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As with its more accomplished older brother, the AVM Fritz!Box 7390, at its heart the AVM Fritz!Box 3270 has a beautifully friendly web-based interface. It's quick and responsive in use and provides a friendly face to what could be an overly complicated device.
It supports key-based WPS so Wi-Fi configuration is simple to get started with and the ADSL side is taken care of with a wizard, but it still lacks pre-configured localised ISP settings.
An odd move for the AVM Fritz!Box is that it seemed to only provide exclusive 2.4GHz or 5GHz operation. Most routers offer mixed-mode operation, albeit with reduced 2.4GHz streams. It's not even like this frees up an antenna - optimised lengths are different for both frequencies - so 2.4GHz throughput is limited to 130Mbps.
Thankfully 5GHz mode can still reach 300Mbps. The main issue for us is that throughput from LAN to WLAN will be capped at 12MB/s due to the 100 Base-T ports.
A rather impressive addition to the interface, though, is an array of power efficiency reports and controls. It even breaks down the percentage of the power used on a per-component basis and offers ways to reduce the power consumption and power-down overnight.
Besides this, the AVM Fritz!Box 3270 offers the usual mix of security protocols with legacy WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption. Full WPS support includes the three main modes of use. An AVM Fritz!Box Fon app is also supported, and this clever idea enables you to connect your phone to the router via the Wi-Fi and make or receive landline calls.
Unfortunately the app looks rather outdated and we've had reports of varied success and poor audio quality.
We liked
If you already own AVM Fritz!Box kit, this is going to fit perfectly. It'll also be a friendly face with its easy-to-use web interface and familiar features. While performance was solid it didn't do anything to really impress.
We disliked
For us the 100 Base-T LAN ports and twin antenna really don't cut it, especially at this price. The either/or 5GHz frequency also seems rather limited, since most environments are going to have a mix of device frequencies in use.
Final verdict
Over a year and half has passed since the Friz!Box 7390 was released and dual-band routers, while not quite the norm, are in abundance. This means any weaknesses of a dual-band router are really going to be highlighted.
With competition stiff for dual-band routers, this AVM FritzBox 3270 doesn't cut it on almost any level despite it being so friendly to use.
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