GL.iNet Launches Flint 3: Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Home Router

[Nomad76]

GL.iNet, a leader in secure network solutions, is proud to announce the launch of Flint 3 (GL-BE9300), its first tri-band Wi-Fi 7 home router. Engineered for home users, remote workers, gamers, and small offices, Flint 3 delivers next-generation wireless performance with unmatched flexibility, speed, and control.

Next-Generation Wi-Fi 7 Performance
Flint 3 is powered by the latest Wi-Fi 7 technology, supporting Multi-Link Operation (MLO) across 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands. This dramatically reduces interference and latency by combining multiple wireless channels into a single stable connection. With max speeds of 688 Mbps (2.4 GHz), 2882 Mbps (5 GHz), and 5765 Mbps (6 GHz), Flint 3 ensures responsive, and constant connectivity, even in congested device environments.



Whether you're streaming 8K content on a smart TV, engaging in lag-free competitive gaming, or powering a smart home filled with connected devices, Flint 3's tri-band Wi-Fi 7 performance ensures ultra-fast, reliable connections for every application.

In addition to its wireless capabilities, users can enjoy Speeds Up to 680 Mbps on both WireGuard and OpenVPN-DCO, making Flint 3 an excellent choice for privacy-conscious users. Whether you're a remote worker attending virtual meetings, transferring sensitive files, or accessing company systems securely, Flint 3 delivers encrypted, high-speed VPN performance to keep your data safe and your workflow uninterrupted.

High-Speed Connectivity, Inside and Out
For those who prefer wired connections, Flint 3 features five 2.5G Ethernet ports, including 1 WAN and 4 LAN ports, enabling 10 Gbps LAN aggregation to be used for high-demand setups as well as WAN ports. Whether you're streaming 8K video, hosting a NAS, or running a busy home office, these ports ensure your devices get the bandwidth they need.

Thanks to dual WAN failover, Flint 3 offers reliability you can count on. If one connection drops, the other picks up the load, which is ideal for critical tasks like video conferencing, VoIP, or responsive downloads.



Smart Security and Parental Controls Built In
With AdGuard Home pre-installed, Flint 3 offers powerful ad-blocking and anti-tracking protection across all connected devices. Users can eliminate intrusive ads, block analytics trackers, and defend against phishing and malware, without needing third-party software.

Families benefit from Flint 3's partnership with Bark, an award-winning digital safety platform that allows parents to set screen time limits, filter content, and create safe browsing environments with just a few clicks. However, users can also rely on GL.iNet's own local parental control system, offering robust rule-setting and device-based restrictions to help ensure safer and more balanced internet use for children.

Where to Buy Flint 3
Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) is available now for pre-order through GL.iNet's Online Stores. For the most up-to-date pricing, regional availability, and in-depth specs, visit the official Flint 3 product page and experience what's possible with tri-band Wi-Fi 7 performance today.



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[phints]

This uses a Qualcomm chip which sadly has poor open source Linux support. Their last gen GL-MT6000 (Flint 2) is far better which uses MediaTek 830 which is fully supported with regular official builds of OpenWrt. Probably the best router on the market still.

 

[Rover4444]

From reading the OpenWRT forums it seems like this thing's pretty crappy, more like a Flint 1.5 if anything. Well, they're making the OpenWRT Two so we'll get an actually good router soon enough anyways.

 

[TheLostSwede]

From reading the OpenWRT forums it seems like this thing's pretty crappy, more like a Flint 1.5 if anything. Well, they're making the OpenWRT Two so we'll get an actually good router soon enough anyways.

The original OpenWRT router was terrible, hopefully they'll sort out all the issues in version two.

 

[phints]

The original OpenWRT router was terrible, hopefully they'll sort out all the issues in version two.

How is it terrible? It’s relatively low spec but haven’t heard anyone say it’s bad at all. It’s has a good well supported SoC.

As I said the best by far is GL-MT6000 though. Mine is running latest OpenWrt 24.10.1 and it’s fantastic.

 

[Rover4444]

The original OpenWRT router was terrible, hopefully they'll sort out all the issues in version two.

The hell do you mean "terrible"? It's an access point.

 

[TheLostSwede]

How is it terrible? It’s relatively low spec but haven’t heard anyone say it’s bad at all. It’s has a good well supported SoC.

