The Wi-Fi router has become a staple part of every household and just like any other home equipment, it has limits. The D-Link DAP 1620 Wi-Fi Extender breaks this boundary by stretching the range of your Wi-Fi router to your house?s unreachable areas.
Here?s how it goes: we plug in the DAP 1620 to a power socket accessible to the Wi-Fi, set it up with a laptop or D-Link?s mobile app, and off we go.
Let?s talk about its key details.
Design
Seeing the DAP 1620?s body for the first time was a delightful moment as we expected extreme convenience from this unit?s portable and compact wall-plug design.
Its flipping antennas have its own pocket on the sides so we can tuck it in if we?re housing it in a bag and taking it out. There?s a three-signal LED indicator surfacing at the mid-left side of the unit to prompt our DAP 1620?s connectivity with the main router, too.
The WPS button, embedded with a ?refresh? icon, manually hooks the extender to the router and, of course, reboots the established network. At the foot are the Ethernet socket ? for devices without wireless connection capability and more stable connection ? and a reset pin.
Performance
Aside from the physical aspect, the DAP 1620 is handy in its intangibles, too.
Thanks to the bundle?s quick setup guide, installing it up wasn?t that complicated. The guide basically helps to access the DAP 1620?s portal and perform the tapping in a breeze. In the setup screen, the extender lets you choose the Wi-Fi network you prefer to connect to, key in its password, and check the network stats.
The DAP 1620 comes with a dual-band technology to reduce interference from other wireless transmitters nearby and connect you through older wireless devices in your network. The 5GHz channel has the stronger speed and a shorter reach, while the 2.4GHz channel reaches farther but with a normal connection.
Browsing the Internet and social media through our mobile device and laptop was smooth and had no problems at all, except when we had to ship larger chunk of data across these devices. We noticed that when we downloaded game updates and watched high-resolution videos on YouTube and iflix in a certain device, the rest of our connected devices to the DAP 1620 slowed down a bit.
For the Speedtest results, check out below:
Conclusion
The design and mobility of the D-Link DAP 1620 tell us that it deserves the expected price range of P3,000 to P4,000. Its decent performance, however, may leave you wondering before you cough out your cash.
