This wireless router can’t possibly be good… can it? - Minion Routers

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Minion Routers. Need I say more? Oh, I do? Well, Linus is here to find out if these reasonably priced and unreasonably cute WiFi routers shaped like your favourite yellow evil-doers are worth gifting to your mom, or if it's actually more trouble than it's worth. Banana!
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CHAPTERS
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0:00 We seen it too
0:25 Specs
2:03 Unboxing Bob
3:07 Unboxing Kevin
3:41 Setup
4:42 Sponsor - Manscaped
5:22 Finishing setup
6:19 Speed testing and troubleshooting
9:19 Overall thoughts
10:24 Outro

[@andrewle18]

missed opportunity. Default admin should be Gru

[@anonymous-zg7wh]

Lets lobby ltt to remove this video and change it to gru!!!!!

[@defnotatroll]

Probably would add to the licensing cost

[@GaffsNotLaffs]

@@defnotatroll Maybe cause if you look at the box it has MINIONS branding, not Despicable Me.

[@raymondjack]

This is a no-gru zone. Lol see what I did there? Instead of no go! I’m funny commence giggles.

[@MNGermann]

THANK YOU, I was thinking about that.

[@OfficialLucianoTV]

I actually really like the idea of a router that doesn't look like a router.... I don't think I want a minion one tho

[@dubious6718]

Whaaaa?

[@leonro]

Yup, imagine a router shaped like a vase, for instance. Actually, there could reasonably exist a router series that has external shells you can fit it into.

[@koijoijoe]

You could always rip the guts out your normal router and put them in something else I guess lol. But there's probably alot of reasons you shouldn't shove a computer into a stuffed animal. Something 3D printed would be great though!

[@ralphwuu]

Like a flower pot, great to disguise from needy fingers

[@Lucipher07]

make one that looks like a PS5

[@ScytheNoire]

It will be so awesome when your kids grab your wireless router, yank it off the cord, and run around the house with it.

[@akale2620]

Definitely happening

[@zawhernos2541]

That kid might bring life back to that house Or maybe the house will take it away

[@luggagewolf2207]

Kids will do this regardless of what the router looks like. As Linus said in the video: once someone's got physical access, you're pwned anyway.

[@asd1o1]

Well it's wireless so that should be fine /s

[@letmeshowumypkmn]

Aw shucks, the kids just broke the router. Guess we’ll just have to settle for a normal one! What a shame! *phew*

[@homermorisson9135]

The idea of a router looking like a piece of art or otherwise an organic extension of the interior design is really quite appealing, but only if design doesn't compromise function.

[@BigT87]

You just made me think that the best design for a router would be a fake plant. It fits with a wide variety of decor and can makes the pot the router and leaves/plant the antenna. Don't think it would be too hard to offer different plant types either.

[@mateuszzimon8216]

@@BigT87 i think better, just pot where u have inner pot where u put your plant and antena printed on sides as decor. u can put more water and watercool your router

[@ZerotheWanderer]

Illuminati pyramid

[@fredwupkensoppel8949]

Yo can we get some more bamboo housings? Like, it's cheap, you put less plastic out there and it would look nice. Yeah, insulation this that, but plastic ain't that conductive either.

[@iambenmitchell]

3:05 “Not really expecting to find anything extra in Kevin’s box but who knows” Excuse me?

[@MichaelHickman3D]

Haha

[@FlyingCIRCU175]

LTT never does phrasing

[@davebenhart4611]

I was expecting him to pull out a screwdriver and open them up. Please let us see the inside of Kevin and Bob!

[@gasracing5000]

That's dark man... lmfao 😂

[@robertbruce7686]

D O I T 😂😂😂

[@xanderplayz3446]

😂😂😂

[@s0david]

"It's not that heavy..." It's the internet; it doesn't weigh anything Linus.

[@paulknight5018]

Its wireless!

[@AceMcCrank]

The electrons that make up the internet do have weight though. About 60 grams total!

[@lesliegrace8360]

IT CROWD REFERENCE!!!

