If you are new to Wi-Fi extenders, their main purpose is to help extend the range of your wifi signal around your home by picking up the existing signal and repeating it. BT’s 11ac Dual-Band Wi-Fi Extender is their fastest extender and is dual band to increase the signal coverage.

The 11ac Dual-Band Wi-Fi Extender is rated at the AC1200 standard all contained into a minimal plug design. For a plug however, it is quite big measuring 119 x 69 x 52mm and is not likely to fit in many extensions without affecting the nearby plugs.

Although looks aren’t why you’ll be picking up a wifi extender, the 11AC looks pretty nice with a clean white casing and blue lighting as opposed to some of the more garish alternatives on the market. Along with the dual band antenna, BT’s Wi-Fi extender has a couple of useful features including an Ethernet port which can be used for setting up the extender or attaching a non-wireless enabled device. A diagram on the front of the extender shows you the optimum location to set it up, avoiding possible sources of interference and maximising its effectiveness.

For the energy conscious there is an on/off switch on the top of the casing. Alongside the power switch you will find the band selector, which allows you to switch between 2.4GHz and 5GHz signals. As a general rule, 2.4GHz gives better signal range at a slower speed, whilst 5GHz maximizes speed at the cost of range.

Setting up the 11AC is a piece of cake. Simply press the WPS button on the top of the extender along with the corresponding WPS button on your router, allowing the devices to sync to each other. After set up the networks will appear as before, but with an EXT2 or EXT5 at the end of their usual display names using the same password as before. If your router does not have a WPS button you can connect it directly to your PC using the Ethernet port and follow steps in browser. Both methods are fairly straightforward and shouldn’t cause any hassle.

For the purposes of testing the performance, the signal and speed of both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks was tested, with the laptop connected to the extender at a distance of roughly 10 metres on the floor below. The 2.4GHz network offered better signal strength at 77% (-65dBm) but the peak download speed was only 10Mbps with a 2Mbps upload. The 5GHz network offered a 51% signal strength (-77dBm) but the download speed peaked at 47Mbps with a 3 Mbps upload. The 5GHz signal obtained through the extender matched the peak speeds obtained when connecting to the router directly.

At the longer ranges the signal for the 5GHz dropped much quicker and by 25 metres there were some connection issues at first authentication. The 2.4GHz performed better but speed dropped to around 6Mbps download and upload was under 1Mpbs which is usable, but slow.

For gamers who are are latency conscious, the tests through both signal ranges went well with both of them only producing between 7-10 ping. This would benefit gamers who do not have access to a physical connection for their consoles or PC. As well as those who might be in parts of the house with a weak Wi-Fi signal.

So is it worth buying? BT’s 11ac Dual-Band Wi-Fi Extender 1200 is a great companion to an already high-end router which is able to use the AC1200 signal but is not always standard in most broadband packages. If you have an older router it might be worth upgrading the router first instead of getting this extender or a cheaper extender that matches the router’s performance.

When it does match your router, the extender will deliver good performance to spread your internet connection evenly around your home and has additional features which lower end extenders don’t have such as the ability to find the best location to plug it in. As an additional accessory Wi-Fi extenders are an optional extra, so if you have decent Wi-Fi already and don’t need it further throughout your house then this is not for you. In need of better Wi-Fi however and BT’s 11ac Dual-Band Wi-Fi Extender should help get your internet to where you need it.