Event Coverage

HWM+HardwareZone.com Editor's Choice Tech Awards - Part 1

By Team HardwareZone - 10 Feb 2010

Best 802.11n Router

Best 802.11n Router

With the recent ratification of the 802.11n standard, G-routers are undoubtedly fading into oblivion as consumers herald the arrival of the N-routers for their resounding throughput and longer range. Some work on a single band, whilst others thrive on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies, primed for streaming purposes. Whatever their agenda, we have rounded up five MIMO-based routers to see which 802.11n device can offer the best throughput as well as wireless stability.

Nominees

  • Aztech HW550
  • ASUS RT-N16
  • D-Link DIR-685
  • Linksys by Cisco WRT320N
  • Netgear WNDR3700 RangeMax

And the Winner is

The ASUS RT-N16 is our best 802.11n router.

If you're looking for a competent N-router, then the ASUS RT-N16 would probably best fit the bill. Aside from its Gigabit WAN/LAN offerings, the RT-N16 is also crammed with features like UPnP Media Server which lets you share data from USB devices across your network. The ASUS flagship router also came in tops in our performance benchmarks, with a stable average throughput of 70Mbps between the 2m and 10m mark. At S$195, it's a fitting and comprehensive N-router worthy of the crown.

Scoring Breakdown
Criteria/Model ASUS RT-N16 Aztech HW550 D-Link DIR-685 Linksys by Cisco WRT320N Netgear WNDR3700
Physique 9.0 8.5 9.0 8.0 9.0
Features 9.0 9.0 9.0 8.0 8.5
Performance 8.5 8.5 8.5 7.5 8.0
User-friendliness 9.0 8.5 9.0 8.5 8.5
Value 8.5 9.0 8.0 8.5 8.0
Overall 9.0 8.5 9.0 8.0 8.5
Price S$195 S$99 S$399 S$179 S$259

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

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