Gadgetory

most people Wi-Fi is just Wi-Fi it's fast it's slow it works or it doesn't but to the discerning connoisseur of 802 dot eleven Wireless local area networks there's a whole alphabet of Wi-Fi flavors you get your a/b/g/n and the most recent addition AC AC standard is the fastest most badass Wi-Fi on the planet and to explain why I'm going to use this handy table showing channel bandwidth constellation density and spatial streams or not instead how about we count down this list of the best 802 dot eleven AC routers you can go out and buy right now handpicked by C net senior editor don't know starting off at number five Apple Airport Extreme Base Station I suspect Apple isn't happy at being at the bottom of this list so let me just say that they have the number one router that looks like a box of Kleenex they can chop up that soundbite however they like $199 buys you speed and ease of use but if you're looking for ports and features and flexibility this is not the router for you so how about number four the trend net AC 1900 dual band wireless router at $180 this is the most affordable option on this list on top of the AC signal you also get a second band of wireless n there's a wealth of connections on the back including both USB 2 for connecting a printer and USB 3 for connecting a hard drive unfortunately we couldn't get the router to recognize any of the drives we attached to it but if network storage isn't a big deal for you this is the best bargain out there at number three the Linksys wrt54g features plenty of customization options and unlike the TRENDnet this thing kills it on network storage attach a drive to the USB 3.0 port and you'll get the fastest read/write speeds of any router on this list potentially faster than a dedicated Nass server it also has a retro router look thing going on I didn't know was a thing until now it's kind of cool coming in at number two the Netgear Nighthawk AC 1900 smart Wi-Fi router this one answers the question which router would Batman buy but price of two hundred dollars you don't have to be Bruce Wayne to buy this thing it's fast it has all the features you'd want it's even time capsule compatible making it a great alternative to the base station for Mac users the only trouble is this thing is gigantic they designed it to look like a stealth bomber so that you wouldn't notice its girth but I see you Nighthawk chunky router but for the best fastest and arguably the prettiest 802 11 AC router on the market check out our number one pick the soos our TAC 68 u dual band wireless AC nineteen hundred gigabit router not the catchiest name and arguably the advanced features here are far beyond what most people are looking for but if you're looking for fast the asustor that by a significant margin $220 puts it in the ballpark of everything else here and my favorite feature is totally trivial but there's a switch on the back to turn off the routers LEDs for some reason the router in my home is like the brightest light in my house I shouldn't have to put duct tape over my router just to get some sleep so there you go five blazing fast wireless routers that use the new 802 dot eleven AC standard that everything is moving towards for more suggestions check out cnet.com slash and for more top fives from me you get top 5 cnet.com I'm Donnell Bell thanks for watching