Synology RT1900ac Router Now Officially Available

It has been about five months since we first saw Synology’s take on a router during our visit at Computex and it already won the Computex Best Choice Golden Award at that time. This awesome little router can also be yours now as Synology announced the official release and global availability on the Router RT1900ac.

Synology has a long experience with network connected devices, so the move into the router market seems a logical one and it is also one that makes me hope that they’ll release smart switches for home users in the future. The RT1900ac Synology Router is equipped with a dual-core 1GHz processor and comes with 256MB DDR memory. The 3×3 MIMO omnidirectional antennas support both the 2.4GHz band with 3.5dBi and the 5GHz band with 4.dBi, quite a bit more than the average 5dBi combined antennes often found in routers. This should ensure great connectivity for wireless devices.

The RT1900ac has four Gigabit RJ45 LAN ports and one WAN port on the rear where it also features a power button, something that’s often forgotten on routers.

The WAN port supports Dynamic IP, Static IP, and PPPoE and the router is IPv6 ready for both the server and client side. IGMP snooping, UPnP, port triggers, DMZ, and VPN are all included so you’ll find all the features you want from a router.

On the right side, it features a USB 3.0 port and a SD card slot for direct storage attachment as well as a multitude of other options. The RT1900ac only features this one USB port, which could be to little for some people considering what you can use it for. First there naturally is the ability to connect external storage devices and share the content with everyone who has access to the router, but it can also be used for network connected printers as well as 3G/4G/LTE USB modems. With all these abilities, it seems a bit low with just one port.

A really nice feature added by Synology is the eject button located on the front. This is something that I have been missing on headless units such as routers and NAS devices for many years. Pressing the button will unmount the connected storage, USB or SD card, and allow for a secure removal of the storage.

The left side of the router features a Wi-Fi on and off switch as well as a WPS button for quick and easy connection of new devices to your wireless network.

Speaking of wireless network, the Synology RT1900ac features IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac connectivity with up to 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to 1300Mbps on the 5GHz band simultaneously. The router features beamforming, scheduled Wi-Fi access, and can maintain up to 70 connected devices and supports at least 40 connected devices that are concurrently transmitting data.

A new product series also needs a new operating system and Synology created the Synology Router Manager (SRM) that includes advanced traffic tools that surpass the common router. With the Network Center application, you can limit bandwidth consumption, block malicious content, and fine-tune how data travels through your home or office network.

You get a download station, media server, and radius server too along with more possibilities through add-ons, this router really seems to have it all.

The router and all connected devices are easily accessible from everywhere thanks to Synology’s quick connect DDNS feature and the mobile iOS and Android apps. It supports all common file formats, so it’s also compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS systems.

The Synology RT1900ac is currently listed for sale starting at €154.65, which is a really nice price for a router in this category and even more considering the functions, features, and abilities it brings along.

We currently have the Synology RT1900ac here in the network test area and will have a full review of the router available for you shortly.