Style and substance in dual-band trim

Overview
Staking its claim in the dual-band 5GHz/2.4GHz world, Cisco has released the Linksys Maximum Performance E4200 Dual-Band N Router.

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Unlike the Netgear Dual Band DGND3300, the Linksys Maximum Performance E4200 Dual-Band N Router is just a DSL router, so in the same vein as the Asus RT-N56U.

Again unlike the Netgear DGND3300 it offers four full Gigabit LAN ports, alongside the DSL port. For optimum performance it uses a 3×3 antenna array and so can offer 450Mbps connections at 5GHz.

We also spied a single USB port to provide NAS and UPnP services from a USB drive and there’s an actual power switch, which we always like to see. A WPS button is tucked at the back to make adding supported devices a one-push affair.

Clearly Cisco is trying to up the game with packaging and design, which attempts to ape Apple products such as the iPad 2. It certainly gets close in terms of design but doesn’t quite manage the same levels of finesse.