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AVM Fritz! WLAN Repeater 600, 1200, 1750E, 2000 and 3000 Review

Please Repeat! With the Fritz! WLAN Repeater family, AVM offers a range of small devices for quickly and easily extending the range of Wi-Fi networks. In this review, we shall consider the four new repeaters and one from the older series and clarify which are suitable for certain uses.

After looking at the Fritz! Box 7590 and the older Fritz! Repeater 1750E, we now have had the opportunity to test AVM's latest repeaters. These range from the small 600 that retails for about 40 Euros (~$44) online to the 3000, which currently costs about 115 Euros (~$128). In between these models are the 1200 and 2400, which retail for 60 Euros (~$67) and 80 Euros (~$89), respectively. The design of the repeaters is subtle, stylish and should therefore suit most apartments. All but the top model are plugged into the mains, for reference. Incidentally, we have no complaints about the processing of our test units from AVM, nor the materials with which they have been built.

Name WLAN LAN Price (Amazon)
AVM Fritz!WLAN Mesh Repeater 3000 3 radio units: 5 GHz AC 1,733 MBit/s + 5 GHz AC 866 MBit/s + 2.4 GHz N 400 MBit/s 2x Gigabit €115
AVM Fritz!WLAN Mesh Repeater 2400 2 radio units: 5 GHz AC 1,733 + 2.4 GHz N 600 MBit 1x Gigabit €80
AVM Fritz!WLAN Mesh Repeater 1750E 2 radio units: 5 GHz AC 1,300 + 2.4 GHz N 450 MBit 1x Gigabit €66
AVM Fritz!WLAN Mesh Repeater 1200 2 radio units: 5 GHz AC 866 + 2.4 GHz N 400 MBit 1x Gigabit €60
AVM Fritz!WLAN Mesh Repeater 600 1 radio unit: 2.4 GHz N 600 MBit No €39
 
 

Wi-Fi Repeater - For what?

A Wi-Fi Repeater is intended to extend the range of an existing Wi-Fi network. These offer the possibility of for example, bringing your Wi-Fi network to an additional floor or extending Wi-Fi to your garden or garage. Many modern cars can receive software updates via Wi-Fi, for instance, but do not have powerful antennas to connect to internal Wi-Fi networks. Adding a repeater in the garage or in front of a parking space would resolve this. The current Tesla models are an example of such vehicles.

For these scenarios, the repeater acts as a middle man between your Wi-Fi network and devices, effectively building a mesh network that is invisible to end devices. This means that existing network names remain unchanged and devices can automatically switch between the repeater or router depending on which is outputting the best reception. Alternatively, one can connect all repeaters, starting with the 1200 upwards, via a LAN Bridge from the router, thus creating an optimal connection.

Installation & Setup

Connecting the repeaters to our Fritz! Box Router was extremely simple. We just plugged in the repeater near to the router, waited for it to boot, pressed the button on the repeater and then pressed the Connect/WPS button on the Fritz! Box. Then, we connected the two devices and saved the connection. Once that has been done, the repeater can be moved to your desired location. If you want to connect another router to the repeater or connect via LAN, then you must use AVM's Fritz! web interface to change the existing settings. You can connect to the repeaters directly by heading to fritz.repeater when connected to your Wi-Fi network. The instructions that AVM includes in the box outline the installation steps clearly, and they show how to navigate the web interface. Everything worked fine in our tests, although we occasionally had to repeat the initial setup process because it failed to work the first time. You can check and test the positioning and reception strength of each repeater by using the FRITZ!App WLAN app, which AVM has published on Android and iOS.

