The Best Wireless Routers 2017

Best New Wireless Routers in 2017

 

Most of us don’t think much about our routers. If your internet connection is through your cable company, it is easy to assume that the provided router will provide all the range and speed we need. And for a lot of people, it does just that. But if you have slow response time, or you have to connect directly to the router, which makes your laptop more of a desktop, you should consider buying a new router.

New wireless routers offer faster speed, a larger range, and awesome new features. To assist you in getting started on finding the right router for you, here are what we consider to be the top new wireless routers to buy in 2017.

Device Name	LAN Ports	Wi-Fi Speed	Price
Netgear AC1900 Dual-Band Router	4 LAN, 1 WAN and 2 USB	up to 1900Mbps	$175
Asus RT-AC3200 Tri-Band Router	4 LAN, 1 WAN and 2 USB	up to 1300Mbps	$200
Amped Wireless RTA2600 Athena	4 LAN, 1 WAN and 2 USB	up to 1733Mbps	$200
TP-Link Talon AD7200 Multi-Band Wi-Fi Router	4 LAN, 1 WAN and 2 USB	60 GHz up to 4600Mbps	$349
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router	4 LAN, 1 WAN and 2 USB	up to 1300Mbps	$170
D-Link DIR 880L Wireless Router	4 LAN, 1 WAN and 2 USB	up to 1900Mbps	$140
Asus RT-AC88U Wireless Router	8 LAN, 1 WAN and 2 USB	up to 2167Mbps	$270
Apple AirPort Extreme	3 LAN, 1WAN, 1 USB	up to 1.3 Gbps	$180
Netgear Nighthawk R8000 X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Router	4 LAN, 1 WAN and 2 USB	up to 3.2 Gbps	$175
D-Link AC3200 Ultra WiFi DIR-890L Wireless Router	4 LAN, 1 WAN and 2 USB	up to 3200Mpbs	$250

 

NETGEAR AC1900 Dual-Band Router

 

If you are looking for a kickass wireless router that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, this NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900 has all of the quality you expect, and it comes at a friendly price at around $175. Like all new friends, once you get to know it, you will appreciate the value it brings. This next gen Gigabit WiFi router comes packed with a 1GHz dual-core processor, calling this router fast is an understatement, with speeds up to 1900 Mbps, you can enjoy less lag and buffering.

Designed to manage all of your high-bandwidth online streaming the Nighthawk AC1900 is perfect for gaming and streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu. Its high-performance antennas and Beamforming+ gives you super high speeds in every room in your house.

It needs some room, its a bit bulky and heavy so you will need to give it some space. But what it lacks in physical appearance it more than makes up with performance. It has mad skills when it comes to speed; you may forget what lag even is. It also comes with Cloud storage, just plug your USB hard drive into the NETGEAR Nighthawk and enjoy free unlimited storage.

Asus RT-AC3200 Tri-Band Router

 

Not all routers are created equal, some of them are smarter than others, and the Asus RT-AC3200 is one smart cookie. Its Smart Connect features are designed to select the fastest bands for all devices based on their data usage and requirements. This Tri-Band router also sports the latest 802.11ac 3X3 technology, this allows for maximum throughput and a wide range of coverage.

The RT-AC3200 will maximize the performance of all of the wireless devices in your home. You can stream movies in one room while someone else is playing games in another room with no lag. By using two 802.11 networks that each have a three transmit with the 3X3 antenna set up, you get faster speeds and better connectivity.

While there are a lot of positive attributes to the RT-AC3200, there are a few awkward things as well, the first being that it only has four LAN ports, which is a bit low for a router with this much muscle. The other issue is price, at $200 it can be expensive if you are just looking for a router to stream Netflix. But for serious gamers or active homes with lots of users, this router is worth every penny.

Amped Wireless RTA2600 Athena

 

If you are in the market for a nice, friendly household wireless router, the Amped Wireless RTA2600 Athena is a solid choice. It comes packed with a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Dual Core Processor and with 16 high power amplifiers and four antennas it can deliver the speed and consistency your home network needs. It also employs MU-MIMO technology which will let you stream data to several devices at the same time. This means you can catch up on old episodes of Gilmore Girls while your kids are playing Madden in another room with no lag or latency.

