Every day it is more common for manufacturers to focus on launching WiFi 6 routers. These new routers, in addition to being faster than WiFi AC, thanks to WPA3 encryption are also more secure than the previous WPA2 standard. WiFi 6 is here to stay, and we already have basic routers with this technology for about € 80. Today we present the Zyxel Armor G5 (NBG7815), a high-performance router with the latest innovations.
Main features
The Zyxel Armor G5 router has been designed to provide a high-performance network infrastructure, and a good example of this is that it incorporates top-of-the-range hardware, ideal for supporting networks with intensive use of video and IoT. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the way things are done, as social distancing and stay-at-home requirements have been imposed. This has placed greater demands on our home networks, both at the wired network level with desktops, as well as at the Wi-Fi wireless level. In addition, we must not forget that there are still many people doing teleworking and even tele-training.
CPU and RAM
To meet all these demands, a powerful 2.2 GHz 64-bit quad-core processor has been integrated into the Zyxel Armor G5. With this CPU an excellent overall performance is guaranteed, both in terms of LAN-LAN, LAN-WAN performance, and also when we use the high-performance USB 3.1 Gen 2 port it incorporates. Along with this very powerful CPU, we also find a 1GB capacity RAM, and a total of 4GB of internal memory.
Simultaneous Dual Band AX6000
Regarding the wireless characteristics, this router is simultaneous dual band with Wi-Fi 6 and AX6000 class, therefore, we can achieve a speed of up to 1,201Mbps in the 2.4GHz band, and a speed of up to 4,804Mbps in the 5GHz band. In the 2.4GHz band we have a total of four antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration, and in the 5GHz band we will have a total of eight antennas to provide great wireless speed.
In both bands we have Beamforming, MU-MIMO and OFDMA and TWT technologies, that is, it has all the technologies with Wi-Fi 6. An important aspect is that it is compatible with the WiFi 802.11a / b / g standards / n / ac, this means that we can connect both Wifi 6 devices and those of previous generations.
Of course, at the firmware level we will have the possibility of creating a guest Wi-Fi network, automatic channel selection, WPS and other functionalities such as the possibility of configuring WPA3 security.
WAN, LAN and USB
This wireless router has a total of four Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN, something that is very common, but this model also has some special features: a 10G Multigigabit port for the LAN, therefore, we can connect computers and synchronize at speeds 10Gbps, 5Gbps, 2.5Gbps and 1Gbps. In addition, in the Internet WAN port we have Multigigabit 2.5G speed, therefore, this router is prepared for ultra-fast Internet connections
The Armor G5 includes on its back a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port to which we can connect external hard drives and even external SSDs, since this port works at a maximum speed of 10Gbps, therefore, in conjunction with the main processor, we can obtain very high speeds.
Zyxel Armor: a very complete firmware
The Zyxel, Armor interface allows its users total control over everything that happens on their network at any time and in any place, we will have a large number of services to make the most of the USB 3.0 port, possibility of configuring in detail the wireless network in terms of SSID, channels, channel widths, security and more. The objective of Zyxel with this Armor G5 is simplicity, therefore, the firmware is very intuitive and with direct access options to the different menus.
An important aspect is that Zyxel has developed an application for Android that will allow us to manage our router from anywhere, both on the local network and on the Internet.
This Zyxel NBG7815 also allows us to connect your private network securely with an easy-to-create OpenVPN . Thanks to this, we can build an encrypted tunnel to secure our traffic and achieve greater privacy, even if we are away from home connected to a WiFi network other than ours. In addition, it has a firewall with packet inspection (SPI) and prepared for the prevention of denial of service (DoS).
The Zyxel Armor G5 (NBG7815) will go on sale in the United States in November at a price of € 350, at the moment the date it will arrive in Europe is unknown, but we are sure that it will soon do so, since it is a worthy competitor of ASUS routers.