Don’t pay through the nose
Before you spurt coffee all over the magazine after gazing at the price tag of this router, I should point out that at the time of print I only had access to the EA9200’s Recommended Retail Price. Every other router’s price tag is the street price, and there’s usually a substantial difference between the two; you can expect the EA9200 to fetch somewhere around $350 when it does show up in stores. Is it worth it?
Thankfully this is a true Tri-band router, so it’ll lap up your extra devices with ease, which helps explain the heady price-tag. Three external antennae extend from the top of the unit, and it utilises the same businesslike exterior we’ve seen Linkys use for several years. Despite its large size, the router stands upright, so won’t devour a huge chunk of your desk real estate.
Like the ASUS router, the EA9200 utilises a feature called Smart Connect, that will automatically place any connecting device onto the least congested network. It’s also packing a dual-core 1GHz processor, ensuring the interface loads quickly. It’s worth noting that the URL used to access the web interface didn’t work for me; instead I had to Google the unit’s default IP to log in. Four Gigabit Ethernet ports and a single WAN port can be found on the rear next to the USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports.
Heading into the interface reveals a relatively intuitive interface, albeit one that isn’t quite as nice as D-Link’s. The main network map is a nice touch, as it displays each connected device which can then be clicked on, opening up the option to enable parental controls by device. Rather than the usual Quality of Service screen, this router features a Media Prioritisation option. From here the user can drag and drop clients, services or applications into the High priority list, but it’s limited to only three high priority items. A built in Internet Speed Test is included, but it didn’t work in my setup as I didn’t have the fibre modem directly connected to the Router. Port Forwarding is easy to configure, but Linksys doesn’t advise what the maximum number of forwarded ports can be. Serious network engineers will find the lack of detailed Wi-Fi options a turn-off.
Given the rather high price, I expected this router to blaze through the benchmarks. Alas, it wasn’t to be. It landed smack bang in the middle of the pack when testing the 2.4GHz network, yet scored the top download speed in the 5GHz range, albeit by a tiny margin. This was offset by the poor 5GHz upload speed, recording the worst of every device in the roundup.
It would appear that Tri-band routers have some way to go to catch up to the performance of Dual-band models, and the Linksys EA9200 is just another example showing how far behind they are. However, it’s worth noting that this is the fastest of the Tri-band routers on offer, so if you’re packing plenty of 5GHz devices, could be worth considering.
VERDICT
It might be the fastest Tri-band performer in the roundup, but it’s still a long way behind D-Link’s Dual-band routers.