WIRELESS ROUTERS

Wi-Fi routers may not be the most exciting hardware ever to grace these pages, but the chances are every one of us has one, whether it's the latest high-speed model or some junk sent to us by our ISP.

- Ian Evenden

Increasingly, we're seeing models advertised as 'gaming' routers, not because they'll run Doom - though as you can play that on a printer they probably can - but because they detect and prioritise gaming traffic so that your family's Netflix habits don't interfere with your Destiny 2 addiction.

Whether you really need the latest networking equipment depends on your device collection, and how you connect to the internet. Sharing a multi-gig fibre connection may require expensive Wi-Fi 7 and fast Ethernet, but with the average internet hookup well below this, getting a new router is a balancing act between features and cost.

Archer GE800

TP-LINK £693

Pretty fly for a Wi-Fi

Simply the best router we've tested, the Archer GE800 offers Wi-Fi 7, fast Ethernet, easy setup and the kind of looks that have you wondering if you've seen The Last Jedi too many times. If you're setting up a network with lots of client devices, some Ethernet-appreciating items like home servers, a really fast internet connection and a gaming PC, then it's going to fulfil all your needs for the next five years at least.

The 2.4GHz band, which is where you're going to put all your loT stuff as well as visitors' phones and older gear that can't manage the higher frequency bands, is especially good, and the quad-core chipset means it can handle a lot of traffic at once.

However, it's also expensive, large, and pretty heavy for a router, and isn't the sort of thing that will easily fade into the background thanks to some LED lighting effects (that you can and will turn off). But find it a firm enough place to stand, and it will move the Earth.

PCGAMER VERDICT → Fast → Full-featured → Expensive