[@gaymer618]

That was such a Jen thing to say I have to admit

[@marsaustralis6881]

For any kid who loves the Minions, these would be a workable router hidden in plain sight within their room, assuming they have a dedicated Ethernet port to jack them into. Some modern homes are offering Ethernet lines as part of their package to get around walls weakening WiFi, and some techie homeowners might put in lines themselves or request it during construction.

[@DanAndHoe]

Hell, I think my parents (late 60s) would love it too. But yeah, it’s a fun design that doesn’t look like a router at all.

[@AlucardNoir]

I disagree. If your kid is small enough to love minions he'd probably want to play with the router.

[@paradoxmo]

Most new homes are wired for Ethernet in some way. Basically where they used to wire phones, they wire RJ45 jacks anyway, since they are compatible with RJ11. What you do with them in the comms closet is up to you and your ISP, some could be networked and some could be normal phone service or VoIP out of your VoIP supporting router.

[@dillis2188]

Ah yes, disguise the router as _something they love;_ that'll get them to leave it alone. Well done.

[@bokunochannel84207]

I think we need more manufacturer to do this. Doesn't have to be minions, something like fake plastic plant vase or any other decoration.

[@hotrodhunk7389]

I would have a self-hosted speed test at this point. You can do however long of a speed test you want to do. With only the access point being the limitation.

[@CurrySchuessel]

I totally agree

[@user-ky1jp7ev8b]

OpenSpeedTest for sure.

[@lamitron]

Pretty sure I saw Jake do that in a video recently - maybe Linus just doesn't know/didn't remember?

[@BudgetGamerz]

That would require effort. He didn't be even want to do any configuration and hid it behind "but but but out of box experience"

[@hotrodhunk7389]

@@lamitron great point! I set one of those up in my homelab. You can add /?stress=low or high to the url. Will run for longer periods of time.

[@Souchirouu]

It has always baffled me that novelty wireless routers are so rare.

[@watercannonscollaboration2281]

My only concern is cabling, since this is a router that can actually go pretty well on a bookshelf as decoration. Thankfully it’s not something that would end up on a Dankpods video 10 years down the line because it was complete garbage

[@BigT87]

Maybe it will still be a video. I can see him getting it think it was craps but actually be pretty decent. lol

[@username9774]

maybe it will end up as a "back in the day not everything was garbage and drm locked" in a video. I can already see him screaming "bob" as he puches the ipad with bob

[@ryanscullen]

The pickup pattern being vertical makes a lot of sense for a Korean manufacturer. A majority of their demographic would live in apartment buildings and the users wouldn't want a lot of interference / signal aimed from their neighbours.

[@devnol]

very interesting observation!

[@agarceran]

It is precisely worse with an appartment building, because you are bothering more people in a vertical setting and more so if you consider the total number of potential walls vs floors. An appartment can have more than one wall from the center to the neightbours but will only ever be one floor away from the appartment on top or bottom. Granted, corean appartments might be an only room (japanese type?) of appartment but for example, my flat is only one wall on one side from the center of the appartment but 3 walls from the one on the other side! In fact I have more wifi strenght from the neightbours below and upwards than from the ones in the same floor in my case.

[@m4ki9h76]

S.Korean's radio wave regulations have arguably stricter max transmit power(dBm). For most consumer products, it must be equal or less than 200mW to be in the market.

[@AlucardNoir]

As a person that lives in an apartment that's BS. You want horizontal spread for the signal to go through the walls of the apartment. Not vertical so you can interfere with your upstairs and downstairs neighbours.

[@AlucardNoir]

​@@m4ki9h76 unless something changed that's bs. South Korea, like the rest of the world has a 200mw power for certain frequencies, and more for othe bands

[@fricki1997]

2:30 I can't unsee the minion butt.

[@Dogappel]

Omg true

[@TheSanpletext]

TBF if I had Bob router it would firmly sit on my desk less than a meter from my phone, so that range wouldn't be a problem.

[@aznjezza88]

Too close to router is a problem as well though.

[@xanderplayz3446]

The range of a router is like a donut. The inner section sucks, the middle good, the outer sucks.

