Taking an initial look at AC3200 Ultra we’re left with a rather unique looking router. D-Link has opted for a design which is unorthodox but extremely intriguing.
The top-side of the router utilises a glossy plastic finish which has been given a lick of anodized red paint. Running down the middle there is a status panel which has various indicators for power, WAN connection, WiFi 2.5GHz, WiFi 5GHz and USB connections.
By now, it would be difficult to have missed the plethora of antennas AC3200 Ultra comes accompanied with. A total of six antennas are situated at the front, sides and rear of the unit – these antennas are cannot be detached but can be rotated to suit a desired direction.
As its name suggests AC3200 Ultra supplies Wireless AC with a combined speed of up to 3200mbps – 1300mbps across the two 5GHz bands and 600mbps over the 2.4GHz band.
By offering Wireless AC, our router extends beyond the signal coverage which inferior standards supply. Combine this with Ti-Band technology and there is less interference for network traffic. Furthermore to this, AC3200 Ultra also uses “Advanced AC SmartBeam”. In short this will enhance the wireless strength and will help to extend to those hard to reach areas of any home.
Flipping the router over, there are four rubber pads to prevent the unit from slipping on smooth surfaces and there are two mounting holes to work in conjunction with the provided screws to offer an alternative mounting solution.
In the centre there is a specifications label, highlighting the serial number, mac address and WiFi details – along with the all important mydlink no and WPS pin. Some of these details D-Link may require if you need technical assistance.
With no active cooling within AC3200 Ultra it’s good to see there is an abundance of ventilation to allow heat to dissipate – at the very heart of our router there is a 1GHz dual-core chip to assist with faster compute network performance and to alleviate any lag.
Around the back of the router there is a patterned ventilation area with the D-Link emblem. Again, since there are no cooling fans inside this unit its essential there are areas such as this to expel unwanted heat generated from the internal components.
We also have a generous selection of functionality available at the rear. Included here are the following:
• USB 3.0 port
• USB 2.0 port
• Hard reset button
• WPS Button
• 4x Gigabit LAN Ports
• 1x WAN Port
• Power Button
• DC-in Port
Having the USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports is very useful. We’re pleased to see that D-Link has decided to offer USB 3.0 since this allows users to pair the port up with a pen drive using this standard. As a result, content such as photos, music, videos or documents can be backed up or shared quickly. Those who have a printer on the network but want to free up one of the Gigabit LAN ports can use the USB 2.0 port instead.
So, overall the AC3200 Ultra has a strong feature-set. Visually, this router is impressive but this is only part of the story – on the next page we’ll be taking a look at the software and doing a network performance test to see how this router really performs.
