D-Link AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 USB Adaptor (DWA-X1850): fast and affordable Wi-Fi upgrade for Windows 10 PCs

Our Verdict

It's a shame that information technology just works with Windows 10, but D-Link'due south Wi-Fi 6 adaptor is a good upgrade for owners of Wi-Fi half dozen routers.

For

Convenient, affordable Wi-Fi 6 upgrade
Plug-and-play installation
WPA iii security

Confronting

No back up for Windows seven or viii
Poor documentation
Dual-ring only

TechRadar Verdict

It's a shame that it but works with Windows 10, but D-Link's Wi-Fi 6 adaptor is a good upgrade for owners of Wi-Fi 6 routers.

Pros

+
User-friendly, affordable Wi-Fi 6 upgrade
+
Plug-and-play installation
+
WPA 3 security

Cons

-
No support for Windows vii or 8
-
Poor documentation
-
Dual-ring only
-

Two-infinitesimal review

Spec Sheet:

Wireless Connectivity: WiFi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax), dual-band, one.8Gbps
System Requirements: PC with Windows 10, available USB port
Ports: 1x USB-A (3.2 Gen one)
Dimensions (HxWxD): 12.7 x xxx.0 x 95.5mm, 0.024kg

If yous want to improve the performance of your home Wi-Fi network then it makes sense to upgrade to a new router that uses the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology (aka 802.11ax).

But, of class, many of usa are still using PCs that are merely equipped with Wi-Fi 5 (formerly known as 802.11ac), and while your new Wi-Fi 6 router is still astern-compatible with PCs and other devices that use Wi-Fi v, you won't get the total benefits of your new high-speed router for those older devices.

That's where D-Link steps in with its new AX1800 Wi-Fi half-dozen USB Adaptor (DWA-X1850), which can upgrade your Windows 10 PC to Wi-Fi 6 for £52/$69.99/AU$149.95.

D-Link AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 USB Adaptor on a wooden table — (Image credit: Future)

Design and features

Looking very much similar a rather fat retentivity stick, the Wi-Fi 6 adaptor simply plugs into a USB port on your PC and provides a quick plug-and-play upgrade to high-operation Wi-Fi 6 engineering science. It does actually have a small amount of retentivity built into it, which stores the adaptor's driver software, and then you can only double-click on the adaptor in the Windows File Explorer to view and install the drivers.

The adaptor uses a USB-A connector, only our office laptop has both USB-A and USB-C ports, and nosotros found that it also worked with the USB-C port when used with a suitable USB-A-to-USB-C adaptor - although that's evidently non an platonic set-upward if you're travelling with a laptop.

We were too disappointed to find that D-Link's website states that Windows 10 is a minimum requirement for using the Wi-Fi half-dozen adaptor. In that location are millions of older PCs still running Windows 7 and 8 that could benefit from a Wi-Fi upgrade such equally this, and then limiting the adaptor to only piece of work with Windows ten seems a little brusk-sighted (and at that place'southward no Mac support either).

Undaunted, your intrepid reporter had a shot at using the Wi-Fi vi adaptor with an old desktop PC running Windows 8, that struggles with slow wi-fi when watching Netflix. We were able to install the drivers for the adaptor, all the same, the Network Settings panel in Windows eight told us that the drivers were 'not bachelor' when nosotros attempted to switch from the PC's built-in wi-fi to the new D-Link adaptor.

Information technology is, of form, possible to upgrade an old PC such equally this to Windows x, but Windows x costs almost twice as much as the D-Link adaptor itself, so that's not a specially tempting selection.

Performance and getting started

Benchmarks:

Laptop Connected Via Wi-Fi 6 (ii.4GHz)
Within 5ft, no obstructions: 286.5Mbps
Within 30ft, three partition walls: 1200Mbps

Laptop Continued Via Wi-Fi 6 (5.0GHz)
Within 5ft, no obstructions: 286.5Mbps
Within 30ft, iii sectionalisation walls: 1200Mbps

Buying lots of Wi-Fi half-dozen adaptors for multiple PCs could be pretty expensive, simply if y'all have one laptop or PC that yous apply for gaming or working from habitation, and which needs the best possible wi-fi performance, and then the D-Link AX1800 Wi-Fi six USB Adaptor is a fast and affordable upgrade (as long every bit you're running Windows ten).

Information technology only takes a few seconds to double-click the Setup.exe file stored on the adaptor itself in social club to install the commuter software. Withal, D-Link'due south one-folio QuickStart guide doesn't bother to tell you that you demand to locate and select the new Wi-Fi 6 adaptor in your PC'southward Network Settings in order to switch from your PC'south built-in Wi-Fi to the new Wi-Fi 6 adaptor.

It took us most 20 minutes of clicking through various menus and settings to effigy out how to do this, and so D-Link needs to provide better instructions for people who don't take much experience of networking.

D-Link AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 USB Adaptor screenshot — (Image credit: Futurity)

As the proper noun suggests, the AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 USB Adaptor supports Wi-Fi half-dozen with a top speed of 1800Mbps. That's not going to break any speed records, and the low-cost adaptor merely uses dual-ring wi-fi on the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands. However, Wi-Fi 6 isn't merely about speed, as information technology also provides greater reliability than Wi-Fi five, so information technology's however a worthwhile upgrade if yous already own a Wi-Fi vi router. The adaptor also supports the latest WPA3 security features too.

And, after that hiccup during the initial ready-up process, the Wi-Fi six adaptor worked very well indeed. The performance tests that we unremarkably use with new routers tend to focus on the router'due south download speed, merely for the Wi-Fi 6 adaptor nosotros needed to concentrate specifically on the speed of the connection betwixt our router and our laptop PC.

Starting with our normal Wi-Fi set-up - using our normal Wi-Fi five router and the congenital-in wi-fi on our office laptop - we recorded connection speeds in the aforementioned room as the router, and as well in a dorsum office where the Wi-Fi is e'er rather unreliable. With the laptop in the same room every bit the Wi-Fi five router its congenital-in Wi-Fi connected at 130Mbps when using the 2.4GHz ring, and 780Mbps with the faster 5.0GHz band.

However, those speeds dropped significantly - and rather erratically - when we moved into the back office, eventually providing average speeds of 78Mbps on ii.4GHz, and 585Mbps on 5.0GHz.

The next step was to activate the D-Link Wi-Fi 6 adaptor, and apply it to connect the laptop to a new Wi-Fi 6 Atlas Pro router from Linksys. The connection speed on the 2.4GHz band more than doubled, to 286.5Mbps, while the five.0GHz connexion leapt to the maximum 1200Mbps (1.2Gbps) supported by the D-Link adaptor on that frequency band.

And, nearly importantly, the D-Link adaptor maintained those speeds both in the same room as the Linksys router, and also in our more distant back office - providing a much more reliable Wi-Fi connexion than we can ordinarily get from the laptop's congenital-in Wi-Fi.