Page 5 - Conclusion
Featuring a high-power router as the main unit, did it make the Covr a winner in performance? With D-Link's first foray into the mesh market being the third mesh wireless system crossing our labs here at APH Networks, there is quite a bit to like about the Covr, although wireless speed still is not one of them. I will explain why I say this in just a moment, but before we get to that, let me tell you what I do like about the product I am reviewing today. Firstly, it features a real router as the main unit. This comes at the expense of physical form factor, but you get four Gigabit Ethernet ports at the back and a USB port in front, which the Linksys Velop and TP-Link Deco M5 do not have. Secondly, the router and the extender are pre-paired from the factory, and they worked seamlessly together out of the box. Thirdly, initialization was simple and does not require a smartphone app or a working internet connection. However, I did not like its web configuration interface. Its features and user interface was extremely primitive, and if being primitive meant intuitive and easy to use, this was not the case either. Linksys and TP-Link have much more consumer-friendly software, even if they lacked advanced features. As far as performance is concerned, it was a bit of a mixed bag. The router was decent, but the extender was not. The extender only has two antennas to handle both the front end devices and the wireless backhaul, which proved to be slow not only in a single client configuration, but will severely limit its scalability as the number of connected devices increase. For about $300 at press time, the D-Link Covr is reasonably priced for a mesh wireless system. It costs a little more than the $240 TP-Link Deco M5, but you get a better main router. It is significantly cheaper than the $440 Linksys Velop, but it is not as fast. As you cannot buy additional extenders separately at press time, if we consider the Covr as one unit, I do not believe you are gaining anything over a powerful single powerful wireless router like the Linksys WRT3200ACM. The WRT3200ACM is still faster in virtually every test, and comes in at a lower price tag, too.
D-Link provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH Review Focus Summary:
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
6/10 means A product with its advantages, but drawbacks should not be ignored before purchasing.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 6.2/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
The D-Link Covr mesh wireless system is easy to set up, reasonably priced, and even comes with a full-featured main router, but its software is primitive and performance is a mixed bag.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Configuration and User Interface
4. Performance Tests
5. Conclusion