[@JasonB808]

There is a lot of EMI and RFI interference in LMG studio. I suspect the spot there the Kevin router was the strongest had the least interference. These routers are priced at entry level home devices. I think they would work for a small home or apartment.

[@bluegizmo1983]

7:54 THAT!! That right there is exactly why I NEVER allow my routers and access points to use the same SSID for all wifi bands! I always set separate SSID's for 2.4ghz, 5ghz and 6ghz. It's EXTREMELY common for devices to get stuck on 2.4ghz when all bands are on the same SSID, no matter what devices you're using.

[@Pyroteq]

The SSID really doesn't make a difference though... Unless you are constantly picking and choosing between different networks manually every time you walk into a different room your device will hold onto a shitty signal regardless - in which case usually just disconnecting then reconnecting will connect at a better speed or to a different AP that has the best signal. I also wouldn't expect a device to switch networks in the middle of a speed test either. I have 5 different APs from different manufacturers all running the same SSID and my phone handles roaming around the house just fine.

[@tobimai4843]

TBH that 2.4 - 5 Ghz switch is usually Client-Side

[@toploaded2078]

I love the idea of a hide in pain sight AP, although this is not it for me, but imagine what they could do with other IPs. R2D2 for the star wars fans, for example. A Game of Thrones 'Iorn Throne' where the antennas are within the backing lol..

[@pitruscitrus_104]

Don't test a wireless access point over the internet. Just run iperf3 or similar on one of your local servers and don't have the potential bottleneck. It'd take someone like Jake 15 minutes to set up, tops. After being instructed once, anyone can use it. There's probably some GUI client available if someone genuinely struggles remembering the three word command to launch it from a shell.

[@graefx]

Am i the only one curious about opening them up. Maybe not minions, but id be really amused by other novelty versions. And then see if i could reuse the shell and rearrange the guts.

[@RaxXxvell]

To be fair. Not many routers manage bands well at all. Had to deactivate 2.4 on many already. Heck i even had to manually adjust channels because all routers would flock on one channel with 160 to get the max theoretical bandwith just to be ridiculously unstable. Had to manually sit at the left end of the spectrum with 20 mhz width . Lower theoretical limit, but very stable and i actually reached the limit. Algorithms there seem to be really dumb.

[@True-VFX]

I don't think it's an issue with pickup pattern. You've built a freaking Faraday cage around the router with all that metal, electrical gear and wiring and there's much less interference above. No average consumer will have that much interference. You know about interference cause you thought you door was the issue but not the set? Come on Linus

[@BigT87]

There is not nearly enough metal from the equipment to make a faraday cage. They show it in LOS and it was still slower than when he was on the next floor going through presumably a metal and concrete floor.

[@SianaGearz]

Metal items being largely less than 1.5cm wide and largely more than 12cm apart from each other won't be visible at WiFi frequencies.

[@ToraTiger78]

Q: What are the materials of that office you went into? Is it UV protected paned glass? Was there foil-lining or anything with the insulation in the wall? I've found that many of today's (especially exterior) glass can really block WiFi signals, which can be a problem when folks have their APs inside, and go out onto their decks and the glass blocks the signal.

[@kevinbarnard3502]

Should've had someone pick it up and try to keep the head pointed in your direction as you were walking around to test the pick up hypothesis.

[@PhospheneDigital]

there's got to be better Wi-Fi testing than running unreliable speed tests on a cellphone.

[@j7a1k1e]

Literally what the lab is for. This is short circuit though. And I'm not sure a novelty router is the sort of thing they should be spending time on in the lab.

[@XiaOmegaX]

Technically, you're right. iperf would be the best route for objective data. But speed test from a phone is the most real-world test you can possibly do.

[@ItStewball]

We really went from high quality toys at fast food restaurants to high quality toys for tech, toys got older with us XD

[@FAZZAMJF]

Wait… what no tear down? Please make up for this on the WAN show! Reveal Kevin and Bob’s guts! 😂

[@solitivity]

Imagine how much it'd piss you off if it had a speaker in it so that any time the Internet is down, it just starts minion laughing at you. 😂

[@dukeseb]

Oh Linus you never showed us the LED switch on

[@MorgFlame]

As a kid, this would be perfect as how childish this wifi router is. Actually depsite being 20 years old i kinda want this 😂

[@insu_na]

you're an adult: do what you want

[@samiraperi467]

Hey, I'm 51. There's no shame.

