The Synology Router RT1900ac is Synology’s first router. It is targeted at the mid-range router market and hence it’s retail price is S$234US$149 (S$210). It started selling in Singapore on 6th October 2015. I will update this post again when I have the actual retail price in Singapore rather than using the currency conversion from the official retail price in USD.
For the unaware, Synology makes one of the best NAS in the market especially for the prosumer market. I personally owned three Synology NASes, DS210j, DS413j and DS415play.
The ASUS RT-AC88U was launched in Singapore at SITEX 2015. SITEX is a consumer lifestyle IT event in Singapore and is usually the last major IT event for the year. It is always held at Singapore Expo and this year, the event took place from Thursday, 26th November 2015 till Sunday, 29th November 2015.
The retail price of the ASUS RT-AC88U Router is S$429.
The Linksys Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router or Linksys EA8500 Router in short was released on 4th August 2015 exclusively at Challenger and is now available in most electronics stores. The recommended retail price of the Linksys EA8500 is S$399.
Despite having a model number of EA8500, it is not exactly a lower end model when compared to the Linksys EA9200 Router. The Linksys EA9200 is a AC3200 router and hence it is capable of speeds up to 3,200Mbps while the EA8500 is an AC2600 router capable of speeds up to 2,530Mbps. But let’s be honest here, even in the perfect case environment, we will not be able to get up to the theoretical speed.
The WeMo Switch + Motion is retailing at Funan’s Challenger for S$109 (member’s price is S$89) while the WeMo Switch is retailing for S$79 (member’s price is S$71.10).
For a member’s price difference of S$18, I can get the additional motion sensor, and hence I chose the WeMo Switch + Motion instead of just the WeMo Switch.
Previously, I was using StrongVPN on their StrongVPN Special PPTP which I paid US$55/year (S$75/year).
After my one year contract with them ended, I didn’t renew it because I felt that their server switch quota is kinda limiting though I have never hit the limit before. Server switch basically allows you to switch to different VPN servers.
The new Linksys WRT1200AC router will provides users with the high-end features of the Linksys WRT1900AC router at AC1200 speeds and a lower price point. The Linksys WRT1200AC will retail for S$329 from 4th June 2015 at Challenger stores and at other consumer electronics retail stores by the end of June 2015.
I attended the launch of the new Linksys WRT1200AC in Singapore yesterday and I realised that the WRT firmware received a new update (service pack 4) which includes one of the features that I am looking for, which is a VPN server (Linksys is using OpenVPN server).
Personally, I think Linksys should stop pricing their router so high because at that price point, no one in the right mind will get a Linksys. Gone are those days that Linksys is a top consumer brand for router. Their features just pale in comparison with the Asus RT-AC87U which is also priced at S$399.