D-Link DIR-868L AC1750 Pro Reviews

D-Link cut a couple of corners with the DIR-868L. But with its performance and price tag, most people won’t care.

Confusing web interface and lower than expected range, but its 802.11ac performance is pretty good

The poor 802.11ac results are disappointing because otherwise, the DIR-868L is a solid router. We certainly love the cylindrical design and its performance over 802.11n was one of the best recorded on test here.

The D-Link DIR-868L is one of the best wireless-AC routers on the market today. It has tons of features and leads the way with its Wireless-AC performance. It may look a bit strange, but the DIR-868L gets the job done!

Finally we're at a point where wireless 802.11ac is becoming a potentially usable technology with both internal and USB-based laptop adaptors now available. While the D-Link doesn't jump out as the best in its class, it's certainly up at the leading edge. With its compact design, full range of features and Gigabit LAN ports there's little to criticise.

As the first AC1750 router using Broadcom's more powerful second-generation router SoC, the DIR-868L has a bit of an edge in storage sharing throughput over products using the first-gen BCM4706. The USB 3.0 port certainly contributes to that storage sharing throughput advantage. But folks really pay the big bucks for AC1750 routers for the higher wireless throughput they are supposed to provide. And D-Link oddly has left customers on their own to find a solution from other vendors to get the most out of its flagship draft 802.11ac router. The DIR-868L's biggest disadvantage vs. its competition is its lack of a bridge mode and lack of a companion AC1300 class standalone bridge product. Still, the DIR-868L as a whole is good enough to take the #2 spot for AC1750 class routers in our Router Ranker. The summary below shows that its main weakness is range, primarily in the 2.4 GHz band. With strong signals and in three out of four benchmarks, however, it's the current best of the AC1750 class bunch when it comes to wireless throughput as long as it has a good, strong signal.

As an advanced home router, the DIR-868L Wireless AC1750 Dual Band Gigabit Cloud Router is a huge improvement over the previous DIR-865L router. D-Link did a good job focusing on what is important in the Wi-Fi router: the data rates and the quality of Wi-Fi signal, though at the expense of extra features and flexibility. The latter, however, can be improved over time and possibly added via firmware updates. While there sure is room for improvement, in its current state, DIR-868L is already one of the best straight-up 802.11ac-enabled routers on the market.