[@MISCHIVUS]

Who cares about age dude? If you want it, buy it!

[@leonro]

​@@MISCHIVUSI would if it performed decently enough. But my house needs the range. Not because I live in a mansion, but because I have thick brick walls separating the rooms.

[@MISCHIVUS]

@@leonro That is true, I would love this router too but it doesn't fit my needs :(

[@zaydabbas1609]

The antenna gain on the box is labeled to be 5-6dbi, this indicates some pretty strong directionality was to be expected (0dbi is ideally isotropic or perfectly spherical).

[@TheEpiCool]

interesting disguising routers as decor. Would probably be a good idea going forward

[@scramblerbricks7293]

This stupid minion router is 20× faster then mine 😭

[@SeldomSeen-if4pq]

Maaaaannn! 😂

[@thefunhouse8545]

That must really suck

[@alumaven]

He cradles the doll like one would imagine him holding a real live baby.. 10k Epyc chip will hit the floor every time.

[@MrSchrootenstein]

Didn't drop it

[@MtnNerd]

This seems like a compelling argument for more cute tech

[@tpaktop2_1na]

02:17 "It's not very heavy" I'm an old IBM tech. I remember one of the older IBM terminals (5250? midframe) that the keyboard was too light from a marketing perspective. So they (IBM engineer's) added a 5lb. weight to it so that the keyboard feels more solid.

[@jjjacer]

@8:43 not sure if it is part of the cause but those doors look like they have wire in the glass doors, that room might just be a big signal blocker

[@wodmarach]

That and a lot of metal stands with electronics on them all around the router... kinda feels like a wall of WiFi blockage.

[@newhbh7]

Plus it's a commercial building, so it would probably have metal studs in the walls rather than something more residential like wood. I don't know how much that impacts it but I wish they used their RF chamber to actually check...

[@jjjacer]

@@newhbh7 true, plus they went with speed, i would have preferred more of an RF signal graph, also i think the wall in that office was cinderblock/concrete given what looks like a wherehouse storage door of metal construction

[@freedustin]

Its for fire resistance tho. Just use wires for enhancing glass and networking! Wired is the way!

[@CarlosDeLosMuertes]

Kind of disappointed they didn't give a try just with Kevin on his side to see how much better it would be...

[@shikatok]

What about all of the channel and signal interference from all of the high power ap's you have at that office? Im sure that makes a big impact.

[@Martinspire]

So what if you turned it 90 degrees so it lays on the ground. If its really antennas it might be the problem there. Also I doubt it was really a signal-free environment. If it cannot find a channel that works, it might be delaying the speed a lot until it finds one that does (but with LTT there might not be a free one really)

[@MukulRawat505]

puts BANANA next to minions and expects productivity!

[@FuZioNGxP]

Turning 2.4Ghz Wifi off / offloading it to a different SSID was the best thing I've ever done to my Wifi setup at home. The supposed automatic switching between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz just sucks.

[@okwiiarnold12]

6:37 i liked how he looked at Kevin!!! SO CUTE

[@BBROPHOTO]

I actually really like these haha. I'd love to see more novelty decent / high spec routers to be honest.

[@M21assult]

Linus: *my very own minion!!!* Also Linus: HAS A WHOLE EFFING LAB OF MINIONS.

[@flikflak24]

Waiting for the king Bob version

[@edisirio506]

king bob could have a great antenna in the crown 🤣

[@Beary98]

It's USED to have an issue where they would NEVER drop whatever ap they hooked up to... if they could BARELY connect to it instead of the one right next to them .. they would. I imagine other aspects of connection management weren't great either..not sure if that's still the case

[@danielro1209]

Where are now the LEDs that are controlled by the switch???

