It’s back to the future for Linksys. The Belkin-owned wireless equipment brand used the Consumer Electronics Showcase in Las Vegas to show off a new router with modern technology that sports a retro design.
Linksys has updated one of its best-selling routers – the classic WRT54G – in a modernized form, with leading edge Wireless-AC technology. While the design was inspired by the WRT54G’s blue/black stackable form factor, the new Linksys WRT1900AC Dual Band Wi-Fi Router is all-new on the inside with a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, four removable antennas and eSata and USB 2.0/3.0 connectivity ports.
It ships with Linksys Smart Wi-Fi set-up and management tools and will be the first Linksys router to include the Network Map feature. The vendor is also working with the OpenWRT community to make an open source firmware downloadable when product launches.
“Our new Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router will be the most powerful router in its class on the market. We have spared no technology expense to make this router a prosumers’ dream,” said Mike Chen, vice-president product management for Linksys, in a statement. “The launch of the new WRT router is not only a celebration for the Linksys brand but for our customers too. We have brought back the WRT because our customers have asked for a router that had the reliability, functionality and open source capabilities but with today’s AC wireless technology. The WRT1900AC is the result of all these requests.”