QNAP’s $329 QHora 301W is an excellent WiFi 6 router. It’s not styled to attract gamers, but creative pros and IT types will like it. They’ll also appreciate that it’s fast, offers multiple virtual networks and access points, optional cloud login and management, and just about all the other features you’d expect from a state of the art 10Gbps router. It could use some inline help or guidance for less experienced users, and a more complete NAS implementation, but otherwise… Good stuff from QNAP.<\/p>\n
QNAP bucks a general trend in the price range by styling the approximately 10-inch wide by 7-inch deep, by 2-inch, rectangular 301W in white. As I mentioned, it targets serious pros, small businesses, and workgroups–not gamers. Actually, QNAP says simply SMB. I’m recommending it for prosumers. Darn. There goes the suspense.<\/p>\n
The 301W, sports two 10Gbps (multi-gig) ports, as well as four gigabit ports and has two SuperSpeed 5Gbps (USB 3.1 Gen 1) ports. Internally, there are 8 antennas supporting the 802.11AX (AX3600), aka WiFi 6 protocol, a Qualcomm IPQ8072A Hawkeye 2 Quad-core 2.2 GHz 64-bit CPU, plus 4GB of flash memory for storing settings, etc. Once you’ve defined a region, the router seamlessly mixes the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.<\/p>\n
Note that the 301W allows you to utilize either the first 10Gbps port, first gigabit port (default), or first two gigabit ports aggregated as your WAN (broadband) connection. That’s a far more versatile solution than the recently reviewed Zyxel Armor G5 AX6000<\/a> which hardwires the WAN to its single 10Gbps port.<\/p>\n