When wireless networking was first introduced it was a very cool concept and people bought into it. The problem was that it was also about as slow as dial-up internet was. The good news is that all technologies advance and wireless was non exception. Once the idea caught on we quickly ramped up in speed, but wireless was never quite able to keep up with a wired connection. We saw these connections leap ahead by a factor of 10 while wireless had small incremental speed jumps. All of that changed in 2011 when researchers built up the next specification for wireless speed, 802.11ac. This speed increase more than doubled what wireless was able to do previously. Suddenly wireless was just as fast as a wired connection (in theory). We have a few routers and adapters in the lab and will be taking a look at them. Today we are going to show you the TRENDNet TEW-812DRU AC1750 dual band wireless router.
Value -Value is another very subjective topic. What is expensive to some might be a deal to others. You can look at this topic in multiple ways. One is raw price and the other is what you get for the money. Each is accurate and both are correct ways to look at price/value. We tend to look at features, performance and real-property when we discuss value. However, we also take into account the raw cash cost of the item. At $145 per unit from most online retailers the TRENDNet TEW-812DRU is a good buy. You are going to get solid performance and a good feature set for not a lot of money. This is going to work for most consumers, but you might see enthusiasts/gamers go for another product even if they need to spend a little because of the lack of a good gaming profile options.
Conclusion -What can we say about the TRENDNet TEW-812DRU that we have not already said above? It is a solid product that can give you some excellent speeds when you combine them with the proper adapters. TRENDNet has done a good job of bridging the small business and residential gap with their UI although we do think they need to work on some of their advanced features to make their products easier to use by the average consumer and also to add appeal to gamers and enthusiasts. These are groups that often have more discretionary income, but they tend to go for products that cater to what they want over more generic ones. However, this does not make the TEW-812DRU a bad product. It has a good price point combined with excellent performance and that is sure to make it popular to just about anyone.
For its solid performance and great price point we are happy to award the TRENDNet TEW-812DRU our Silver Key Award.
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