AVM Fritz!Box 3270 review

A more reasonably priced AVM Fritz!Box, but is it a cut too far?

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AVM Fritz!Box 3270 review
The AVM Fritz!Box 3270 router

TechRadar Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Friendly interface

  • +

    5GHz support

Cons

  • -

    No mixed-mode frequency

  • -

    100BaseT LAN ports

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The AVM Fritz!Box 7390 was a massively impressive, if over specified do-it-all wireless router. It also happened to be one of the first dual-band 802.11n routers we'd tested.

While that router remains priced in the £200 (around $310) region, AVM has released this outwardly similar device that inside isn't quite as accommodating, with all of the highfalutin DECT, ISDN, SIP and VoIP functions stripped out.

Even so, what you have here is a full ADSL2+ DSL router, with dual-band 2.4GHz or 5GHz 802.11n wireless internet, four 100 Base-T ports and a USB 2.0 socket for NAS and printer support. It'll also provide full UPnP media server streaming, and NAS and can run an FTP off it as well.

Unusually for an up-to-date design the AVM Fritz!Box 3270 still provides manually adjustable antenna and it's sporting that unmistakable AVM Fritz!Box red and silver style. But can it offer anything over other ADSL2+ dual-band routers such as the Netgear DGND3300?

Benchmarks

Our key tests run a batch of file transfers over the wireless networking at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands using a standard Centrino 2 laptop. Results are going to be limited because it only supports 100 Base-T LAN, but even so we'll run file transfers within the same room, one brick wall away and a line-of-sight distance test of 25 meters.

Same room transfer speed

File copy - MB/s: higher is better

Netgear DGND3300 2.4GHz: 10.5MB/s
Netgear DGND3300 5GHz: 11.8MB/s
ASUS EA-N66 2.4GHz: 9.7MB/s
ASUS EA-N66 5GHz: 23.5MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 7390 2.4GHz: 9.9MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 7390 5GHz: 19.3MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 3270 2.4GHz: 10.9MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 3270 5GHz: 9.8MB/s

One room away transfer speed

File copy - MB/s: higher is better
Netgear DGND3300 2.4GHz: 7.1MB/s
Netgear DGND3300 5GHz: 10.7MB/s
ASUS EA-N66 2.4GHz: 6.5MB/s
ASUS EA-N66 5GHz: 12.3MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 7390 2.4GHz: 6.3MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 7390 5GHz: 9.8MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 3270 2.4GHz: 9.0MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 3270 5GHz: 11.2MB/s

25m line-of-sight transfer speed

File copy - MB/s: higher is better
Netgear DGND3300 2.4GHz: 5.2MB/s
Netgear DGND3300 5GHz: 5.1MB/s
ASUS EA-N66 2.4GHz: 2.5MB/s
ASUS EA-N66 5GHz: 9.0MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 7390 2.4GHz: 2.3MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 7390 5GHz: 6.4MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 3270 2.4GHz: 4MB/s
AVM Fritz!Box 3270 5GHz: 4.8MB/s

Neil Mohr