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This router provided consistently strong, fast connections in all of our tests, from short to long range. It also has numerous helpful features. Read More
This state-of-the-art router has it all: Wifi 6 support, incredible download speeds and gaming support. Read More
The Linksys MR9600 is a powerful, sophisticated Wi-Fi 6 router that can connect to multiple devices at once. Read More
While controllable using Alexa or Google Assistant, this router's setup is overly complicated. Read More
It's tempting to go with this router because of its price. Just be ready to deal with some range and latency issues. Read More
A great Wi-Fi router provides the fastest performance at the farthest possible range. Unfortunately, the multitude of different wireless standards, wireless bands, and extra options can be overwhelming—but we’ve got you. After researching dozens of wireless routers and testing nine finalists over four weeks, we found that the Linksys EA7500 (available at Amazon) is the best Wi-Fi router for most people. It offers great performance, comes with an easy-to-use app and it handles connections to several devices without struggling, easily managing a simultaneous 4K YouTube streaming video and a large file download during testing.
If your household simultaneously uses a lot of bandwidth-hogging devices such as smart TVs, 4k streaming devices, the latest generation of gaming consoles or you use a laptop to access remote desktops for work, you’ll want the fastest Wi-Fi possible to make it all run smoothly. The Netgear Nighthawk AX12 (available at Amazon) provides this. It’s a powerful wireless router that managed the scorching-fast speeds during testing.
Note: Those with large homes or who want to cover multiple buildings should check out our guide to the best mesh Wi-Fi routers. Alternatively, if you just want to improve a single area of your home, consider investing in a Wi-Fi extender.
The Linksys EA7500 packs a lot of value into a small package.
If you have the need for scorching-fast Internet speeds, the Nighthawk AX12 is the way to go.
Supports Wi-Fi 6 and mesh networks
4x4 MIMO means fast Wi-Fi for multiple users
No third Wi-Fi band support
Support for Alexa and Google Assistant Fast Wi-Fi
Large body and six antennae take up space
Setup process is overly complex
Affordable
Easy to set up access points
Not great range
Poor latency
Confusing advanced settings
Multiple network support
Supports Wi-Fi 6
Setup must be completed with a wired computer and a web browser.
Fastest router we tested
Powerful admin app and traffic routing features
Complicated setup and administration
Comprehensive help system
Automatically chooses between 2.4 and 5 GHz
Pricey
Performance drops at long range
We connected multiple devices, via Wi-Fi and wired connections, to push each router to its bandwidth limits.
I am Richard Baguley. I’ve been testing and writing about technology since connecting to the internet using a 300-baud modem. I’m a freelance writer whose work has appeared in places such as Wired, CNet, Tom's Guide and, of course, Reviewed. I am also the former VP of Editorial Development at Reviewed, where I developed a lot of the testing that is still in use to this day. Suffice to say, I’ve tested lots of stuff and know how to put it through a torture test that identifies its true performance.
While testing Wi-Fi routers, we looked at three main aspects of their performance: speed, distance and managing traffic.
We tested speed and distance by connecting two Wi-Fi 6 devices (A Samsung Note 20 and a Dell XPS 13 laptop) to the network each router created and measuring the speed of the connection using iPerf3 at just a few feet from the router, then again about 50 feet away. In addition, we watched a 4K YouTube video at each distance to see if it was watchable.
To test how well each router managed high-bandwidth traffic, we connected three devices to its Wi-Fi network, each performing a different data-intensive task.
As one device used a wired connection to copy a large file to a network-connected server, another downloaded a huge chunk of data over BitTorrent. Meanwhile, our third device ran a Speedtest.net speed test, while streaming a 4K YouTube video. Pushing the routers to their limits in this way gave us an idea of how well they might work in your home, while connected to multiple devices performing high-bandwidth tasks like streaming video, gaming or high-resolution video calls for work.
There’s a lot of technical terms in this guide, which can make things a little confusing to anyone without an in-depth understanding of wireless networking. In an effort to keep your head from spinning, we’ve put together this list of terms you should know:
Bandwidth: A measure of how much data a router can send or receive. The wider the bandwidth, the more data the router can handle at any one time. It is usually measured in Mbps (Megabits per second), how many million bits of data the router can handle per second.
802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6: The latest wireless standard available to the public. It’s designed to increase data transfer speeds, ease the congestion created on your home network by data-intensive tasks, like streaming 4k video and online gaming.
Wi-Fi 6 can, in theory, be used to send data at speeds of over 6 gigabits per second (Gbps). Not only is it faster than previous standards, but it also makes it easier and faster for multiple devices to connect to your network at once. As more Internet-connected devices like smart home tech, and tablets creep into our lives, this provides for some future-proofing. 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6 is backwards compatible with the older standards. So, if you use an 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6 router with an older device, like a Playstation 4, it will work, but at slower speeds, than it would with a Wi-Fi 6 capable device like a Playstation 5.
Wi-Fi 6E: is the latest update to the 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6 standard. Wi-Fi 6E devices support an extra band in the 6GHz frequency range. This means they offer even more potential bandwidth, but only with devices that support this third band. 6E routers are only just coming onto the market, and very few phones, laptops and other devices support it, so we didn’t test Wi-Fi 6E for this roundup.
AC1750, 1900, etc: The letters represent the version of the Wi-Fi standard, while the numbers indicate the maximum theoretical speed that the router can send data over all of its supported frequencies in Megabits per second (Mbps). So, for example, an AC2900 router can send up to 750 Mbps of data on the 2.4Ghz frequency, plus up to 2167 Mbps on the 5GHz frequency for a total of around 2900 Mbps. Don’t forget that the number is the combination of the maximum on all frequency bands: you’ll never get that much out of any single device.
MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multi-In, Multi-Out): Modern routers can send and receive multiple streams of data simultaneously, using multiple antennas. By carefully juggling these signals, they can send these multiple streams on the same frequency, increasing the amount of data that can be sent or received. The limitation here is the number of antennas that the router has. However, the device receiving the streams also has to have multiple antennas to be able to take advantage of this, and most cell phones and laptops more than a couple of years old will only have one. More modern devices will have two or more antennas.
Richard Baguley is a valued contributor to the Reviewed.com family of sites.
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