The new Trendnet TEW-818DRU brings two USB ports, one USB 3.0 for external HDD storage and one USB 2.0 for printers or similar devices that you want to share. The TEW-812DRU Version V 1.0R had single USB2 while the V 2.0R came with a single USB 3.0.
When it comes to 802.11ac speed, the TEW-818DRU stays at maximum 1300Mbps while the 802.11n speed got increased from 450Mbits to 600Mbits. Most devices still rely on the good old 802.11n standard and therefore the increased top speed for n-class devices made perfect sense.
The TEW-818DRU comes with four Gigabit Ethernet ports, high power extended amplifiers for extended wireless coverage and support for guest networks. You can have an 802.11ac network set at 5GHz and enjoy higher theoretical shared speed at this frequency and still have 802.11n on the overcrowded 2.4Ghz band that is packed with just about every possible non-ac device, mainly the default ones from the service provider.
Design wise the TEW-818DRU is no beauty, but it got the editor's choice in a few top magazines and since we played around with a sample, we can confirm that this router had the best range we ever saw on a wireless router despite the fact that it didn’t had any external antennas.
Newegg among a few other shops is selling this baby for $179.99 which is an $80 or 31 percent below suggested retail price but we have learned from the past that SRP for many wireless devices is much higher than the actual selling price.