D-Link's all-new Ultra Performance routers bring aggressive style, powerful hardware
D-Link showcases three all-new routers in its Ultra Performance Series at CES 2015, with angry-looking designs and top-notch Wi-Fi performance.
LAS VEGAS -- If you want to impress -- and maybe even scare -- your friends with your home Wi-Fi router, D-Link has not one but three options for you.
The company today announced the new Ultra Performance series, with three new routers: the AC5300 DIR-895L/R (pictured above), the AC3200 DIR-890L/R and the AC3100 DIR-885L/R.
Locating local internet providers
The AC5300 DIR-895L/R is set to be the first router on the market can deliver the full Wi-Fi bandwidth of 5,300Mbps. This is a tri-band router, meaning it has three separate Wi-Fi bands. The 2.4GHz band can deliver up to 1,000Mbps and the two 5GHz bands can deliver up to 2,165Mbps each, simultaneously.
The AC3200 DIR-890L/R is also a tri-band router. However, similar to others already on the market, such as the Netgear R8000 , its 2.4GHz band can deliver up to only 600Mbps, while the two 5GHz bands can each deliver up to 1,300Mbps.
Locating local internet providers
Finally, the AC3100 DIR-885L/R shares the same Wi-Fi specs as the AC5300 above, but it has only two Wi-Fi bands (2.4GHz and 5GHz) instead of three, to deliver up to 3,100Mbps of total bandwidth.
Other than that all three new routers share the same new aggressive and eye-catching design, shaped like UFOs. They all support USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, come in red, and have eight, six and four external high-power antennas respectively.
The new routers also share the same new interface, which is much easier to use than the traditional interface that's been used in D-Link routers in the past five years. It allows you to control your home network from a mobile device, and includes many advanced features such as parental controls, access restriction, guest networks, QoS and so on.
D-Link says the DIR-885L/R and DIR-895L/R routers also support multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology that enables simultaneous transmission to groups of clients, making more efficient use of available Wi-Fi network capacity.
Out of the three only the AC3200 is available for purchase, with an estimated US price of $310 (which converts to around £200 or AU$385). The other two are slated to be available in the second quarter of the year with pricing to be announced then.
If you're blown away by the look and specs and want to purchase one of these as soon as they are available, I won't blame you. Otherwise, wait for their full reviews coming up after CES.