Linksys is a name synonymous with WiFi routers and has been leading the pack for many years now. Their USP is the fact that each new offering from Linksys offers the customers many new features along with technical upgrades to keep the product in sync with current benchmark standards. Recently, Linksys unveiled their new offering to the world, and all that’s left to do is to determine whether or not the WRT3200AC lives up to the reputation. So, without further ado, lets get started.
The WRT3200AC is the newest offering of Linksys, and while on paper, it features some significant changes on the inside, the design has been retained from the predecessors. We get the same sort of sharp box like packaging with the signature blue colour and that’s basically it. It features four adjustable removable external antennas and LED status indicators on the front for Internet, the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radio bands, WPS, the LAN ports, the USB and eSATA ports, and Power. On the rear, we have four Gigabit LAN ports, a WAN port, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0/eSATA combined port, Power and WPS buttons. In Addition, the WRT3200AC also allows users to customise the settings of the router to their preference, giving each individual router, a unique performance flavor.
On the inside of the WRT3200AC Router is where you will actually find some noticeable changes. It now features an improved and more powerful dual-core processor that clocks in at 1.8 GHz, and giving it the company is 256MB of Flash and 512MB of system memory.
The WRT3200AC has been designed to conform with the latest Tri-Band 160 Technology. For those who are not aware, Tri Band 160 is this new upcoming technology, which makes the WRT3200AC twice as fast as other routers, at close range. While this is purely theoretical and practical confirmation is an absolute mouth watering thought, it will still be a few more years till we actually see devices that conform with the Tri Band 160 Technology. So, as of today, the fact that the WRT3200AC features Tri Band 160 technology is only a positive on paper.
Coming to the Speed and performance, the WRT3200AC does put up a decent fight, but I’m afraid, that with the sort of cut throat competition in todays world, a single bug or error can cost you the top spot. Speaking in numbers, the WRT3200AC delivers a sustained speed of around 550 Mbps when connected to dual band clients. The close proximity tests also delivered speeds of around 569 Mbps, which is fast, but unfortunately, not the fastest in the market.
Coming to the range, the Router manages to give you a 150 foot playing field, but again, the overall performance of the router will depend on the construction of the work place. More walls equals slightly larger interruption in signal, etc. Linksys should have bumped up the range on this router in order to counter the construction challenges, as that is something customers can’t really control. However, it looks like 150 feet is the max out, so make sure you plan your work station accordingly.
The router comes with latest MU-MIMO wireless technology idela for streaming and gaming devices and Tri-stream 160 Ghz explained below.
File Transfer is where the WRT3200AC redeems itself by churning out the fastest speeds seen in this bracket of products (74 MBps).
On our tests we had 24 devices connecting our old router where we had Smart TV’s, Laptops, smartphones and other networking devices & we had 50 Mbps connection Etisalat we had lots of issues with our old router frequent disconnection was one of them, We swapped our old router with the beast(Linksys WRT 3200 AC and we got a stable Wifi and LAN internet connection and no issues when your streaming Ultra HD 4K content on your smart TV either ,my iPhone connects to my network from a 150 feet away! ,so we are not switching back to our old router. we loved the stability and performance.
The WRT3200AC is a good choice for a user who likes to delve deep into the router settings in order to get his way with things, but when it comes to someone who uses the router as is and expects chart-topping performance you also have the Linksys Smart WiFi app which is the easiest way to manage your router on your smartphone
Verdict :
An enterprise grade router based , open source firmware customization,future proof Wifi tech with MU MIMO and Tri Stream 160 , We recomment it Overall this has been the best router I have used to this date ..
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