Edimax Super-G AR-7064Sg+ review

The fastest official Wi-Fi wireless network standard is currently 802.11g, which runs at 54Mbit/s.

If, however, you want to stream video over a wireless connection, this isn't always fast enough - particularly as you often only get a top speeds of about 25Mbit/s. The next Wi-Fi standard, 802.11n, will run at speeds in excess of 100Mbit/s - neatly solving the problem.

In the meantime, most manufacturers have tried to fix the problem on their own by introducing routers and adapters with 'turbo' modes.

The Edimax Super-G AR-7064Sg+ is one such turbo router. It has a normal 54Mbits/s mode, which will work with any certified Wi-Fi equipment, and a 108Mbit/s mode that only works with compatible adapters. It's an ADSL router, which means it has an ADSL modem built in.

At £70 it costs about the standard price for a router with an integrated modem, but it's still a lot cheaper than buying a modem and router separately. It also supports the new, much faster ADSL2+ standard that offers broadband speeds of up to 25Mbit/s. Although this isn't widely available yet, it should be by next year.

In our tests, however, it managed mediocre Wi-Fi transfer times. In normal mode it took just over a minute to complete our short range transfer test. This only dropped to under a minute in turbo mode, which is significantly slower than the fastest adapters and routers we've seen.

At times the Super-G also had difficulty maintaining a connection. We tried it in several different positions in the building, and with a number of different test PCs, but this made no difference. We tried other routers in the same positions, in case there was some kind of interference, but these maintained a strong signal throughout.

It's also tricky to get working. There is a quick setup mode, but you still have to know some details which you will need to enter manually.

The Super-G AR-7064Sg+ is dinky, but it's not that fast and difficult to use.