[@blubblub3786]

Holy, I never really thought about it, but there definitely is a big market for things like this. So many times have I heard people complain about the "ugly box" when you help them set up their router and place it somewhere it provides good reception. Maybe a fake vase with fake flowers as antennas or something like that. Pretty sure a lot of people would be willing to spend 10-15 bucks more to get the best out of both worlds.

[@wing0zero]

A Goku or Gundam router and im down.

[@bellowick]

I wonder if the circuit board and antennae were made for a normal shaped router so they are mounted at a 90 degree angle to fit into the minion shape? Would explain the weird shape of range.

[@dies]

bro is EXCITED

[@realcartoongirl]

how you have that user name

[@dies]

@@realcartoongirl i died

[@Skiman__]

Over the years I’ve learned that external antennas are much better than internal ones. Bonus points if they’re removable too

[@ashdasho7220]

They had an opportunity to build antennas into the ears or hands though.

[@Skiman__]

@@ashdasho7220 did they take that opportunity is the question lol

[@mtgcardzandreview2756]

I like the idea of being able to mesh your minion wifi routers together for a whole house experience. Think I need to consider getting a bob router.

[@1993chrisboyd]

where do you buy this at? Would be nice if there was a link

[@andreapaiola]

For testing better not use the internet: test the local network.

[@oseidwomoh]

The last thing a Die-hard Despicable Me can would think of.

[@CarlizWang]

3:05 Linus sounded like Michael Scott from The Office 😆

[@RaybanNunes]

Linus hits perfect Voice notes of GRU , but missed the opportunity to do the whole thing as GRU !....still we have the youtube Shorts ! ehhhhhhh ??

[@DarmiGames]

This would be cool for your kids bedroom. If they have poor wifi signal from the main AP, you just put this in their room, it blends in and they get sufficient connectivity for all their needs

[@jonafoto]

At first I was like "This is gonna be dumb." but the moment you opened it I was like "I need it."

[@pyroslev]

Kevin not having a 4 Port switch in the extra space is a deal breaker. I had this in my cart on Amazon from the moment I saw this video until the end. Without the switch and at the price, not quite enough for the Minion lover in me.

[@b4ttlemast0r]

yeah its stupid not to integrate more ports, tho it'll be pretty cheap to just buy a switch in addition

[@CASyHD.]

ngl i believe you could diy one into him :D But yeah its a good idea, other then that thew ports would sit very high

[@Azeazezar]

I like it. To many wires doesn't look nice. One wants these for their looks.

[@ashliehiggins]

You pick up gigabit switches for like $5.

[@ConnorAshFreeman]

im surprisingly digging these routers

[@Aceofmistakes]

8:47 Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?, Yes. Yes you are Linus.

[@masterbond9]

i think this would be a perfect quest headset gateway for wireless PCVR. it doesnt look like a router at first glance, and youre likely never going to leave the room with it, which will give you all the bandwidth you need, especially with only the one device

[@acubley]

02:10 "My very own minion!" Jake looking sad and pouring another shot when he sees the vid...

[@warri0r13]

The pickup pattern is obviously in the shape of a minion 😄.

[@BrianG61UK]

Switching between bands never works well ever. Well, maybe WiFi 7 would fix that. I always find I must have separate SSIDs on 2.4G and 5G or everything soon moves to 2.4G and suffers from packet loss due to 2.4G having more interference.

[@saketharamanujam]

Hey folks, the ideal word for a pickup pattern would be antenna pattern. As for testing the speeds, speed test is just fine when you're trying to connect to the internet. You could also use a wifiscanner app of sorts to measure the RSSI/Signal Strength values. May be provide comparison data vs how a typical router would provide.

[@CheapBastard1988]

I would like one just for the housing. Put a mini PC or Raspberry Pi in there.

[@309electronics5]

Or install openwrt on it and mess with them

[@colestowing8695]

I love the mini PC idea... Have it sitting right next to a tv for media/games etc. Kevin might even be tall enough to fit a smaller-end full size GPU....🤔

[@Blazingfireball977]

of course a traditional router can fit inside a custom 3d printed minion model

[@SevenGC89]

Linus: "My very own Minion!" I'm pretty sure you have over 100 Minions now and still counting Grulinus lol.

