Update: Sold out for now, sorry!
The past few years has seen a welcome deluge of Wi-Fi router innovation, and Portal is one of our readers’ favorites, particularly for smaller dwellings in congested, urban environments.
Portal includes app-based configuration, nine internal antennas, and mesh capabilities if you buy more than one...table stakes these days for a good router. But while almost all home Wi-Fi routers limit you to a small number of public channels over 5GHz, Portal also opens up four “DFS” channels that are typically reserved for military use and commercial radar.
The law allows home routers to use these DFS channels, but they must shift off of them for a set amount of time whenever they detect active radar to avoid interference. Portal does just this, and moves all of your devices off of the busy channel in the background automatically, and shifts them back on when it’s safe. That means that most of the time, these channels are practically empty, so you won’t have to worry about interference from your neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks. This Digital Trends review has a thorough explanation of the technology, if you’re curious.
Portal normally sells for about $130, but Prime members can grab it today for just $110, an all-time low. I bought this thing a couple of years ago, and absolutely love it.