The EWS356-FIT Access Point is the cheapest access point from EnGenius that aims to bring more customers and audience to the EnGenius FIT lineup and build the network foundation of small businesses or homes that need something more advanced than the usual AP at the corresponding proper price. We have already tested its bigger brother the EWS357-FIT so we knew what we could expect from this model as well.

The device is well made, only white in colour and its smaller in dimensions than the EWS-357-FIT model. The retail box includes many goodies for mounting it and a power DC12V adapter, which we didn't find in other EnGenius products. Of course, it can be powered via a PoE switch, and with the power of the EnGenius FitXpress app, in 5 minutes you will have a new Access point for your local network.

The device is powered via a quad-core Qualcomm ARM Cortex A53s CPU clocked at 1.0GHz, which is cooled down with the included aluminum heatsink at the back of the device. In fact, the device after a period of time, gets hot at the back to touch, which indicates that the design does work, but we would recommend mounting the device to a wall mount to have free space at the back for air to circulate and cool down the device. In any case, we didn't find any issues with the thermal performance of the drop so you are covered. The device had initially 1.0.4 firmware and EnGeinus continues to support the product with frequent firmware releases and already reached 1.0.20 revision which certainly fixes bugs/security issues and other features. With other manufacturers, you barely get firmware updates and you are stacked with old revisions.

The performance of the EWS-356-FIT was good and even better when we paired two devices under the MESH model. This can be performed rather easily with the FitXpress app and after 5-10mins you can move the second AP to another location to increase overall coverage. Since the connection port of the EWS-356-FIT is 1GBit you will also have the corresponding transfer rates at your local Wi-Fi network. For better overall performance, you can check the EWS377-FIT which supports higher bandwidth since it has a 2.5G local network. There is a limit to the networks you can create (up to 8) and up to 30 devices per network. For sure EnGenius has plenty of devices under the FIT brand, either for indoor/outdoor applications.

Concluding this review, we found the EnGenius EWS356-FIT to be a proper solution for users who wish to invest somewhat more than the usual consumer products, and get much better performance/stability/firmware updates and Ecosystem with the EnGenius brand name. The EnGenius FitXpress app will get the job done with ease and is getting constant updates as well. The retail price of the EWS356-FIT is around $89 and for that reason, we can highly suggest this to all users. If you don't like general apps, EnGenius has also released a web portal version of FitXpress app for users, so you are covered as well.