Performance

The performance of the repeater clearly depends on the distance it is placed from the router, local conditions, adjacent Wi-Fi networks and the main router itself. In our tests, we measured the same 800 Mb/s using the Fritz! WLAN Repeater 3000 using our Broadcom ac Wi-Fi-equipped MacBook Pro 15 as we did with the laptop connected directly to the router. We conducted these tests by running iperf3, for reference, the same test we use in all our laptop and smartphone reviews. However, we achieved worse performance when we used the ASUS PCE-AX58BT, a router based on the newer Intel AX200 standard. We measured 144/47 Mb/s on 5 GHz and 118/48 Mb/s on 2.4 GHz, but this could be because of driver problems. The network connection remained stable, though.

With AVM's FRITZ!App WLAN app, we also tested our various routers using an iPhone XS Max. We kept the repeaters about three metres from our routers during these tests, while maintaining line of sight between the two devices. Surprisingly, the Fritz! WLAN Repeater 2400 proved to be the fastest repeater here, with the 3000 and older 1750E averaging a still fast 200 Mb/s. By contrast, while the cheaper repeaters achieved higher maximum transfer speeds, we measured their minimum speeds at 0 Mb/s, which harmed their average speeds.

Base station min max avg
AVM Fritz!WLAN Mesh Repeater 3000 188 Mbit/s 202 Mbit/s 199 Mbit/s
AVM Fritz!WLAN Mesh Repeater 2400 218 Mbit/s 224 Mbit/s 220 Mbit/s
AVM Fritz!WLAN Mesh Repeater 1750E 200 Mbit/s 200 Mbit/s 200 Mbit/s
AVM Fritz!WLAN Mesh Repeater 1200 0 Mbit/s 257 Mbit/s 128 Mbit/s
AVM Fritz!WLAN Mesh Repeater 600 0 Mbit/s 282 Mbit/s 164 Mbit/s
AVM Fritz!Box 7590 0 Mbit/s 200 Mbit/s 171 Mbit/s

Power Consumption

The power consumption of the repeaters clearly reflects their performance. If you do not need peak performance and bandwidth, then you can save twice as much by purchasing one of the cheaper units. Not only are the 600 and 1200 cheaper than their siblings, but they also consume less power, saving you more money.

Name Power Consumption - idle Power Consumption Benchmark Power Consumption - max Power costs per year 30ct/kWh - idle
AVM Fritz! WLAN Mesh Repeater 3000 5.3 W 6.4 W 7.8 W €13.90
AVM Fritz! WLAN Mesh Repeater 2400 3.4 W 4.7 W 5.4 W €8.90
AVM Fritz! WLAN Mesh Repeater 1750E 3.2 W 3.4 W 3.9 W €8.40
AVM Fritz! WLAN Mesh Repeater 1200 2.7 W 3.1 W 3.4 W €7.10
AVM Fritz! WLAN Mesh Repeater 600 1.4 W 2.4 W 2.4 W €3.70

Verdict

Especially if you already own a Fritz! Box Router, then the Fritz! WLAN Repeaters offer a fast and simple way of expanding the range of your existing Wi-Fi network. For many applications like connecting your car to Wi-Fi, then the cheapest option, the WLAN Repeater 600, would be enough. The 600 also scores points for the lowest power consumption of the devices in this review. If you would also like to connect devices capable of faster Wi-Fi speeds like smartphones or laptops, then we would recommend the 2400 or 3000. These also offer Gigabit LAN ports which you could use, for example, to bring devices onto your Wi-Fi network that lack Wi-Fi capabilities. Additionally, you could use a fast LAN connection to place the repeater further away from your router than you could if you link them over Wi-Fi.

Name Price (Amazon)
AVM Fritz! WLAN Mesh Repeater 3000 €115
AVM Fritz! WLAN Mesh Repeater 2400 €80
AVM Fritz! WLAN Mesh Repeater 1750E €66
AVM Fritz! WLAN Mesh Repeater 1200 €60
AVM Fritz! WLAN Mesh Repeater 600 €39
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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Reviews > AVM Fritz! WLAN Repeater 600, 1200, 1750E, 2000 and 3000 Review
Klaus Hinum, 2019-12-13 (Update: 2019-12-14)