The router provides four Gigabit LAN ports and is surprisingly compact, which means you may find the LAN and WAN ports a bit crowded. However, its compact design means you won’t have to worry about finding space for it. Easy to set up it comes with a network cable already plugged into the WAN port. Plug it in and connect it to your Internet source and you are good to go.

With an average price around $200 the RTA2600  is a solid router, but a bit pricey when it comes to other routers in this price range. While the MU-MIMO technology is great at managing data distribution, if the connected device doesn’t support MU-MIMO it is pretty much rendered useless. Currently, there aren’t many devices that support the technology, if you own MU-MIMO friendly devices, it might be worth the price, but if you don’t, you can find less expensive routers that will deliver better results.

TP-Link Talon AD7200 Multi-Band Wi-Fi Router

If you don’t currently have 802.11ad, or you don’t know what it is, the TP-Link Talon AD7200 wireless router may not be for you. But if you are aware of the new Wi-Fi standard that is designed to operate on a 60GHz frequency band (yep…60Ghz) and you have been waiting for routers to catch up to your 802.11ad connection, then you should consider the Talon a more than viable option.

To say that 802.11ad routers can provide faster speeds is an understatement, the Talon AD7200 can reach speeds of up to 4.6Gbps, which is wicked fast, and still a fraction of the full speed of 802.11ad. So if your next step is to figure out how you get to 802.11ad speeds, you should know it has speed but not range.

So, can it do things in the blink of an eye? Sure. Can it provide superfast speeds over long distances? Not really.  802.11ad lacks the ability to penetrate through walls, it currently works best as a behind the scenes backhaul technology, but that could change. If you aren’t concerned about how far your signal goes and all you want is speed, then the Talon AD7200 and 802.11ad is for you.

Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router

 

If you are willing to spend some money on a quality wireless router that delivers, then the Linksys WRT1900AC would be a great wireless router to spend it on.  If you own the EA6900, you shouldn’t let that keep you from looking at the WRT1900AC as an option. The issues that plagued the EA6900 have been largely resolved in this model.  It is one of the fastest Wi-Fi routers around, and it when it comes to network storage, it can surpass some of the most high-end dedicated NAS servers.

With a 1.2Ghz ARM-based dual-core processor, and 128MB of flash storage the WRT1900AC is a strong contender when it comes to DD-WRT routers. While it sports four antennas, it is still a three-stream router. You can expect speeds of up to 1300Mbps via the 5GHz band and up to 600 Mbps on the 2.4Ghz band.

Typical to most wireless routers the WRTAC1900 has four Gigabit Lan ports and one Gigabit WAN (internet) port. It also provides one USB 3.0 port and an additional port that can work with a USB 2.0 or eSATA connection. These ports can be used to add additional storage devices.

D-Link DIR 880L Wireless Router

 

 

As another addition to the AC1900 line of wireless routers, it could be easy to overlook the D-Link DIR 880L. But that would be a mistake; the DIR-880L offers a balance between range and Wi-Fi speed. With a consistent signal, this router provides the best of both worlds for users.

One of the first square routers, the DIR 880L may seem odd to users familiar with the cylinder style routers they have become accustomed to. With the standard four Gigabit LAN ports and one Gigabit WAN port and a USB 2.0 and another USB 3.0 on the side,  there is nothing special about the modems design. The USB ports can be used to add other options like additional storage, scanners or printers.

The Web interface is also new, which may cause some confusion for previous D-Link customers. There is a short wizard that will help you get started, but it still may require a bit of time to become

Asus RT-AC88U Dual-Band Wireless Router

 

What makes this wireless router a bit better than some of the other 802.11ac routers is found both in its design and its performance.  The Asus RT-AC88U delivers both speed and range, which means you don’t have to choose which one is most important, you can have both in one stealthy package.

