When we hear “Synology,” NAS units are probably the only thing that comes to mind, but the company hopes to change that perception with the release of the RT1900ac, which was revealed earlier this year at Computex.
The RT1900ac marks Synology’s first venture into the consumer router market. The company hopes to set the RT1900ac apart from competing AC1900 routers with the Synology Router Manager, its proprietary operating system. The NAS-maker touted the SRM’s easy to use, desktop-like interface and regular free updates, which should make managing the RT1900ac hassle-free. Advanced users may use the RT1900ac as a VPN server, RADIUS authentication server, DNS server and more with additional, downloadable packages. Users may also remotely manage the RT1900ac with an application available for Android or iOS devices.
The SRM Network Center will purportedly offer advanced networking tools, allowing power users to tweak the RT1900ac to its full potential. Such features include monitoring network traffic, controlling Internet availability by device or application, and establishing parental controls. Users may also selectively control the RT1900ac’s beamforming technology towards supported devices.
The Synology RT1900ac offers dual-band speeds of up to 1900 Mbps and support for 802.11b/g/n/ac. On the hardware side, the RT1900ac is equipped with a dual-core CPU clocked at 1.0 GHz; 256 MB of DDR3 memory; and three omni-directional, high gain antennas. The router’s IO includes five RJ-45 Gigabit ports (four for LAN and one for WAN,) a WPS switch, an Eject button for the USB 3.0 port SD card reader, a Power button, a Reset button and a Wi-Fi On/Off button.
Synology’s RT1900ac are expected to be available in the U.S. during Q1 for $149.99.
Alexander Quejado is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware and Tom's IT Pro. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
