CONCLUSION
We may not have tested each and every powerline adapter manufactured by Devolo but so far the ones that we have tested and used have performed extremely well so when we received the DLAN 500 AV Wireless+ Starter Kit we knew it would perform at least on par with the previous DLAN 500 AV+ Starter Kit. Fortunately the DLAN 500 AV Wireless+ Starter Kit performed quite better (roughly 30% better) but what really impressed us was that the Wi-Fi signal strength was even better than wired when measured in QCheck. Now we don't know how that can be especially since the Network Test by Passmark seems to disagree but even those results are very good. The integrated power socket is also a plus (although nothing really new) while the 3 Ethernet ports placed on the secondary adapter can come very handy for people who also have need for wired connectivity. I was hoping that Devolo would place two or more Ethernet ports on the primary adapter but perhaps doing so would create conflicts in the Wi-Fi signal we really can't know for certain.
Powerline adapters with integrated Wi-Fi antennas are something quite new and much like everything new they don't come very cheap especially when they perform like the DLAN 500 AV Wireless+ Starter Kit by Devolo. Unfortunately although currently you can grab the kit for 135Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) we were unable to locate it elsewhere and that's the only serious drawback we can think off. Of course Devolo is an EU based manufacturer so it may not be in their immediate plans to expand outside the EU but we really hope they will eventually. High performance, very good build quality, integrated power socket, 3 Ethernet ports on the secondary adapter and Wi-Fi a/b/g/n capable the DLAN 500 AV Wireless+ Starter Kit has it all and that's why it gets our Golden Award.
PROS
- Build Quality
- Performance (Wired & Wireless)
- Integrated Power Socket
- 500Mbit/s Compatible
- Wi-Fi a/b/g/n Capable (2 Internal Antennas)
- AES 128bit Encryption
- devolo Cockpit Software
CONS
- Price (For Some)
- Current Availability