INTRODUCTION

   Up until a few years ago most people had but one smartphone which they'd use primarily to make calls so even the now "old" Wi-Fi 802.11n networking standard with its maximum data rate of 300Mbit/s (later pushed to 450 and 600Mbit/s) on the 2.4GHz band was more than enough. Today however things have changed so most of us have more than just one smartphone and a tablet not to mention several other devices which also support Wi-Fi connectivity including TV sets, media players, printers, blue-ray players, notebooks, wireless speakers, cameras, security systems, consoles and much more. To support this large number of Wi-Fi compatible devices the industry launched the 802.11ac standard a couple of years ago which basically upped the maximum data rate from 600Mbit/s to 1200Mbit/s on the 5GHz band (1300Mbit/s was also achieved shortly afterwards). Well human "ingenuity" knows no bounds and so several manufacturers decided to add a 2.4GHz right next to the 5GHz one to boost the available data rate to well over 1600Mbit/s (300Mbit/s on the 802.11n 2.4GHz band and 1300Mbit/s on the 802.11ac 5GHz band) while some models have even surpassed 3000Mbit/s with the addition of more than one 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Today with us we have the brand new WRT1900ACS Router by Linksys, a high-end model which offers a maximum combined data rate of 1900Mbit/s (concurrent 802.11n & 802.11ac signals).

   The Linksys brand has pioneered wireless connectivity since its inception in 1988 with its leading innovation and engineering strategies, and best-in-class technology, design, and customer service. Linksys enables a connected lifestyle for people at home, at work and on the move, and with its award-winning products, simplifies home control, entertainment, security and Internet access through innovative features and a growing application and partner ecosystem. Linksys is part of Belkin International.

   As some of you may already know (or figured out by its name and/or looks) he WRT1900ACS is actually the updated version (successor) of the highly-acclaimed and award winning WRT1900AC which we had with us last year and left us with the best possible impressions. So what did Linksys improve on their already excellent router? Well compared to the WRT1900AC which featured a 1.2GHz dual-core ARM CPU with 128MB of flash storage and 256MB of DDR3 RAM the WRT1900ACS is quite more powerful since under its hood it has a 1.6GHz dual-core ARM CPU with 128MB of flash storage and 512MB of DDR3 RAM. Everything else however remains pretty much the same since just like its predecessor the WRT1900ACS features a maximum combined data rate of 1900Mbit/s (1300Mbit/s on the 5GHz band and 600Mbit/s on the 2.4Ghz band), 4 dual-band detachable high-gain antennas (support beamforming), 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports, Gigabit WAN port, eSATA/USB 2.0 port and a USB 3.0 port. With increased CPU speed and more RAM just how much better is the WRT1900ACS compared to its predecessor?