Belkin's new Surf, Share and Play routers with apps preview review

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Posted on 24 Mar 2010 at 11:03

The Share router is a little larger and has a USB port for either a hard disk or printer. It comes with Self-Healing, Memory Safe and Print Genie apps and costs £70 or £90 depending on whether you want the ADSL modem version or just the basic cable model. It supports channel bonding for a maximum wireless speed of 300Mbit/s, but again has just a 2.4GHz radio. It's a shame that Belkin doesn't provide two USB ports so you can use the printing and backup apps without having to swap USB cables around.

The Play model (£80/£100 for the cable/ADSL modem versions) is aimed at multimedia lovers and has a dual-band 802.11n radio for simultaneous 2.4GHz and 5GHz operation. This gives better speed and coverage, making it better for streaming HD video. It comes with all apps bar Torrent Genie and Bit Boost - these are reserved for the top of the range Play Max. Like Share, it has just one USB port.

Play Max costs £100 (or £120 for the ADSL version) and has all the Play's features plus an extra USB port. It also has two extra apps: Bit Boost for prioritising video, gaming and VoIP applications, and Torrent Genie which lets you download BitTorrent files to a connected USB hard disk.

Disappointingly, Belkin hasn't updated the routers' web interface to make it easier to use. It argues that novices won't ever need to use this, and anyone who does is an 'advanced' user who already knows what they're doing.

Belkin also launched three new USB WiFi dongles to match the new routers. The Play adaptor costs £45 and has the necessary dual-band 802.11n radio. The Surf and Share adaptors will cost £35, with the former having a 150Mbit/s throughput and the latter 300Mbit/s.

We'll be reviewing the new models as soon as they arrive in our Labs.

Author: Jim Martin