Engenius Announces All-new Router Lineup at 2012 CES

Posted 01/09/2012 at 10:05am | by Michael Brown

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EnGenius Technologies announced at CES today a new line of 802.11n Wi-Fi router that the company claims are optimized for range and bandwidth-intensive consumer applications, such as VoIP calls, videoconferencing and media streaming. One of the features we find most interesting is something that router manufacturers seem to be moving away from: detachable—and therefore upgradeable—antennas. 

The company’s model ESR300H will be the first to reach the market. This is an entry-level, single-band, 2.4GHz router capable of supporting two 150Mb/s spatial streams simultaneously to reach the now familiar 300Mb/s theoretical throughput. It is equipped with a 100Mb/s four-port switch, but it does not have a USB port. The router lacks a USB port for sharing storage or a printer, but it boasts an MSRP of just $45. We have this product in the lab and will publish a review in the next week or so. 

Engenius also announced, but is not yet shipping, two additional Wi-Fi routers. Their model ESR600H ($109 MSRP) is a dual-band (2.4- and 5GHz) router with a gigabit switch and a single USB port. It will be capable of delivering theoretical of 300Mb/s on each band. The company’s model ESR750H ($129 MSRP) will also be a dual-band Wi-Fi router, but this one will provide theoretical throughput of 300Mb/s on the 2.4GHz band and 450Mb/s on the 5GHz band. It will be outfitted with a four-port gigabit switch and a USB port, but this model will be capable of driving USB speakers directly, using a feature Engenius has dubbed shAir. With shAir, consumers will be able to stream music to these speakers from Apple devices such as the iPhone or iPad.