Razer enters router market with the gaming-focused Sila

[midian182]

In brief: Razer has a broad portfolio of products—it even added a smartphone to its stable last year. Now, the firm has expanded into a new market: routers. Like pretty much everything else from Razer, the Sila is designed for gamers, offering high speeds and multiple options for prioritizing wireless gaming performance.

Priced at $250, the Razer Sila, which was created alongside Ignition Design Labs, launches worldwide today. It’s a tri-band AC3000 model that can reach 400 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to 1734 Mbps on the fastest 5GHz band.

Like other high-end gaming-focused routers, the Sila lets users prioritize gaming data to help prevent lag and dropouts while enjoying their favorite online titles. It does this using Razer’s FasTrack engine—the company's propriety quality-of-service (QoS) management program.

In addition to being able to manually prioritize traffic based on application and device types, such as consoles, PCs, and phones, the Sila comes with a one-touch gaming mode for automatically reserving bandwidth for online gaming—a particularly useful feature in busy households with multiple connected devices.

Razer adds that the Sila comes with its patented Multi-Channel Zero-Wait DFS technology, which enables clean Wi-Fi channels to avoid congested network traffic and maintain the highest speeds, even for the most demanding of applications.

The Sila also has mesh support, letting you combine several routers to cover a large area. Two Silas will provide blanket Wi-Fi coverage of around 6000 square feet, while 3 routers will increase that area to 9000 square feet and can cover multi-storey locations. The Sila's Mesh network performance is improved through the 5GHz backhaul.

Other features include three LAN ports and a WAN port, along with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports for connecting storage devices or printers. The features and setup can be managed using the dedicated Android or iOS app.

$250 may be a lot of money for a router, but it’s around the same price as Netgear’s excellent Nighthawk X6. It’s also cheaper than Asus’ $379 GT-AC5300—our pick for best gaming router—which has many of the Sila’s features but a faster combined theoretical throughput of 5300mbps.

Full specs:

Wireless

• Tri-Band AC3000
• IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• 11n 2.4GHz: up to 400 Mbps
• 11ac 5GHz-1: up to 1734 Mbps
• 11ac 5GHz-2: up to 866 Mbps

Encryption

• WPA / WPA2-PSK

Antenna

• 9 x powerful high-gain internal antennas

Features

• Razer FasTrack Adaptive QoS + DPI Engine
• Multichannel ZeroWait DFS
• Tri-Band Mesh with dedicated backhaul
• Multi-user MIMO & Beamforming technology
• Intelligent active steering
• Isolated guest network support
• Simplified app setup via Android or iOS

Interfaces

• 4 Gigabit Ethernet (1x WAN, 3x LAN)
• 1 x USB 2.0 port
• 1 x USB 3.0 port

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https://www.techspot.com/news/76743-razer-enters-router-market-gaming-focused-sila.html

 

[Squid Surprise]

Seeing a lot more router articles recently... and while there was a "best router" article, we haven't really been treated to multiple benchmarks, like this site provides for CPUs and GPUs...

Any chance that is coming? Would love to see how this (and other routers) stack up against some of the best in the business...

 

[Dosahka]

Probably can't beat my UniFi Ap Ac Pro, damn it, I really tried.
and for $250? I can have nearly 2 of the current one.
I know, I know comparing an AP with a Router, yet WiFi signal matters noting else in my case.

 

[Kibaruk]

Seeing a lot more router articles recently... and while there was a "best router" article, we haven't really been treated to multiple benchmarks, like this site provides for CPUs and GPUs...

Any chance that is coming? Would love to see how this (and other routers) stack up against some of the best in the business...

Although it would really be cool to see the same level of benchmarks as in PC builds and hardware, I guess the testing scenarios and equipment needed would require a bigger effort to test and benchmark wireless connections.

 

[D3z4R1]

SmallNetBuilder does a fine job doing concise and often exhaustive benchmarks for a wide variety to network devices; not only routers, mesh setups and APs, but NICs, NASes too.

If I wanted benchmarks for network-centric devices, I always refer to that site.

 

[Lionvibez]

Yup after I see a review from SNB then I will get an good idea about this.

Most important thing about routers is how often the firmware is updated to correct security exploits Razer has no track record here and considering they are trying to sell this to clue less gamers I would wait if anyone is actually thinking of buying this.

 

[erickmendes]

Seeing a lot more router articles recently... and while there was a "best router" article, we haven't really been treated to multiple benchmarks, like this site provides for CPUs and GPUs...

Any chance that is coming? Would love to see how this (and other routers) stack up against some of the best in the business...

Although it would really be cool to see the same level of benchmarks as in PC builds and hardware, I guess the testing scenarios and equipment needed would require a bigger effort to test and benchmark wireless connections.

Don't quite agree... Sure you need professional tools for signal strengh and quality, but real world performance can be tested with phones, notebooks and computers... They would still provide some good insight.

 

[VBKing]

"the Razer Sila, which was created alongside Ignition Design Labs..."

I don't know what ALONGSIDE means, but if Ignition Design Labs (IDL) had any part of creating this product, I'd STAY AWAY FROM IT and stick with the known big boys whose routers work well (Asus/Netgear/somewhat Linksys/etc.).

I have a Portal from IDL (via Kickstarter) and it's hands down the WORST router I've ever purchased. I have two routers in my house (Linksys & Portal, one on each floor and opposite ends of house) and have them connected in bridge mode (Linksys is the main router) and the Portal NEVER lets you switch 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Channels. I get lots of interference from neighbors and other devices and want to switch the auto-assigned Portal channel but they won't let you and they've known of this request by users for over a year and do nothing about it. Every other mfg of routers I've ever owned will let you change the channels if you so desire.

The Portal is hard wired from the Linksys and I get TERRIBLE THROUGHPUT and tons of drops while sitting 6 feet from Portal with NOTHING between me and the Portal.

Stay away from a company's first attempt at a router at all costs.
Ignition Design Labs' Portal is the WORST Piece of S### ROUTER I've ever owned.

 

[Kibaruk]

Don't quite agree... Sure you need professional tools for signal strengh and quality, but real world performance can be tested with phones, notebooks and computers... They would still provide some good insight.

As much insight as measuring with a chronometer for computer benchmarking.