WiFi 6 is becoming the new standard, so a lot of contemporary electronics like the PS5 are embracing it. With that, the cost of WiFi 6-compliant routers began to drop over time. Today in our D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router review, you’ll learn about an affordable and trusted WiFi 6 router.
The DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 is a durable, sturdy, and affordable router coming from a well-known and trusted brand. It’s ideal for someone who needs a quality-performing product but without burning much of the budget.
We’ll give you all the necessary details about it here in our D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router review.
But first, let’s see how D-Link presented their router, how they designed the package, and what they included inside.
D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router Packaging
Our DIRX1860 came in an attractive-looking cardboard box that sports a nice violet and black theme. It’s a typical-looking package from D-Link, but we really love the colour combination and aesthetics they used for this router.
The front of the box displays an image of the DIRX1860, and its name is set above it. D-Link is written on the upper-left corner of the package. The opposite of it is a sign stating that the product works with WiFi 6.
At the base of the box beneath the router’s image is a list of its key features. On the sides and the rear, you’ll find more information about the DIRX1860 itself.
This won’t be a complete D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router review if we don’t look inside the package. Once we opened the box, we saw the router packed securely and in an organised fashion. It means, you don’t need to worry about damages while the DIRX1860 is being delivered to your home or office.
Aside from the router, you’ll also find an adapter, warranty card, user guide, and a quick installation guide.
D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router Review – Design and Functionality
If you’ve previously used D-Link routers, you’ll notice that the DIRX1860 shares a similar design with the DIRX5460. The only difference is that the latter sports a bigger form-factor. Its antennas are non-detachable which we think is good especially for long-term use.
The DIRX1860 measures 224 x 166mm and weighs 525g. Its body’s design isn’t that fancy, but the simple style, curved shape, and matte black finish gives a premium look.
In front, its four LED lights glow white. This indicates that the power is on, your internet is connected, and the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios are running.
This router comes with a good number of air vents for optimal airflow. It’s a pretty good design since it keeps the router cool even during heavy operations. You won’t have to purchase a dedicated cooling fan to keep the heat at bay.
However, its design has its own downside. If you decide to set the DIRX1860 in an open area, cleaning its vents regularly is a must. There’s a huge possibility that these will accumulate dust easily, and you wouldn’t want these to get into the system.
The DIRX1860’s I/O ports are your standard ports: four LAN ports and a WAN port. All of these can run at 1,000Mbps.
Other than the WAN and LAN ports, you’ll also find a reset port, a power button, and a WPS port. An advantage here is that the router doesn’t have a USB port which is good for security purposes.
Next up, our D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router review will discuss the different key features of the DIRX1860.
Key Features of the D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router
Next-Gen WiFi for Your Home
WiFi 6 offers the next-gen WiFi technology to your home for enhanced speed, capacity and range for your WiFi needs. It’s a perfect element for people living in device-dense and high-performing smart homes.
Exceptionally Optimised Speed
With the DIRX1860, you can enjoy up to AX-1800 speeds while 1024 QAM enhances throughput by up to 25%. It also boosts throughput at 80MHz contiguous channel width for better and more bandwidth.
You can take advantage of up to four continuous streams for faster, enjoyable, and improved 4K streaming, online gaming, etc. Furthermore, the 1GB WAN and 4GB LAN ports offer faster wired connection anytime.
The OFDMA – Lets You Connect More and Congest Less
The DIRX1860 utilises the cutting-edge OFDMA technology (orthogonal frequency division multiple access) of WiFi 6. Here, little data packets for a number of electronics are transmuted together to avoid queueing up again.
It’s ideal for smart homes that are packed with bandwidth-hungry IoT electronics that require huge bandwidth.
Two-Way MU-MIMO
Let’s discuss the two-way MU-MIMO in our D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router review. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a technology that aids in simultaneously distributing data flow to numerous devices.
Since the DIRX1860 sports this technology, it leverages the OFDMA’s multi-user version and MU-MIMO. These are necessary for enhanced efficiency for both downstream and upstream transmissions unlike the earlier WiFi 5 technology. The latter only allowed MU-MIMO to work at the same time with downstream transmissions.
This combination positively boosts coverage, capacity, and performance in extremely high density environments.
More Coverage, Less Interference with the D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router
Integrated power amplifiers, high-gain antennas, and beam-forming technology lets the DIRX1860 further expand your WiFi’s reach. So, it focuses a stronger signal to your gadgets to guarantee a faster, better, and more reliable WiFi experience.