The hell do you mean "terrible"? It's an access point.

It's a platform for their developers, it's not a useful product for most people. It's also pretty terrible in terms of functionality if you want to use it as a router.
The WiFi radio is 5 or 2.4 GHz, as it only has a single radio that does 2.4 or 5 GHz, as it doesn't do simultaneous dual band. It's also a weird 2x2 2.4 GHz and 3x3 5 GHz radio. One 1 Gbps and one 2.5 Gbps port is also not useful for most people. No SoC is acceptable, but hardly something to be impressed by, outside of what appears to be good open source support from MTK.
So yeah, it can work as an AP with PoE, but you still only have a single band radio in it and it's fairly cheap, but that doesn't equal good.

I used to work for a router manufacturer and I have an idea or two about what a good router is, that isn't it, but then again, the Flint 3 is somewhat disappointing compared to the Flint 2, especially with regards to the choice of radio configuration.

 

[Rover4444]

It's a platform for their developers, it's not a useful product for most people. It's also pretty terrible in terms of functionality if you want to use it as a router.
The WiFi radio is 5 or 2.4 GHz, as it only has a single radio that does 2.4 or 5 GHz, as it doesn't do simultaneous dual band. It's also a weird 2x2 2.4 GHz and 3x3 5 GHz radio. One 1 Gbps and one 2.5 Gbps port is also not useful for most people. No SoC is acceptable, but hardly something to be impressed by, outside of what appears to be good open source support from MTK.
So yeah, it can work as an AP with PoE, but you still only have a single band radio in it and it's fairly cheap, but that doesn't equal good.

I used to work for a router manufacturer and I have an idea or two about what a good router is, that isn't it, but then again, the Flint 3 is somewhat disappointing compared to the Flint 2, especially with regards to the choice of radio configuration.

Yeah, it's a board for nerds, duh. It wasn't made for "most people", they don't even flash third-party firmware on their machines. I don't believe you when you say it can't do simultaneous dual band either, do you have any proof for that?

It just looks like an okay access point to me. Maybe not competitive, but terrible? Come on now.

 

[Bruno_O]

How is it terrible? It’s relatively low spec but haven’t heard anyone say it’s bad at all. It’s has a good well supported SoC.

As I said the best by far is GL-MT6000 though. Mine is running latest OpenWrt 24.10.1 and it’s fantastic.

I have the 1st gen Flint bought (cheap) after Flint 2 was released

I've battled with this router for months... so many devices have issues with it, at the end I had to lower / disable security to bare minimum otherwise stuff would just not work. Then the latest firmware broke wifi reliability really bad, to the point that while having a strong signal, I'd have a ton of packet loss impacting basic stuff like Teams calls

in the end I reverted to my trusty old TP-Link AX1500, that has rock solid wifi, all security settings can remain enabled (wpa3) and all devices just work...

the only thing I miss from the Flint is the great wiresguard/openvp clients...

 

[phints]

I have the 1st gen Flint bought (cheap) after Flint 2 was released

I've battled with this router for months... so many devices have issues with it, at the end I had to lower / disable security to bare minimum otherwise stuff would just not work. Then the latest firmware broke wifi reliability really bad, to the point that while having a strong signal, I'd have a ton of packet loss impacting basic stuff like Teams calls

in the end I reverted to my trusty old TP-Link AX1500, that has rock solid wifi, all security settings can remain enabled (wpa3) and all devices just work...

the only thing I miss from the Flint is the great wiresguard/openvp clients...

Yea it's widely known on the forums the Flint 1 has poor open source support. Gl-inet struck gold with the Flint 2 though, this thing is awesome, but running it for 1 1/2 years best router I've ever used and I've had a ton across various projects dd-wrt/openwrt etc. Running 24.10.1 it's rock solid. OpenWrt is starting to test it with Linux kernel 6.12 now too.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Yeah, it's a board for nerds, duh. It wasn't made for "most people", they don't even flash third-party firmware on their machines. I don't believe you when you say it can't do simultaneous dual band either, do you have any proof for that?

Ok, I was wrong, it seems like the radio lacks the capability on its own, but when paired up with the right MTK SoC, it can do simultaneous dual band. I'm not sure why they did the hardware design like that, but MTK has a bunch of peculiar hardware design choices like that on their router hardware.