Review: Amped Wireless touch screen AC1750 Wi-Fi router

Features

The Amped Wireless AC1750 Wi-Fi Router has 12 amplifiers and 3 high-gain dual-band antennas (2 internal + 1 external), 2.4GHz 450Mbps and 5GHz 1300Mbps simataneous speeds, 4 ports for wired devices, 1 USB port for sharing files, and it’s most unique feature: the 4″ touch screen display.

Setup

The touch screen display on the Amped Wireless router makes set up a breeze. It comes with an attached stylus which clicks into a slot on the top. The stylus is extremely flimsy, but it’s not like I’ll be using it often. The touch screen is slow to respond and requires a little patience, but again, it’s mainly for the set up process and not something to be used daily. With the help of the touch screen, setup only took a few minutes and required no curse words.

Performance

I recently purchased a Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 so I have another similar router to compare to. I ran a series of speeds tests with the Nighthawk at various times of day and random days of the week then again with the Amped Router. So far the speeds are very comparible, both giving me the most of my plan speeds.

I have a large number of devices that we use Wi-Fi with: 3 laptops, 1 desktop, 2 cell phones, 2 iPads, 3 Kindles, 1 iPod, 3 gaming systems, 2 rokus, 1 appleTV, and 1 printer — Don’t judge, we like electronics! So far, we haven’t had any issues streaming TV (we don’t have cable so we stream 100% of our TV) and running multiple other devices at the same time. With our old $60 router we used to constantly lose connections, have buffering videos, or have to reset the router. We have yet to run into that problem with the Amped Wireless router. The range is about equal to that of the Nighthawk too; we can pick up Wi-Fi in our detached garage or our motor-home parked in our side yard which we couldn’t do with our cheaper router.

My Takeaway

My only real complaint with the router is that it seems a little flimsy in comparison to the Nighthawk, it’s lightweight and made with cheap plastic. I wonder if it would bust if it fell from the wall or shelf. However, it’s smaller size is a plus for me, and I like that it can be wall mounted or set vertically with the optional stand.

The touchscreen is slow and not very sensitive, and the stylus is cheap, but even so, the touch screen makes setup easy and makes it stand out from competitors.

Performance wise, so far it has been just as strong as the Nighthawk, so I have no complaints there.

Price-wise, the Amped Wireless AC1750 priced around the same as the Nighthawk AC1900 at full price ($199) but is often found for around $130 on Amazon, making it a little more affordable. For my needs, it does the job and runs $40-$80 less than similar routers depending on sales. For anyone that’s doing a high amount of streaming a good router is essential, it’s worth the price tag.

Update

I had a few times this last few days where I had to reset the router and where the range wasn’t as strong as it once was. I chalked it up to Internet issues, but eventually we plugged the Nighthawk back in and everything was back to normal. I prefer to spend less on items when I can, as long as they do the same job– but in this case I think it’s worth the extra for a Nighthawk for more consistent and reliable Wi-Fi.