D-Link Aquila Pro AI R95: high-speed Wi-Fi 7 at a competitive price

TechRadar Verdict

The eye-catching design of the D-Link Aquila Pro AI R95 may be a gimmick, but its strong performance and support for tri-band Wi-Fi 7 is hard to beat at this price. The D-Link app is easy to use, and also provides good backward-compatibility for older computers and mobile devices too.

Pros

• +Competitive price
• +Excellent Wi-Fi performance
• +2.5Gb Ethernet ports
• +Well-designed app

Cons

• -Limited parental controls
• -Design is a little gimmicky

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• Price & release date
• Specs
• Features
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• Should you buy?
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D-Link Aquila Pro AI R95: One-minute review

Most routers are fairly boring black boxes that just sit in a corner and occasionally flash a few lights at you.

However, D-Link has decided to go its own way with its new R95, which is part of the company’s Aquila Pro AI range (yes, AI has even got into routers now). The router’s sweeping curves look more like the wings of an aquatic manta ray than a conventional router.

It’s not clear if that design has any practical function, but it certainly looks interesting, and the use of tri-band Wi-Fi 7 ensures that the R95 will really make your wireless network fly at top speed. It also provides good support for older computers and mobile devices that may not have Wi-Fi 7.

D-Link Aquila Pro AI R95 review: Price & release date

• How much does it cost? $254.99/£180 (around AU$355)
• When is it available? Now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK

Wi-Fi 7 routers are still fairly expensive, but the R95 is competitively priced for a high-end Wi-Fi 7 router, costing $254.99/£180, which compares well with high-end rivals such as the Acer Predator T7.

Unfortunately, Wi-Fi 7 products still tend to take a while to reach Australia, and the R95 isn’t currently available in that region, although the US price translates to approximately AU$355.

D-Link Aquila Pro AI R95 review: Specs

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D-Link Aquila Pro AI R95 review: Features

• Eye-catching design
• Well-designed app
• Dual-network support

The external design of the R95 is certainly its most obvious feature, with gracefully curved ‘wings’ that look nothing like any conventional router that we’ve seen recently. The real headline feature, though, is the router’s performance, boasting tri-band Wi-Fi 7 that uses the 2.4GHz, 5.0GHz and 6.0GHz bands to provide a total speed of 9.5Gbps (strictly speaking, it’s actually 9,334Mbps, but manufacturers always like to round these numbers up).

It devotes two of its four antennae exclusively to the high-speed 6.0GHz band in order to provide maximum performance for computers and mobile devices that support Wi-Fi 7, while the other two antennae handle the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands for older devices. Its wired connectivity is right up to date as well, with a 2.5Gb Ethernet port available for high-speed broadband services, and three more 2.5Gb ports for connecting devices, such as a PC, games console or smart-TV, that will benefit from a lag-free wired connection.

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