LABS TEST / WIFI 6 ROUTERS
C
urrently available for just £80 from
Amazon and Currys, Belkin’s
RT3200-UK is a spectacularly low-
cost router considering its headline AX3200
Wi-Fi capabilities. Even at its more widely
available price of £130 inc VAT, this router still
offers a lot of performance for your money.
At least part of the reason for its low price
is obvious when you take this router out of
its box. It’s the only one on test to not sport
external aerials, which in theory could impact
its performance. On the plus side, though, it
makes for easily the most compact unit overall,
with a tiny footprint of
77 x 156mm. It does,
of course, still stand
quite tall, and it’s not
designed to be laid on
its side, in case you
were wondering, but
it’s still only 220mm tall,
which is shorter than the
towering Asus.
The white finish
may suit some homes
better than the black
of its competitors
too. In particular, the
accompanying white
power cable and plug
are more likely to
make for tidier-looking
BELKIN RT3200UK /£80 inc VAT
SUPPLIER currys.co.ukcabling than some routers when set against
the white skirting boards and plug sockets of
most homes.
On the front of the device there are just
two LEDs for power and internet status, while
around the back is one big line containing, from
top to bottom, the WPS and reset buttons (the
former being much easier to reach than most
rear-mounted equivalents), followed by four
Gigabit LAN ports, a Gigabit WAN port, a single
USB 2 port, the power input and power switch.
That single USB 2 port rather sums up the
extent of this router’s extra capabilities. It does
offer printer and storage sharing, but the latter
is slow and there’s not a huge amount else
on offer. You still get standard features, such
as guest network and parental controls, but
there’s just not a lot extra. It’s a basic router, but
one with the latest high-speed Wi-Fi standards.
Where this relatively modest router really
comes to life is in raw performance. Its 4x4
5GHz spatial stream configuration and
apparent Wi-Fi witchcraft meant it topped the
charts for 5GHz performance in both our close
and medium-range tests.
Peak performance in our tests was limited
by the AX1500 adaptor in our test laptop, so
other higher-spec routers may have more
speed on tap when connecting to faster clients.
However, in our real-world laptop testing, the
Belkin delivered the goods. It wasn’t quite so
impressive in our longer-range test but it still
delivered a stable connection.
However, the 2.4GHz band was less
impressive, suggesting a more stripped-back
2x2 spatial stream configuration – as also
used on the Netgear Nighthawk RAX40. It
still maintained reasonable performance atall ranges, but was some way off the peak
performance of more capable units. The
2.4GHz band is certainly still good enough
for low-bandwidth operations such as smart
home gadgets though.Conclusion
It’s always a little tricky to assess a product
when it’s clearly being offered at discount, even
if it’s a discount being matched across two
major shops and that’s been active for some
time. However, even at £130, the RT3200-
UK is still a good buy. The Asus RT-AX68U
and Netgear RAX40 offer quite a few more
features for not a huge amount more, and have
essentially similar performance, but £40 is still
a solid saving. Meanwhile, at its current £80
price, this router is a steal.VERDICT
The Belkin lacks frills, but with solid
performance and a rock-bottom current
price, this is a bargain of a router.
BELISSIMO
+^ Incredible value
at current price
+^ Surprising good
performance
+^ Compact, tidy designBELLY FLOP-^ High ping at long range
-^ Basic feature set
DESIGN
14 / 20FEATURES
12 / 20OVERALL SCORE
82 %
PERFORMANCE
26 / 30VALUE
30 / 30c
us
tom P
CA
P
PR
OVE
D
SPEC
Weight 638g
Dimensions (mm) 77 x 156 x 220 (W x D x H)
Ethernet 4 x Gigabit LAN, 1 x Gigabit WAN
Wi-Fi Dual-band (AX3200)
Spatial streams 2.4GHz 2x2, 5GHz 4x4
USB ports 1 x USB 2
Processor Not stated
Memory Not stated
Extras USB printer and storage sharing