PCMag’s review of the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router illustrates the promise of the yet-to-be-ratified 802.11n standard—the speed of the Pre-N networking is of the most bad of asses, like 40Mbps at 60feet (4x that of 802.11g)—but there’s always a danger in using devices that are pre-standard. If Belkin’s implementation differs from the final spec, you might have a $150 router that won’t work with anyone else’s hardware. It is backwards-compatible with 802.11b and g specs, though, so you only have to buy the $100 client cards if you want to, you know, get any improvement out of it.
Still, I would advise staying away unless you just desperately need those speeds. I appreciate Belkin putting “Pre-N” right in the name, too, even if most people won’t know what that means.
Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router [PCMag]
Update: When I’m talking about speeds here I’m talking about “real-world throughput,” (according to PCMag), not specified optimum speeds.
