Belkin N600 DB Review

Belkin is no stranger to networking peripherals and being a long time player in this field, have established themselves as one of the big players when it comes to wireless routers. Their earlier lineup of routers, especially the Play Max router failed to live up to its feature set which was disappointing since it had the potential to be a really good router. The company has since then done a major overhaul on their entire lineup and their 2012 lineup features sleeker and more streamlined designs with hopefully, better functionality. Today, we have the N600 DB, one of the cheapest dual-band routers you’ll find on the market so let’s see if it is every bit as good as it looks.

Design and Build
The N600 DB makes a very good first impression as it looks very striking and it won’t spoil the decor of your home, in fact, it will complement it well. It looks like a little alien pod with a glossy finish on either side and the desk stand. The router comes assembled and with the LAN cable plugged in so all you really have to do is plug in the power. The router cannot be mounted on a wall though, you have to use it placed upright on a surface. Just like their earlier models, there aren’t any external antennae but you do get four internal ones. As before, Belkin just uses a single LED in the front for power and some other states but there’s nothing for LAN like you see in most routers. The WPS buttons is placed upfront as well.

Belkin N600 DB

The rear of the router features a WAN port, four 10/100 LAN ports (not Gigabit), USB 2.0 port for connecting a printer or a hard drive to share videos, reset and finally, the power socket. That’s all there’s to it. The N600 DB is incredibly light and the stand gives it adequate support with four rubber feet planting it firmly on the surface. One thing missing is a physical power switch on the router. The N600 DB is built well and doesn’t have any creaking parts. The plastic used feels sturdy and seems like it will survive accidental drops.

Features
Some of the new features of the N600 DB is their Multibeam antenna technology which is supposed to give you good coverage despite having all the antenna internally. It’s also a dual-band router which can work on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands simultaneously. The USB ports lets you share files from a hard drive over a network.

All connectivity ports are placed at the back

The firmware also comes with four apps like Self-Healing, which automatically sorts out network issues. Print Zone lets you use a USB printer as a network printer.Video Mover lets you share video and other types of files through your home network.