Meanwhile, a lengthy OFDMA symbol guarantees greater and better WIFi range, especially outside your home.
Conserve Energy and Battery Life
TWT or Target Wake Time is a feature that keeps the battery of your connected devices consumption low. The router communicates with these devices and determines how often these require data transfers.
Additionally, it increases the sleep time of connected devices to conserve energy and battery life.
Always Up-To-Date
Firmware updates are usually a hassle, but D-Link’s DIR-X1860 makes the process easier. This router offers smooth and automatic upgrading, so you won’t even notice it.
Additionally, the DIR-X1860 comes with the Dual Image functionality to save a recovery image as a backup file. It’s to keep your data safe before an upgrade.
BSS Colouring
The WiFi connection of your neighbours could interfere with your wireless network, resulting in slower signals. WiFi 6 and BSS Colouring technology colours transmissions with its unique guide. As a result, the router can decide whether to transmit or ignore signals based on the colour.
VPN Your Way
The D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router Mesh WiFi6 router has a VPN wizard that lets you customise LAN-to-LAN and remote access VPN connections. Its built-in passthrough feature lets any connected device form outbound VPN connections.
Real Internet Speeds Without the Guesswork
The DIR-X1860 integrates Internet Test to let you measure your router-to-ISP’s real connection speed. You can access this via the D-Link WiFi mobile app.
Compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant
Do things like switching your guest WiFi on/off, asking for guest WiFi credentials, updating firmware, or rebooting the router. You can do all of these hands-free via voice commands.
You only need to speak the commands to your voice assistant, and the DIRX1860 will immediately follow. It’s perfect when you have your hands full or if you just want to wow people with your smart WiFi.
Simple Setup and Management for the DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router
You can download the free WIFi application from D-Link to enjoy a simple setup and growing management. With it, you can set up parental controls based on your needs, access WiFi settings and more. This can all be done right from your tablet or smartphone.
Our D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router review will now focus on the router’s specifications.
Specifications
For the router’s NBN/UFB, it supports FTTP | HFC | FTTC | fixed wireless and satellite connectivity. Plus, it uses the WiFi 6 (802.11ax) technology.
The DIRX1860’s WiFi speed and security is the AX-1800 (574+1200Mbps) and standard / enhanced WPA3, respectively. When it comes to the mesh standard, it makes use of D-Link’s WiFi mesh.
Gigabit Ethernet is used for its WAN interface and Ethernet speed, while it has a total of four Ethernet ports. IPv4 and IPv6 are its internet protocols and it’s also QuickVPN enabled, which is good.
We appreciate that D-Link made it smart home-compatible, and it works with voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Conveniently, D-Link included a 3-year limited warranty for the DIRX1860.
Hands-on with the D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router
Now, let’s get hands-on with the router in our D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router review. But before we look into that, let’s check out D-Link’s Web Portal.
D-Link’s web portal provides everything you need like a simple firewall. It can be utilised to enforce global filters and blocks for all linked gadgets. Not only that, but it provides assistance for L2TP over IP-sec, letting you route internet traffic via a compatible VPN.
We also appreciate the company’s visual QoS management widget. It allows you to set priorities to various gadgets by dragging the icons from a list to a specific priority table.
When you register on the D-Link Cloud Service, you can utilise either Google Assistant or Alexa. It will let you control and manage guest networks and reboot the DIRX1860.
There’s a standard parental control module that lets you block selected gadgets based on a weekly schedule. You won’t find any custom or logging web filtering, but since it’s a free feature, we can’t really complain.
Simply put, the DIRX1860 will let you download all your games and DLC with just a marginal hit to performance. And while this router’s WiFi 5 performance is good, you can only get the most out of it when all the gadgets linked are WiFi 6-compliant.
With that, the DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 router worked efficiently, and we didn’t encounter any issues when testing it. We were able to upload and download huge files easily even if a lot of gadgets were connected to it. With that, we definitely recommend this router.
D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router Review Summary
The D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 router is a great investment. It delivers impressive performance for WiFi 6 and WiFi 5, making it an excellent upgrade to increase your connection speed.
One of the things we liked about this router is its ease of use. Setting it up was quick, and we didn’t experience any issues while using the web portal and the mobile app. During our tests, it performed excellently and our internet speed never slowed down.
Overall, the D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 is one of the best budget-friendly routers today. With WiFi 6, this router is good for future-proofing, and it’s a great choice for general home consumers and students.
The D-Link DIRX1860 Mesh WiFi 6 Router is available for purchase from the company’s official website. You can also check out the company’s store locator to find a retailer near you.
