D-Link has been at the forefront of innovation and has embraced the Wi-Fi 6 adoption. The brand has consistently pumped out newer Wi-Fi six-based routers to phase out the Wi-Fi 5 range quickly.
For now, Wi-Fi 6 hardware is a costly affair, and it will take a reasonable amount of time to switch over to newer standards. However, this hasn’t stopped the brand from announcing the new EXO AX5400 Wi-Fi 6 router. Coming in at upwards of INR 12,000, this router is among the best hardware D-Link has to offer.
We have been using the DIR-5460 for upwards of two weeks now, and here’s our review.
Box Contents
- D-Link DIR-5460 AX5400 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 Router
- Ethernet Cable
- Documentation
Design
D-Link has gone with the same design across their Wi-Fi 6 router range. This new DIR-5460 model is very similar in looks to the DIR-1560 we reviewed last month. The design incorporates angles, and there is a perfect balance of aesthetics and usability.
There is proper heat dissipation with plenty of cutouts on the unit. The router is still made out of high-quality plastic with a matte finish. There are six high-band antennas here, which come with a free range of motion. Four status LEDs are placed on the front with the D-Link branding.
The power on/off, WPS, and reset buttons are placed on the back. The single Gigabit WAN port is the next in line, followed by four Gigabit LAN ports, a USB 2.0 port, and a USB 3.0 port.
Performance
This is an AX5400 unit meaning it can output a total of 5,400 Mbps, 4,800 Mbps on the 5 GHz band, and 600 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band. Setting up the router is pretty; just download the free D-Link Wi-Fi app and follow the steps on the screen. The app is available for both Android & iOS platforms.
There are plenty of nifty options within the app, including parental control, guest modes, usage tracking, and more. These new D-link routers also happen to be intelligent routers, and both Alexa and Google Assistant can control specific aspects of it. There are easy commands like Turn on/off your guest Wi-Fi, ask for your guest Wi-Fi credentials, reboot your router or update your firmware, and many more.
The feature list on the EXO Ax5400 DIR-5460 is long; it supports BSS Coloring technology which makes transmissions more unique by ‘coloring’ them with their unique code in a bit to provide a stable and efficient connection in crowded spaces.
The Target Wake Time (TWT) also helps reduce battery consumption for connected devices by communicating with them and deciding when and how often the device requires data transfers. Then there is the MU-MIMO technology that helps distribute the flow of data to multiple devices simultaneously. These routers leverage OFDMA and MU-MIMO for better efficiency of upstream and downstream transmissions.
During our testing period, we connected a number of devices to the AX5400 Wi-Fi 6 router to a number of devices ranging from the new streaming sticks that support Wi-Fi 6 all the way to Pro laptops and workstations. The router passed all the tests with flying colors and left us satisfied with the overall performance.
One of the aspects that frequently gets overlooked is the automated OTA updates support which D-link is providing for these new-age routers. Getting the right and up-to-date firmware on a router can be a challenging test, and this one feature makes it a lot easy.
