NWA240BE to the lab's Zyxel XMG1930-30HP multi-Gig PoE++ switch, which confirmed a 10GbE connection and a PoE++ power draw. Our test hosts were a Lenovo Windows 11 Pro desktop client equipped with a TP-Link Archer TBE550E Wi-Fi 7 PCIe adapter and a Dell PowerEdge Windows Server 2022 host connected to the switch over 10GbE.

The TP-Link Wi-Fi 7 adapter supports MLMR (multi-link multi-radio) and can combine the 2.4GHz band with either the 5GHz or 6GHz bands. With 11be enabled on all three radios, Windows 11 confirmed an MLO link using the 2.4/6GHz bands and an aggregated connection speed of 6,453Mbits/sec.

To test maximum speed, we used the excellent OpenSpeedTest HTML5-based tool and ran the server component of our Windows Server host. On the Windows 11 client, we pointed a browser at the OpenSpeedTest server address and port and watched it report back with superb close-range upload and download rates of 378MB/sec and 483MB/sec.

Real-world SMB tests using 25GB file copies between the client and server returned average sustained close-range speeds of 280MB/sec. With the AP moved 10 metres away and into an adjoining room, we saw this drop to a respectable 243MB/sec.

The NWA240BE also performed very well over a 2.4/5GHz MLO connection. OpenSpeedTest reported back with top upload and download rates of 353MB/sec and 321MB/sec.

Zyxel NWA240BE review: Is it worth it

Absolutely. Available at Broadbandbuyer for £192 excluding VAT, Zyxel's NWA240BE will appeal to SMBs seeking an affordable upgrade to full Wi-Fi 7 services. This well-built tri-band AP is easy to deploy, delivers outstanding performance and supports standalone and cloud management.

Zyxel NWA240BE specifications