D-Link DWR 920V N300 4G LTE Router Review

Vemuda Techno - Using a SIM card for internet is more convenient and affordable than having a permanent internet connection for a lot of people these days, so today we have D-Link’s DWR 920V, which you can use for getting internet with a SIM card.

We have seen similar devices that let you use a SIM card for internet before, but this router offers many additional features that you won’t find in those devices, so let’s check it out.

Source: Showmetech

1. Unboxing and Design

Inside the box, you’ll find some manuals, a LAN cable, the power adapter, a cable to connect a telephone, the removable LTE antennas, and finally the router itself.

The design of the DWR 920V is really cute. It’s a small router with two removable antennas, and we have LEDs on front that tell you about different things, including the signal strength that you’re getting from the SIM card.

2. Features

At the back of the router, you have a gigabit LAN port, along with another gigabit port that can be used as either a LAN port, or a WAN port, and we have another port for using a phone with this router. At the underside of the router, you’ll also find the slot for a mini SIM along with a WPS button.

Now because this slot is mini SIM, which is the full sized SIM version, you may need a nano SIM to Mini SIM adapter to use your SIM card, because most phones have nano SIM these days.

And because these adapters are kind of difficult to find these days, I would have liked if they also provided this adapter in the box.

But because this router has a gigabit LAN and a WAN port, you can also use this as a regular router, in addition to using a SIM for the internet, which isn’t available in devices like Jio Fi.

This also has a useful fallback feature, which will allow you to switch to the SIM card’s internet in case you lose connectivity through the WAN port.

Setting it up with a SIM card is really easy, because all I needed to run 4G internet with my Jio SIM was to just push the SIM in its slot, and it just connected automatically, and it supports 2G, 3G and 4G data with customizable Access point names.

Because we have a LAN port on this, you can also use this for accessing internet on wired clients like a PC, and we of course have its Wi-Fi connectivity which you will most probably use.

We also have a port for connecting a landline phone to this, and you can send and receive calls with a landline phone which was quite fun to do after a decade for me.

3. Interface

The interface of the router is quite basic, but it works well. You have options to configure different settings for the SIM and the connection through the WAN port.

And you have the usual options for controlling Wi-Fi, along with having some security and firewall features, some basic data monitoring, and the ability to upgrade the firmware. You can also send and receive SMSes from the interface, which is nice to see.

4. Performance and Range

Coming to its Wi Fi connectivity, this is only a 2.4 GHz router, so it doesn’t have the 5 GHz band, and 2.4 GHz connection is pretty basic (without Wi Fi 6), so even though this router has a gigabit WAN port, you won’t be able to get very fast speeds from its Wi Fi antennas.

I tested the performance of the 2.4 GHz band, and I was able to get up to 80 mbps with my phone almost touching the router, then in the next room with 1 wall in between, I got around 70 mbps, in my office with multiple wall in between, I got 50 mbps. And finally, in my other flat with many walls in between, I got around 20 mbps speed.

The range of this router is decent enough, and it should cover a small flat, but it was barely able to provide range in my parents flat, which is still not a bad result.

The range on this will be significantly better than devices like Jio Fi, and your smartphone used as a hotspot.

Now these speeds are not that great, but if you just want to use internet for casual browsing and streaming with a SIM card, you shouldn’t feel that the speed is low.

These days I am getting really slow speeds on Jio 4G network, so the performance for this router is adequate for that, but if you are on a network that can give you over 60 mbps of speed, you will be towards the edge of the performance of this router.

If you want to use this as a regular router, then you will be able to get gigabit speeds on wired clients like your desktop PC, but when using its Wi-Fi connection, you will be limited to lower speeds with your wireless clients.

Overall, I am not disappointed with the performance of this router for its intended purpose, because it will be good enough in most cases, especially if you mainly want to use a SIM card, but you should know that this isn’t a very high speed router if you want to use it with your fibre internet connection.

5. MAC Cloning Feature

If you use this with wired internet through its WAN port, the one big missing feature on it is that it doesn’t support MAC Cloning.

If your ISP only lets you connect to internet using a specific router they provided, then you can use MAC cloning to make them think that you’re still using the old router, and this is a feature that is present in most routers.

But the absence of this feature is not a deal breaker, because you can just call your ISP and tell them that you have changed routers, so they will reset the connection and let this new router work, but just keep in mind that you may need extra steps for setting this up.

6. Conclusion

So overall, the D Link DWR 920V is a pretty feature rich hybrid router that allows you to use a SIM card or a wired connection for internet in many ways, you can use wireless and wired devices, and you can even use it as a phone and even send SMSes.

The drawbacks on this router are that the performance is just good enough for an average 4G connection, so if you need better performance for higher speeds with wired internet, you will have to look at the higher end models which will be more expensive.

At its selling price of 4,500 Rs., it is also competing with routers that have a more modern feature set. But as long as you’re okay with some of its limitations, this is a product that works well. 

And that was it for this post, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one.

We have also reviewed Samsung OneUI 5.

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