Linksys WRT1900AC Dual-Band Wireless Router Review

Chris Hadley / 10 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

It comes as no surprise that the WRT1900AC is no budget bit of kit and when we are looking at prices of around $250 in the US through Staples & the Linksys Store whilst in the UK we see a price tag that is a little more weighty in comparison due to VAT of around £230 through Amazon and Dabs, it is certainly one of the most expensive options out there. That said though we do have to consider the fact that this router has been 11 years in the making and when we take into account the pure performance that is on tap, the price tag quickly becomes more justified.

Overview

[youtube width=”800″ height=”450″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeXJo6ef_Aw[/youtube]

For a product that has been over 11 years in the making, the WRT1900AC has made one of the most audacious comebacks that we have seen in a long time. With such a heritage set behind it, the WRT1900AC brings forward the trend breaking looks and over the top levels of power that we saw years ago and this essence of going above all else is just what Linksys needed to keep hold of in order to make this comeback work.

On the performance side of things it is a simple fact that the WRT1900AC out performs everything that I’ve seen and tested, both in a review here and in my own experience elsewhere. Putting in a 1.2GHz CPU and two top-end wireless transceivers alongside a cooling system [that is outrageous for this type of product] may all seem way out of proportion, but this is what WRT is all about. The over specified components give a powerful sub-frame onto which the stock and third-party open-source firmware can operate with tons of headroom to spare, resulting in a system that should have no problems in performance shortages for some time yet. The addition of the fan may also seem like a step too far and an addition that may become a nuisance, I can assure you that at no time during the period which I have been testing the WRT1900AC has the fan spun up – so noise is not a problem. With open-source potentially having the capacity to push the hardware to its absolute limits, the fan is there just in-case things get a little too warm for comfort.

Feature wise we get all the standard features that we would expect to see from any other router today, although it would be nice to see an additional USB port positioned on the side of the router for easy access should you wish to plug-in a flash drive temporarily for example. Additionally the stock firmware could do with a few more additions to the settings, giving the power user far more control over their network than what they would with the current release, even though support for open-source firmware is clearly advertised. That said though, it does what it needs to and it delivers the performance that Linksys promise so we can’t really grumble that much.

As a product in its entirety, the WRT1900AC is not about any pro’s or con’s. Whilst I can point out areas where I would like to see more, as a top of the line router that punches well over the head of any other router on the market it is hard to think of a reason why any enthusiast shouldn’t buy one, even if it is slightly more expensive than the next best competitor.

Linksys have made a huge gamble in bringing back the WRT name, but as we can see they have pulled it off hands down and as a person that was excited to get my hands on one, I have not been let down in the slightest. The WRT1900AC has done what the WRT54G did all those years ago by re-writing the rulebook for high performance consumer networking.

Pros:

Supreme wireless range and performance
Open-source ready
Long lasting heritage
Easy to use interface

Cons:

Price may deter many users

“Ten years ago, Linksys’s WRT line of routers were simply put ‘the’ way to go if you wanted to get the very best out of your network and as we fast forward to today, the WRT1900AC once again puts Linksys at the very top of the consumer networking charts. Even though we are still waiting for the open-source firmware, the WRT1900AC is the pinnacle of consumer networking at this very moment.”