Conclusion

The Fritz!Box 7490 is a versatile product, which can be used as a router in any kind of home network. Regarding its basic functionality (DHCP, Firewall and Port Forwarding) it's simple and quick to setup and apart from that we appreciated the monitoring and surveillance features. Apparently this router can be used in combination with DSL, cable and Fibre-To-The-home internet connections, while it's one of the very few routers these days, which is capable to pumping over 900 Mbit/s synchronous if you're home is connected with fibre optics.

If you're planning on adding the Fritz!Box 7490 to a network topology which is more complex than your usual home network, we would have loved to find the possibility to switch to an expert mode before the setup assisstent starts. We also noticed that after having set the Fritz!Box 7490 up, using the setup assisstent, only one of the four Gbit RJ45 ports was set to 1Gbit, the others were set to 100 Mbit. There are actually quite a few things every here and there which help reducing power consumption. While there are some useres out there who might appreciate such a choice there are others who simple demand the highest possible performance. Finding all those power saving options can be a bit tedious and therefore would like to have one button to turn all the power saving features off and enable full performance. On another note we were really impressed by the included DECT system. The fact, that you can basically run your own switchboard is a great feature and it helps to effectively block spam calls from call centers.

As we already mention the Fritz!Box 7490 is one versatile router and suitable for any kind of home network. There is virtually no other vendor offering a similar device with the same amount of possibilities when it comes to configuration options. Nevertheless, every here and there we were under the impression that AVM had to make compromises, when it comes to naming all the different options. We really to the feeling that this devices has been geared towards inexperienced users and some of the settings have received menu points which are over-simplified and are somewhat counter-intuitive to understand when you have your fair share of experience with network devices. Still, this is a great product and especially so, when considering it's price, which according to Geizhals is EUR 199.- At this price tag you'll struggle to find any better router. Overall the Fritz!Box 7490 earns good four out of five Stars.

Page 1 - Introduction

Page 2 - Preview

Page 3 - Features / Setup

Page 4 - Performance test wired

Page 5 - Performance test wireless

Page 6 - Network Attached Storage Tests

Page 7 - Conclusion