D-Link Nuclias DBA-X1230P

Not the best value, but this cloud-managed Wi-Fi 6 AP is a good performer with top-notch guest services

- DAVE MITCHELL

SCORE

PRICE £183 exc VAT from broadbandbuyer.com

With fierce competition in the SMB Wi-Fi market, vendors need to offer something special to stand out. Enter D-Link's Nuclias access points (APs), which offer full cloud management, plenty of business-class features and a choice of models at different speeds.

We tried out the entry-level DBA-X1230P, which claims an AX1800 performance rating. That's arrived at by totting up theoretical speeds of 1,200 Mbits/sec on its 5 GHz radio and 600 Mbits/sec on the 2.4GHz band. It isn't the cheapest AX1800 AP we've seen - Netgear's WAX610 (see issue 319, p100) only costs £130 - but it's better value than it appears, as the price includes your first year's subscription to D-Link's Nuclias cloud-management platform.

You'll need it, as the DBA-X1230P doesn't support standalone operations. But keeping your cloud subscription going isn't expensive, with a further one-year licence costing £43 per AP, or £130 for three years.