Beyond just the Batman like appearance of the router, it is also packed with eight Gigabit LAN ports, and an easy to use Web interface that is smarter than the majority of routers. It also comes with a built-in VPN server, which allows you to create a separate and more secure connection that will help protect your network from hackers and malware attacks.

The RT-AC88U also supports MU-MIMO, which makes it one of the most diverse and feature-rich routers you could buy. While it has a higher price than some of the other 802.11ac routers, what it brings to the table regarding speed, security, capability, and features make it more than worth the price. If you want what is considered to be one of the best routers ever, it’s worth the investment.

Apple AirPort Extreme

 

Keeping to the elegant and thoughtful design style of the Apple brand, the Apple AirPort Extreme is as impressive on the inside as it is on the outside. Its three-stream 802.11ac technology provides users with speeds that are three times faster than traditional routers (or base stations).  It also doubles your channel bandwidth by providing 80MHZ-wide channels which increases the data transfer speeds.

And no 802.11ac? No problem, AirPort will work to maximize connections to all of your802.11a/b/g and 802.11n devices. Its just that nice. By transmitting at both 2.4GHz and 5Ghz frequencies simulationously you will always connect to the best available band.

The base station is equipped with an array of beamforming antennas that are smart enough to find all of your 802.11ac devices on the network. Which is impressive since I lose my keys more than once a week. AirPort Extreme wants to give you the WiFi that is clearer, stronger and the faster than fast. And it does it all this while still looking amazing.

 

Netgear Nighthawk R8000 X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Router

 

If you are looking for a powerful Tri-Band Gigabit Wireless Router, you have found one. Hyped as the best home router Netgear has ever launched, it has had a few struggles since the initial launch. However, it is still a solid router with a lot of great qualities, it has a new sleek modern design, and it can legitimately boast about having a total Wi-Fi bandwidth of up to 3200Mbps. With six antennas it excels when it comes to range, it also has a user-friendly web interface.

It also have some pluses on the set up side, it can be configured manually, and the router can serve as an access point. You can also customize it, you can give each of the three operational bands its own name, and you can adjust the speed and security settings.

The R8000 can be a little pricey for users who just want a fast connection. While it is packed with some intriguing and thoughtful features, it doesn’t surpass the performance of any of the other AC1900 wireless routers. If you are looking for fast WiFi, there are several less expensive routers with great features on the market that are comparable to this wireless router.

D-Link AC3200 Ultra WiFi DIR-890L Wireless Router

 

The D-Link AC3200 Ultra WiFi DIR 890L looks like a race car and a spaceship had a baby. But this baby has the muscle to match its pretty face. This wireless router provides a stable, fast WiFI signal and is super easy to set-up and use. But pretty and smart comes with a cost, and with a pretty hefty price tag $250-$310 , is the D-Link AC3200 worth the money? It could be if you are looking for a fast, reliable wireless router with some serious range.

Powered by a Broadcom dual-core 1GHz processor, it has the customary number of LAN ports, four Gigabit LAN ports, and one Gigabit WAN port, with two additional USB ports that you can use to connect additional hardware like printers and other storage devices.

A tri-band router the DIR-890 comes equipped with three built-in access points, a 2.4Ghz AP that provides support to 2.4Ghz 802.11 WiFi clients which taps out at 600Mbps, and two 5ghz APs that provide support to 5GHz 802.11ac WiFi clients that cap out at 1300Mbps individually. If you could combine them, the total bandwidth would be 3200Mbps, but clients can only connect to one band at a time, which results in the highest attainable speed being 1300Mbps.

In Conclusion

The good news is that with the addition of 802.11ac provides us with internet speeds that are faster, like way faster, than anything we have seen before. It also standardizes beamforming which increases throughput, building more consistency and reducing energy use.

Faster WiFi is here, but the downside is not everyone will get to enjoy these new superfast speeds. It requires an 802.11ac router (see ALL of the above routers) but it also needs the device connected to the router to also be 802.11ac to recognize the blistering WiFi speeds.

However, your dreams of faster and longer WiFi aren’t completely lost, with new technology comes new laptops, tablets and smartphones. While it may be hard to wait, be patient grasshopper, it will all payoff in the long run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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