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Unboxing & First Look: GL-iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) – Real Impressions Before You Buy

Tzvika Bruhis

10 Feb 2026 • 4 min read

Welcome to my unboxing and first impressions of the GL-iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000)! Today we’ll dive into what’s inside the box, how it feels, the standout features, and whether it’s worth your attention. I’ll also share my honest thoughts on how this device compares to other products in its class.

Package Contents

From sleek packaging to all included accessories, here’s what you get:

The router itself
Flat CAT6 RJ45 ethernet cable
Power brick
3 adapters (EU/US/UK) - which make sense as it should be a travel router.
Getting started manual

Specifications

CPU: MT7981B Dual-core, @1.3GHz
Memory / Storage: DDR4 512MB / NAND Flash 256MB
Protocol: IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax
Wi-Fi Speed: 574Mbps (2.4GHz), 2402Mbps (5GHz)
Antennas: 2 x undetachable external Wi-Fi antennas
Cellular: N/A
Battery: N/A
TF Card Slot: N/A
USB Port: 1 x USB 3.0
Ethernet Port: 1 x WAN port, 1 x LAN ports
Ethernet Speed: 10/100/1000/2500Mbps
Power Input: Type-C, 5V/3A
Power Consumption: <8W
Dimension / Weight: 120 x 83 x 34mm / 196 g

First Impressions

Right out of the box, the router felt solid in a good way. Not heavy for the sake of it, but sturdy and well put together. It’s fairly compact, yet clearly packed with features.

The 2.5GbE port was nice to see straight away, and I really like that it’s powered over USB-C PD instead of some chunky proprietary adapter - so you could power it via a power bank on the go. There’s also a USB 3 port for network storage, which adds a lot of flexibility if you want to do more than just basic routing.

The movable antennas feel firm and well-made — no wobble, no cheap plastic feel — and overall the device just feels… properly built.

First impression? This doesn’t feel like a budget router pretending to be premium.

I really like the fact that you can broadcast 2 network (main one and guest networks), I use a Unifi system at home, and I'm planning to use the guest network to connect back home via VPN.

Main Features

Like any router, this travel router supports multiple nice features - WiFi 6, various VPN client/server configurations and protocols, remote cloud management integrations, DDNS, DFS, DNS over HTTPS/TLS, AdGuard Home and much more...

The router also runs on OpenWRT 21.02, so you can plug into the huge ecosystem of OpenWRT plugins, and if in the future GL-iNet stops support for it - the community is always there for you.

VPN Support

The Beryl AX supports multiple providers using 2 protocols (OpenVPN and WireGuard)

GL-iNet specifies that OpenVPN could reach speeds up to 150Mbps, while WireGuard could reach up to 300Mbps - those are datasheet numbers, as I did not yet run those tests myself - will bring my own tests in the in-depth review.

My main usage would be to use the router with a split-tunnel mode - i.e one SSID would be tunneled to home via VPN, while the second SSID would be a normal exit node directly to the internet, which is way I really like the fact that I could broadcast 2 SSIDs from this device.

Software

Web UI and Mobile

The web UI that comes with the device is quite good, it has plenty of features and is pretty easy to get around

You can find the full docs for the web user interface

Click here for the official docs

Regarding the mobile application, it is quite capable, although I would have like if it felt a bit more polished - it has options and being able to configure all the features (or at least the most important ones), but at times, it feels a bit "clunky".