D-Link DIR-890 AC3200 Ultra Triple-Band Wi-Fi Router Review

Bohs Hansen / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The D-Link DIR-890 Wireless AC3200 Ultra Tri-Band Gigabit Router isn’t the cheapest around, but it doesn’t cost more than other premium routers with just two bands. At the time of writing, the DIR-890 can be had for $268.99 at NewEgg, £214.67 at Scan Computers, or starting from €200.76 through Geizhals.

Conclusion

Let us first talk a little about the DIR-890’s design. The unique shape of the Ultra series makes the router stand out and it looks a little like a UFO or a drone. Whether you like the design or not is a matter of personal taste, but I quite like it. It looks futuristic enough to make it stand out but at the same time, D-Link didn’t take it too far with nic nacs. It’s a great combination of features and design.

The six antennas are also part of the design, but it is also what gives this router its power. It doesn’t just have two bands as most routers we know, it has three. The extra band is another 5GHz band in order to offload traffic jam from one band by splitting up the traffic over two. It won’t give you faster speeds, but better connectivity where a lot of devices are connected at the same time and latency is a factor. The antennas sadly aren’t replaceable, but that is okay as they perform great.

D-Link used their own operating system and graphic user interface for the DIR-890, but you can also flash DD-WRT onto the router in case you don’t like the standard version. This is a great bonus and one that will appeal to the more advanced users. The tri-band router features both advanced AC SmartBeam that tracks your connected devices for enhanced speed and range as well as smart bandwidth control, parental systems, and remote access management.

D-Link added a 1 GHz dual-core CPU to the DIR-890 which should be plenty to provide you with lag-free connections. The router also has both a USB 3.0 and a USB 2.0 port for easy file and printer sharing across your network and even the internet. You can connect with your PC, Smart TV, and other DLNA capable devices, as well as smart devices such as tablets and smartphones. The AC3200 is also an NVIDIA GameStream-Ready product capable of handling the 4K streams that the NVIDIA Shield can display.

Pros

Good performance
Extra 5GHz band to reduce congestion
SmartConnect finds the best band for you
File and Printer sharing
Gigabit Ethernet LAN and WAN
DD-WRT compatible

Cons

Antennas not replaceable
Only one USB 3.0 port for fast storage

“D-Link’s DIR-890L/R AC3200 router has great performance and an easy to use interface even for novice users. Advanced users can get even more out of the Ultra router by flashing it with DD-WRT.”