Don’t think that WiFi routers haven’t changed much over the years. You might be surprised by just how much more responsive can your smartphone or laptop become when you replace your old router with one of the current best wireless routers on the market. Best of all, even the best wireless router 2017 isn’t unattainably expensive, especially when you consider for how long it will likely last you.
We have selected top 3 best WiFi routers to save your time when selecting a replacement for your aging router. Each router on this list deserves to be called the best WiFi router 2017 for slightly different reasons, which is why we’ve settled on three distinct subcategories: best for gaming, best budget, and best for 4K streaming.
If you consider yourself to be an avid gamer, the ASUS GT-AC5300 is the router you’ve been looking for but didn’t know it exists. This tri-band gaming router has been designed to meet the needs of both competitive gamers who demand the lowest latency possible and live-streamers with huge bandwidth requirements caused by 4K streaming.
Inside the GT-AC5300 is a desktop-grade processor that manages the tri-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and eight Gigabit LAN ports for wired devices. Gone is the typical uninspired web user interface because ASUS has replaced it with the ROG-themed Gaming Center interface, which offers an easy point-and-click control over every feature the router has to offer, such as the built-in intrusion detection system powered by Trend Micro technology.
As you might expect, the ASUS GT-AC5300 is an expensive router, but its steep price is well justified, and its performance is utterly impressive. Will you use all of its features? Probably not. Will you enjoy the edge the router can provide in online games? Absolutely.
The TP-Link ARCHER C9 is an unassuming router with three detachable antennas that provide an excellent signal strength and the support for beamforming, which allows the router to increase the signal strength to a chosen direction.
For less than $150, the ARCHER C9 can rival many routers that cost over $200. It has a dual-core processor clocked at 1 GHz, USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports for printer and file sharing, the ability to simultaneously broadcast on 2.4 and 5 GHz, as well as the support for the 802.11ac standard.
Thanks to the elegant design of the router, you won’t feel the need to hide it behind a curtain. Unfortunately, the router can’t be mounted on the wall, but it’s best to avoid placing routers close to large obstacles, anyway.
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With a name like Nighthawk, it’s not hard to make a good first impression, and the Netgear Nighthawk X10 certainly doesn’t disappoint even when you get to know it better. This router is perfect for streaming fanatics because it comes with an integrated Plex media server, allowing users to enjoy movies, TV shows, music, videos, and photos from anywhere, across devices.
The Nighthawk X10 is powered by a fast quad-core processor that can provide network performance up to 7.2 Gbps and easily handle both 4K streaming and virtual reality gaming. The Nighthawk X10 is the first home router with a 10 Gigabit fiber port for fast NAS access. It also supports 60GHz 802.11ad WiFi, which is a future-proof WiFi standard that offers both impressive speeds and an excellent transmission range.
The router is by no means cheap, but it represents the cutting edge of home networking, and it’s guaranteed to perform exceptionally well under all circumstances.
