Fritz!Repeater 3000
Expensive but offers simple setup and decent performance from a reliable brand.
ROUTER $209 | EN.AVM.DE/PRODUCTS/FRITZBOX “It offers AC3000 levels of bandwidth spread across three bands (two 5GHz and one 2.4GHz) to potentially provide 3,000Mbps of throughput. ”
Fritz! is, not surprisingly, a German networking brand. It’s notable for cramming as many features as possible into dated-looking devices that have unconventional design flourishes. While Asus’ top routers might rival them for number of features, Fritz!’s features actually all work (usually). Their foot-in-the-past outlook also means that the company looks after its legacy products and customers and this has helped build a large, loyal, expert community that hold the brand in reverence.
A stereotypical Fritz user wouldn’t dream of using auto-connect wizards, preferring to get their hands dirty under the hood. However, the Repeater 3000 may disappoint in this regard because it has one button which manages WPS connection (one second press), connects to other access points (six-seconds) or factory resets (15-seconds). Wanting to get a feel for the genuine Fritz! experience, we went through the browser settings but found that all we could configure was language and location. After that it was simply a case of choosing which Wi-Fi network we wanted to extend and entering the password. Too easy. Literally.
Before we get onto actual performance, it’s worth noting that the slightlyunusual design actually makes it one of the betterlooking Wi-Fi repeaters we’ve seen. We also liked the fact it came with a separate power cord as repeaters are often bulky with integrated plugs that impact upon neighbouring sockets.
It offers AC3000 levels of bandwidth spread across three bands (two 5GHz and one 2.4GHz) to potentially provide 3,000Mbps of throughput.
We tested it in a threestorey Sydney Town House by downloading large video files from a Synology DS1019+ NAS to a Wi-Fi-6the equipped Dell XPS 15 OLED laptop. We pitted it against the 2.4GHz channel of our supercharged TP-Link Archer AX11000 to see how it fared against the best Wi-Fi 6 router on the market. This wasn’t the fairest comparison but we’re in an AX-Wi-Fi world now and we wanted to see how it compared at distance. It’s notable that even though we connected to the TP-Link’s 2.4GHz channel, the Repeater repeats the signal over all three of its bands and yet still only appears as part of the host network’s SSID – not a separate ‘Extended’ network.
We tested next to the router, one floor up and two floors up. The Repeater was placed on the first floor. On its own the TP-Link transferred files at 182.5Mbps (up close), 118.3Mbps (first floor) and 79.6Mbps (second floor). When the Repeater was turned on first floor score was slightly slower at 110.5Mbps but the second floor score was some 20 per cent higher at 102.5Mbps.
Thus, the Repeater works particularly well at distance – dramatically so if you’re boosting a Fritz! router with no Wi-Fi 6. Multiple units can also be combined to form a mesh network.
At $209 its expensive for non-Fritz! fans; especially in a market flooded with cheap Wi-Fi Extenders. However, if you want the reliability that’s associated with Fritz! – and that’s not inconsequential in the world of Wi-Fi – it’s simple to use, fast and likely more stable.