Belkin N600 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router (F9J1102uk) review

The N600 DB is easy to set up and has some well-implemented extra features, but it has one more major advantage: very fast transfer speeds. When testing with a Centrino 2 laptop in 2.4GHz mode, we saw 43Mbit/s at 1m range and 40.1Mbit/s at 10m, and a very fast 17.9Mbit/s in our difficult 25m range test. This makes the Belkin router almost as fast at 25m as D-Link’s DIR-645 and Buffalo’s GigaStation WZR-HP-G450H, our current speed champions. The router really flies in 5GHz mode, though. Again using a Centrino 2 laptop and with the channel-bonding turbo mode turned on, we saw 66.3Mbit/s at 1m, 63Mbit/s at 10m and 17Mbit/s at 25m, making this, in 5GHz mode and connected to a Centrino 2 laptop, the fastest router we’ve seen at 1m and 10m and not far off the class leaders at 25m.

It’s even quicker with Belkin’s own Play N600 dongle (part code F7D4101az, £37 from www.argos.co.uk). In 2.4GHz mode with channel-bonding turned on we saw 53.6Mbit/s at 1m range, 49.3Mbit/s at 10m and a huge 24.9Mbit/s at 25m, speeds which are only beaten by Buffalo’s WZR-HP-G450HP. In 5GHz mode with channel-bonding enabled and using Belkin’s dongle the N600 DB is comfortably the fastest router we’ve seen, with enormous speeds of 69.9Mbit/s, 74.1Mbit/s and 28.3Mbit/s at 1m, 10m and 25m ranges.

Belkin’s N600 DB has it all – good looks, easy setup, extremely fast speeds and powerful features. It’s also great value, so is a great buy if you’re after a high-end ADSL router.