Meet Smart Bro Home WiFi 5G (Prepaid) - The next level home internet broadband

To recap, Smart launched their first 5G-powered prepaid home WiFi back in December 2021. 

The Smart Bro Home WiFi 5G (Prepaid)

Since this is one of the few with 5G connectivity, the prepaid Smart Bro Home WiFi 5 is a device designed to provide a "high-speed and reliable internet" that is essential for most homes.

It could be used for homeschooling, work, or simply for entertainment such as gaming, streaming videos or movies, and more. 

3 months later here are our thoughts about it.

Meet Smart Bro Home WiFi 5G (Prepaid) - The next level internet broadband

Opening the box, you will see the unit itself, the power cable, ethernet cables, SIM card, and 2 manuals.

Inside the box

The Smart Bro Home Prepaid WiFi 5G will also greet you with an "artistic design" made by the award-winning illustrator Stephanie Bravo Semilla.

Designed by a renowned illustrator

As you can see in the photo above, the illustration shows the family members are enjoying the internet services provided by the prepaid modem.

Ports at the back

At the back portion, you'll see the ports for power and ethernet as well as dedicated buttons for reset and WPS.

Setting it up is pretty easy!

Setting it up is pretty easy, you only need to insert the provided power adapter into the unit and plug the device on a power outlet. It could preferably be near a window or any spot you think that has good reception.

Once plugged in, you will notice four green light indicators for WiFi 6, 5G, 4G, SIM, and another blue light indicator for the System. These indicators will blink for around a minute once it stops that's your cue that it's ready.

The light indicators

You may connect to the WiFi using the default password which can be located at the back of the router. Using a WiFi-enabled device, look for Smart_Bro_5G_######. You will also notice two frequencies since this has a dual-band capability.

You may choose 5GHz for faster speeds at shorter distances or 2.4GHz for a more stable signal even if you are a bit away from the modem.

The dashboard

There's also an option to change your password by going to Smart Bro Dashboard or admin to protect from unwanted users as the default one is quite obvious.

Performance

The prepaid router comes in with preinstalled 5G SIM card which is packed with a FREE 20GB open access data so you can surf the net right away even without a subscription on an internet promo.

You may also opt to use a Smart Rocket SIM for more promos at the GigaLife app and choose that suits according to your family's internet needs.

6 large antennas for better reception

The unit has WiFi 6 2x2 MIMO with Easy Mesh that makes sharing easier for the whole family, WPA3 WiFi Security, and can connect up to 10 WiFi-enabled devices such as phones, tablets, and laptops.

The Smart Bro Home WiFi 5G features 5G NR SA/NSA connectivity as well as 5G PLUS 2NR Carrier Aggregation to ensure more reliable and faster speeds by utilizing two 5G channels at the same time.

Speed test results

Trying it on our place in Manila which is a few blocks away from 5G tower, the speed we got was at around 400+ Mbps. That's like 10x faster compared to using 4G only. Except for the upload speed, the download speed is also faster than our PHP 2,500 fiber plan. 

Significantly faster speeds and more stable connectivity than a lot of 4G modems!

At my brother's place in Antipolo which is a bit far from 5G tower, we were able to get almost 200 Mbps.

That's still significantly faster than your traditional 4G home prepaid WiFi that only gets around 20 to 40+ Mbps.

Speed test reaching 192Mbps

Testing the coverage, 5GHz frequency allows us to maximize the speed of the prepaid router especially if your device is also compatible with the WiFi 6 technology.

But if in case it's not, don't worry as there's only like a 20-30 Mbps difference, and we're talking about over 400 Mbps here so the small difference isn't that noticeable. Also even if the Smart Bro Home WiFi 5G is only located on the first floor, the signal we get on our devices is still at full bars thanks to the easy mesh feature.

For the 2.4GHz frequency, you'll get more signal but at the cost of speed, in our case, it reaches until the last part of our compound at 2-3 bars with speeds ranging from 25Mbps-38Mbps. If you are close to the router with full bars it is only limited to around 40-50Mbps.

Compared to the iPhone 13 Pro with 5G connectivity, we noticed that we are getting 2 to 3 bars in Antipolo. The iPhone only has a bar or 2 of 5G signal.

We mentioned that our home has 3-4 members that use the internet heavily. All users also have 2 or more devices that are connected to the WiFi and are either streaming, downloading,  gaming, or surfing the web.

We are not getting any delays while streaming videos at 1080p. It goes the same for my sister who uses 2 smartphones, 1 tablet, and 1 laptop when watching her favorite K-pop group as her form of support to boost the views.

Meanwhile, our mom is watching Korean dramas on either her phone or on our Smart TV at HD resolution.

For mobile gaming such as MLBB, even if everyone in the house is "heavily" streaming, we can say that sometimes there are still yellow pings. But, they are tolerable and will not cost you the game. 

Most of the time our ping sits at around 8-11ms then goes up to 98-101ms in only split seconds but it does not happen too frequently. When only one is streaming a video and the others are playing, that's the time when we're no longer experiencing minor ping issues.

Compared to a 4G prepaid WiFi, other users will need to tone down the video quality to 480p in order for the rest of the members in the house can play without red pings.

Also to test the speed further, we downloaded NBA 2K21 on PC which is around 99GB on Epic Games Store. Since the internet is blazing fast it manages to finish the huge file within 58 minutes only.

For Genshin Impact PC which is around 40+GB, it got done within 20 minutes. Do note the test was made without anyone streaming a video in order to maximize the full speed.

Quick thoughts

Basically, the Smart Bro Home WiFi 5G (Prepaid) made a HUGE difference in our home as everyone suddenly got an upgraded experience.

The users in our home were able to enjoy their own multimedia activities through the 5G prepaid WiFi with better speeds and fewer lags.

The modem priced at PHP 15,995 is considered as affordable for a 5G-ready device with 2NR Carrier Aggregation. However, this is still not a small amount for most Filipinos.

But, if you can afford it, this gives one of the best-prepaid home WiFi experiences in the market if you have a good 5G signal in your area. It could be even cheaper than a fixed broadband plan in the long run.

Currently Smart also has competitive offerings through the GigaLife app such as unlimited 5G promos for as low as PHP 299 for 7 days, PHP 599 for 30 Days. There's also the new UNLIFAM 999 which also brings unlimited data for 30 days at PHP 1,000.

You may preorder it on Smart Bro's website.

What do you guys think?