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Hands on: D-Link Eagle Pro AI R32 review

Hands on: D-Link Eagle Pro AI R32 review

Simple, speedy over short distances and above all cheap, this Wi-Fi 6 router could be all you need.

AI seems to be everywhere lately, and that includes the world of home networking: D-Link’s latest “smart router” proudly wears its AI credentials on its sleeve. As we’ll see, this is definitely a case where the buzzword oversells the reality, but if the R32 is short on smarts it makes up for that in value. As we went to press, it cost only £73 inc. VAT on Amazon, making it one of the cheapest Wi-Fi 6 routers around.

The Eagle Pro AI R32 is the successor to last year’s Eagle Pro AI R15, which was similarly cheap and looked almost identical. The main difference between the two is what you might guess from the name: the new model is just over twice as fast as the old one, in terms of wireless bandwidth. It supports connections of up to 800Mbits/sec on the 2.4GHz band, while the 5GHz radio goes up to a maximum speed of 2.4Gbits/sec. There’s also more wired bandwidth available, as the R32 gains an extra Ethernet socket at the back, to make up a full quartet of gigabit LAN ports.

Aside from those sockets there’s not much to see: no USB, no multi-gig connectors and only four LEDs on the front to show you the status of your power, internet and Wi-Fi. But that’s fine – do you really need more?

News Reporter

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