[@MwariAneni]

This is one of those videos that you'll watch in like 5 years and be proud that this moment exists

[@xvsun]

9:05 did you just described some housing situations in tokyo? lol idk if seoul/korea has the same problems but that would be definitely be some specific/tailored product

[@luisytacc]

Watching this and the last tech upgrade has made me really appreciate my ISP, my house is small so I won't be getting much farther than Linus did, but on a gigabit contract I haven't seen less than 800mb down.

[@nicolagava2031]

Well, now it's time to disassemble them and put a good router in them so they will be cute and good

[@Madobe-Nanami]

He's so excited about minions. i'm so happy for him.

[@imsambtw]

so nice of them to make a linus branded router!

[@RichardStyles]

The iPhone issue is likely the default private relay (in the iCloud settings not wifi because Apple) which has caused no end of confusion when trying to join certain WiFi.

[@IR-MaNu]

you can host Speedtest Servers, is it a lot traffic to host one? LMG should host one

[@kshitijmalkan]

Least enthusiastic segway I have ever seen on a LMG video

[@pmcotto7371]

Just after 3 minutes: Linus sounds exactly like Steve Carell! I don't know if that was intentional, but it's amazing.

[@DigitalDiabloUK]

Need to add this to my eBay search for a year or twos time. 😂 Don't think I can justify a new one, but a lightly used Kevin at discount could be a nice addition.

[@brawlman8768]

love the stormtrooper maybe stick Kevin in the helmet as an easter egg

[@baitboy3191]

This should start a trend of routers looking like a set piece you would like to display.

[@linuxsux41]

Tinfoil hat time: I think that mainstream home router manufacturers make their software and support as bad as they can while having a mostly functional product to get you as frustrated as possible when you try to reconfigure or troubleshoot something that buying a whole new router suddenly seems like not such a bad idea... Recently had to troubleshoot a node going down momentarily and frequently and the manufacturer of my mesh kit wasn't able to do ANYTHING beyond telling me to unplug things and reset them and then decided to tell me that the issue of their router turning itself off for a split second was the fault of my ISP...

[@ChristianHawkins123]

8:00 It might also have dropped the 5GHz signal temporarily to do RADAR scanning.

[@ShoelessJP]

If I wasn't a tech geek who has his own custom router setup, I'd totally love to have one of these. This is a modern version of the novelty telephones of the 1980s/1990s (IE: Garfield, burgers, etc).

[@Frebergguru]

A teardown would be great too! 🙂

[@isaacdantzler]

You all should try using open speed test hosted on an internal server to remove the inconsistencies you were talking about with downloads.

[@zoeyharshman2658]

Sounds kinda perfect for a vr router for wireless vr

[@batterypwrlow]

Yeah bought the Kevin one for my quest 3. Virtual Desktop says its wifi6 and running at 2401mbps. I haven't run into anymore stutter, jitter, or visual issues anymore. Im happy with the little guy.

[@Wizardboz]

I love this!! I’d love to see a Nas done like this.

[@carnsoaks1]

It's a good idea. Fashionable artiste routers. Instead of black boxes, your favourite meme.

[@theftking]

Why didn't you use your fancy bajillion dollar chamber you built to actually test the pickup pattern or whatever?

[@gutsnblood1376]

"My very own minion" Could lead to funny misunderstanding if said loud in public 😅

[@seethruhead7119]

this is the router i was considering putting on my desk next to me as an access point and only use it for steamdeck moonlight streaming at 6ghz only

[@gabolujan]

Finally a router that doesn't look like a sci-fi space crab.

[@OmeJoyo]

I miss testing the mesh, further they are just great fun! And row homes are realy common in a lot of countries actually.

[@lukeperryglover]

Linus fangirling over a minions router was not what I expected, but it's awesome haha ...minions are great :P

[@chrisgarrott3635]

Seeing Linus fangirling over Minions gear the same way I would... love to see it. Actual performance - back to TP Link my dudes!

[@sansar853]

For testing the wifi capabilities of the router, i thought maybe you guys would, should host your own open speed test server locally, so that way you can see the full speed and not worry other servers