The MSI Roamii BE Lite is a two-piece Wi-Fi 7 mesh system that offers multi-gig connectivity and free parental control and network security software. At $299.99 it’s one of the more affordable ways to expand a Wi-Fi 7 network, but it lacks a 6GHz radio band and doesn’t support 320MHz channels. You’ll get both, and superior performance, with our Editors’ Choice winner in the category, the TP-Link BE63 BE10000 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi 7 System.
Design and Features: Twin Plain Pillars
The Roamii BE Lite system comes with two identical white triangular minitower nodes that measure 9.4 by 4.3 by 4.7 inches (HWD) and provide a total of 5,800 square feet of coverage. Each node has a 2.5GbE WAN/LAN port and two 1GbE LAN ports, but unlike the TP-Link BE63, they do not offer any USB ports. You can use the LAN ports for wired backhaul or let the Wi-Fi handle it.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The nodes are equipped with four internal antennas and are powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, 2GB of DDR4 RAM, and 256MB of flash memory. They’re a Wi-Fi 7 system that supports Multi-Link operation (MLO), 4K QAM, beamforming, MU-MIMO, Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) data transmissions, and 240MHz channel bandwidth, but unlike most Wi-Fi 7 systems this one does not offer a 6GHz radio band, nor does it support 320MHz channels. It’s a dual-band system that can reach theoretical data rates of up to 688Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to 4,323Mbps on the 5GHz band.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
In addition to your regular network, you can create a guest network, an IOT network for smart home devices, and a child network that lets you restrict internet usage times with a separate SSID and password.
Speaking of children, the Roamii BE Lite comes with free parental control and network security software powered by Trend Micro. Dubbed FortiSecu, the suite offers age-based web filtering, online time limits, and alerts when an inappropriate website is visited. Network security tools will scan all connected devices, block known ransomware and harmful links, and send alerts when a vulnerability is detected.
The Roamii system can be managed using the mobile app or with a web console. The former opens to a dashboard screen that is loaded with information, including a network map, upload and download speeds, a QR code that makes it easy to share Wi-Fi credentials, and separate panels for IOT, Child, and Guest networks. Each of these panels has an On/Off button for enabling or disabling the specific network, and when you tap the panel you can change security and access settings for the network. Tapping any node on the network map lets you see what devices are connected and the average upload and download speeds for that node.
(Credit: MSI)
At the bottom of the screen are Dashboard, Security, Parental, and Advance Setting buttons. The first brings you back to the dashboard from wherever you are in the app, and the Security button opens a screen where you can request a scan of all devices, see which devices are online, view device vulnerabilities, and view blocked attacks, threats, and ransomware attempts. The Parental button opens a screen where you can create user profiles, assign web filters, view blocked website attempts, check network limitation status, and see how many inappropriate apps have been used for each user.
Advance Settings include Wi-Fi and LAN settings, IPTV/LAN options, VPN Server settings, system management tools, LED management, and a link to the web console.
Installation and Setup: No-Fuss Mesh
Installation was easy. I downloaded the app, tapped Let’s Get Started, and used my phone’s camera to scan a QR code that was taped to the back of the node. I followed the instructions to connect the LAN cable to my modem and to the 2.5GbE port on the node, connected my desktop PC to a 1GbE LAN port on the node, and powered everything up.
When the LED began flashing blue, I tapped Next and connected my phone to the Roamii’s Wi-Fi. The app immediately found the router, so I gave it a location and tapped Connect. I had to manually connect my phone to the router’s SSID and enter the password, select DHCP as my connection type, and create an admin account and password.
I then confirmed the Wi-Fi SSID and password and tapped Next to create the new network. After a minute or so, I was prompted to connect to the new network and add another node. I plugged in the satellite node, and when the LED turned white, it was automatically added to the network. After a quick firmware update, the installation was finished.
Testing the MSI Roamii BE Lite Mesh System
In our throughput performance tests, the Roamii BE Lite couldn’t keep pace with our Editors’ Choice-winning Wi-Fi 7 mesh system, the TP-Link Deco BE63. This isn’t surprising as it lacks several features that you get with the Deco, such as a 6GHz band, support for 320MHz channels, and a 2.5GbE LAN connection to our testbed. (The Roamii system has a 2.5GbE port, but it is designated as a WAN connection.)
The Roamii router node scored 937Mbps in the close-proximity test, while the TP-Link Deco BE63 router node scored 2,288Mbps. In the 30-foot test, the Roamii router managed 524Mbps to the Deco’s 780Mbps. The Roamii satellite node managed 561Mbps in the close-proximity test versus the TP-Link node’s score of 1,688Mbps. At a distance of 30 feet, the Roamii node delivered 441Mbps, and the Deco BE63 node delivered 950Mbps.
(Credit: Ekahau)
We test wireless signal strength using an Ekahau Sidekick 2 diagnostic device paired with the company’s Survey software. Together, they generate a heat map that displays Wi-Fi signal strength throughout our test home. The circles on the heat map represent the router and node locations, and the colors represent signal strength. Dark green indicates the strongest signal, lighter yellow a weaker one, and gray indicates a very weak or no measurable signal. As the heat map illustrates, the Roamii system did an excellent job of delivering strong Wi-Fi signals throughout the home.
For the most part, the app worked as intended, but it should be noted that it generally took more than a minute for it to apply any settings changes, and occasionally, it shut down and had to be restarted.
Verdict: Wi-Fi 7 Not Quite Turned Up to 11
With the MSI Roamii BE Lite, you get a reasonably priced Wi-Fi 7 mesh system that delivers excellent signal coverage and comes with free parental control and network security software. What you don’t get are 6GHz transmissions, 320MHz channel bandwidth, and multi-gig LAN, all of which are necessary for the type of killer Wi-Fi 7 performance that you get with more expensive systems. If you want to take advantage of all that Wi-Fi 7 has to offer, our top pick remains the TP-Link Deco BE63, which offers significantly faster performance as well as multi-gig LAN and USB connectivity. You can find it for about $100 more than the MSI kit.
MSI Roamii BE Lite Mesh System
Cons
The Bottom Line
MSI’s Roamii BE Lite Mesh System is a reasonably priced Wi-Fi 7 system that offers free parental control and network security software but is held back by its lack of a 6GHz band and 320MHz channel support.
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About John R. Delaney
Contributing Editor
