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Razer Debuts Gaming Router

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thiggins

Mr. Easy
Staff member
SILA.jpg
Self-acclaimed "leading lifestyle brand for gamers" company Razer today announced its Sila gaming router.

Sila is a three stream tri-band 802.11ac router (AC3000 class) with Gigabit Ethernet WAN (1) and LAN (4) ports and one each USB 2. 0 and 3.0 ports. The spec link rates look like it sports two-stream 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radios and a second four-stream 5 GHz radios with maximum link rates of 400 Mbps, 866 Mbps and 1734 Mbps, respectively.

Sila has the gaming application optimized QoS you'd expect on a gaming router and the extra 5 GHz DFS channels should help buyers find a quieter space beyond their neighbors' network reach. It also supports MU-MIMO, "intelligent active (band) steering" and can form mesh networks if you pony up for more than one Sila.

Razer partnered with Ignition Design Labs, maker of the Portal router [reviewed] that IDL introduced at CES 2017. IDL had hoped its Multi-Channel Zero-Wait DFS technology would set the Wi-Fi world on fire with its ability to eliminate the 30 minute waiting period required after vacating a DFS channel when radar was detected.
sila_dfs.png

You can still buy Portal, but Sila is the only other consumer router I've seen powered by IDL technology (which in turn runs on a Qualcomm platform).

Speaking of buying, you can do that for Sila too, by visiting Razer and forking over $249.99.
 
It's odd that they avoided gaudy packaging like other gamer-targeted products.

I wonder if this device just contains the same "secret sauce" module of the Portal router as the dedicated monitor radio paired with a more modern Qualcomm CPU. "9 x internal industrial-grade antennas" on the product page would match 4x4 + 2x2 + 2 x 2 + 1x1. The Portal router also claims to have "Nine (9) large internal antenna" on its product page but FCC documents and the SNB review only describe 8 (4x4 + 3x3 + 1x1). Portal also calls their router AC2400 when it should be AC2200 since the QCA9563 WiSoC lacks 256-QAM support meaning the device can only reach speeds of up to 450Mbps with 2.4GHz 802.11n (not 600Mbps). Maybe they're adding in another 150Mbps for the 1x1 secret sauce module since they filed a 2.4GHz DTS Test Report for it.

The FCC documentation says that bluetooth is supported, as it was from the secret sauce module in the Portal device.

I'd bet we'll see IPQ4019 (DBDC 2x2) + QCA9984 (4x4 5GHz) + secret sauce module.
 
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Hardware wise it seems like an Orbi router, minus the packaging of a satellite with it. Interesting to see the UI/Software side.

Razer is overhyped as a brand in general in my opinion when taking into consideration build quality/longevity of other products, but a good unboxing experience and being flashy can go a long way sales wise.
 
Yes, 9th antenna is for Bluetooth, which is used for app-based setup and config.
 
Surprised there is no dedicated wifi channel for RGB control of your router, PC, IOT devices, street lamps and neighbours homes given the hard-on that exists over bling before function today.
 
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