D-Link DWA-192 Ultra AC1900 USB 3.0 Wi-Fi Adapter Review

TweakTown's Rating: 92%

The Bottom Line

D-Link's DWA-192 Ultra AC1900 USB 3.0 Wi-Fi adapter is an affordable, stylish, robust, and easy to setup solution that carries plenty of performance for gaming or surfing the web.

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Network adapters aren't as prevalent on the market as routers, and apart from the PCE-AC68 from ASUS that I have been using myself, there are only a few solutions that enable AC1900 capabilities. Leveraging the USB 3.0 interface, D-Link has brought to market a solution that fits right in with their Ultra series of routers in the DWA-192.

The DWA-192 from D-Link is a rather interesting take on the USB Wi-Fi adapter. As many of you have used in the past, Wi-Fi dongles are in most cases, not the prettiest things. In fact, most carry a flash drive form factor and tend to get knocked around in our USB ports. With this D-Link adapter, things have changed a bit as this solution is part of the Ultra lineup just as the DIR-890L router and do lend some design towards the eye. The hardware side of this solution starts with a 3 x 3 design that allows for the 600 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 1300 Mbps on the 5GHz band.

Compatibility of the DWA-192 extends to Windows 7, 8 and 10 along with OS X. MSRP of the D-Link Ultra AC1900 adapter is listed at $99.99 with a five-year warranty.

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Packaging for the DWA-192 Wi-Fi Adapter houses an image of the adapter centered on the box. Along the bottom, we have marketing information including mentions of AC beamforming, dual-band, and its USB 3.0 interface.

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Opening the packaging, we get our first look at the adapter. Stating the obvious, the adapter takes on the appearance of a particular ball from Nintendo.

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The scope of delivery includes the adapter, USB cable, and reading materials.

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Taking a closer look at the adapter, the bottom is flat to allow the ball or orb to sit upright without issue. Through the center of the device, a blue LED illuminates during connectivity.

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On the back of the device, we have the USB 3.0 connection in the center while to the left a button to shut off the LED ring and to the right the WPS button.

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To test the DWA-192, we connected the adapter via wireless to our AC1900 capable Netgear Nighthawk R7000. Testing the 2.4GHz band, the adapter was able to bring through around 130 Mbps of throughput. The 5GHz band, on the other hand, was quite impressive reaching very close to 500 Mbps of throughput.

The D-Link Ultra AC1900 adapter is as I stated in the introduction is quite an interesting take on the wireless adapter. While it is certainly nice to see a unique design for those that enjoy these types of thing, I also found it to be a reliable device. The plastics used in the build are durable, and from my experience can withstand a drop without issue. The LED on the unit is quite bright so it the addition of a switch to turn it off is a plus, and with its USB 3.0 connectivity, there should be no bottlenecks.

On the performance side of things, the DWA-192 was quite the performer. Starting things off with 2.4GHz, we found throughput hovering around 130 Mbps, average for an adapter. Switching to 5GHz, the adapter came alive and managed to pull in nearly 500 Mbps of throughput that is very near to the numbers we get with our PCIe solution.

Overall, the D-Link DWA-192 is a robust solution that rivals the performance of PCIe solutions yet uses USB 3.0 for portability and style (in this case).

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Z97-A - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Memory: Patriot Viper 3 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600 - Buy from Amazon
• Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Storage: Intel 730 480GB - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Case: Corsair Obsidian 750D - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 750W - Buy from Amazon / Read our review
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 - Buy from Amazon