Amped Wireless Artemis-EX AC1300 Range Extender Review

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I think I have seen every modern wireless solution that has come from Amped Wireless. This review of the Artemis-EX is the first part of two Range Extenders I have in the lab for testing.

Like the Artemis router, the extender shares the same platform all the way down to the enclosure. Internally, the hardware is capable of 400 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 867 Mbps on the 5GHz band. Features of this solution include a quad-core ARM processor paired with 128MB of DDR3, independent amplifiers for each band, and adjustable output power from 15 to 100%. Software features include MU-MIMO, QoS, and Parental controls, along with Beamforming to aid in more reliable connections.

The MSRP of the Amped Wireless RE1300M Artemis-EX comes in at $129.99 with a one-year warranty.

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Packaging is quite clean as we have seen in the past from Amped. We have an image of the extender to the right with a bit of marketing below.

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The spine of the box houses a comparison between Amped products.

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The scope of delivery includes the power adapter, antennas, reading materials, and a stand if you want the unit to sit vertically.

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As we mentioned, the Artemis extender uses a popular enclosure seen across the entire Amped portfolio. The right side is vented on top with extender branded on the right. The center of the front houses a panel of LEDs.

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The backside houses both SMA connectors along with the gigabit ethernet ports and USB 3.0 port.

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Setup is straightforward with the Artemis. Once you connect to the extender, setup will begin by asking you to choose which networks to extend.

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I am extending my home network as seen in the images above.

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Lastly, you can choose to keep the default SSIDs or change them to your liking. The password for this extended network will need to be set as well.

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Testing started off with our standard run. The Artemis managed to pull in 184 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 519 Mbps on the 5GHz band.

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Mobile throughput is done with an iPhone 7 Plus. Here we reached 104 Mbps on the 2.4GHz network and 411 Mbps on the 5GHz network.

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Range too is done with the iPhone 7 Plus. Starting at 10Ft, the Artemis brings in 103 Mbps and moving out to 20Ft we see no real change. At 30Ft, performance drops a bit down to 63Mbps.

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5GHz started out at 411 Mbps and moving out we lost some performance at 368 Mbps. At 30Ft, we see the Artemis end our testing at 282 Mbps.

As I stated, in the beginning, much of the Amped Wireless lineup uses the same low-profile enclosure. The Artemis router and extender take this further by sharing the same internals, effectively making them the same product with different firmware. This certainly saves Amped Wireless a good amount of money in the long run, but will it pay off? Build quality here isn't the highest I have seen but its ample for what it is. There isn't a lot of styling going into the enclosure for the Artemis, but I do enjoy that it has a matte finish.

Performance was average but decent for an AC1300 solution. These solutions are typically catered to consumers on a budget, so it does deliver on that end. In 2.4GHz range and performance, we found the Artemis EX to hold its 100 Mbps performance out to 20 Ft. 5GHz started at 411 Mbps and ended at 282 Mbps at 30Ft.

Setup of this solution is very straightforward, and the built-in software wizard guides you through without much issue. I will say it's best to do setup via a wired connection to eliminate issues when changing SSIDs during setup. With that all said, I enjoy the Artemis-EX RE1300M, and with several retailers now carrying this solution for $99.99, it's a fairly solid option for those on a budget.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IX Hero (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K (buy from Amazon) / (Read our Review)
• Memory: G.SKILL TridentZ DDR4 3200 (buy from Amazon)
• Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Hybrid (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Intel 730 480GB SSD (buy from Amazon) / (Read our Review)
• Secondary Storage: MyDigitalSSD BP5 512GB SSD (buy from Amazon)
• Case: EVGA DG-86 (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 P2 (buy from Amazon)
• Networking: ASUS PCE-AC88 AC3100 (buy from Amazon)
• Networking: ASUS ROG 10G Express
• Networking: ASUS Thunderbolt EX3 (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)