CES 2017 Amped Wireless HELIOS-EX Range Extender and Router

Last August, Tom took a look at the Amped Wireless ATHENA-EX AC Wi-Fi range extender and walked away from it impressed.  While Amped Wireless is a relative newcomer to the home networking market, their products have been lauded by many in the press.  As CES fever, ahem… amps up, a deluge of press releases and marketing material is getting released into the wild.  Amped Wireless is no exception.

New from Amped Wireless for 2017 are a pair of products to increase the company’s “high power, long-range” wireless solutions.  The first announcement is the RE2200T HELIOS-EX High Power AC2200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Range Extender and is compatible with any router and is capable of covering up to a 12,000 square-foot home.  The 2×2 tri-band extender is designed with a pair of 5GHz band radios and a single 2.4GHz.  Additionally, the HELIOS-EX won the company a CES Innovations Award.

“Being named a 2017 Innovations Design and Engineering Awards Honoree is another great achievement for our team,” said Jason Owen, VP of Networking at Amped Wireless. “HELIOS-EX is one of our proudest innovations to date, so we are honored to be recognized. We are ecstatic about both of the Innovations Awards that we won this year.”

Also announced is the HELIOS High Power Tri-Band AC2200 Wi-Fi router.  By maximizing throughput, the new router gives client devices multiple bands to connect to, allowing the busiest traffic to be spread across three bands.  The Tri-Band Extender, on the other hand, uses the second 5GHz band as a dedicated link to the router via DirectLink technology. This dedicated connection means the remaining two bands are free for client connections, resulting in up to twice the connection speeds of standard range extenders. The HELIOS Tri-Band Router provides a powerful yet affordable option for those looking for more range, bandwidth and versatility compared to traditional dual band router solutions.

The HELIOS-EX High Power Tri-Band AC2200 Wi-Fi Range Extender with DirectLink (RE2200T) will be available via brick and mortar retailers and online retailers late February 2017 at a retail price of $179.99. The HELIOS High Power Tri-Band AC2200 Wi-Fi Router (RTA2200T) will be available end of Q1 2017 at a retail price of $179.99.