AVM FRITZ!Box 5690 Pro WiFi 7 Router Review

1. Introduction2. AVM FRITZ!Box 5690 Pro3. AVM FRITZ!Box 5690 Pro Administration Interface4. AVM FRITZ!Box 5690 Pro Analysis5. Closing Thoughts6. View All Pages

AVM always likes to do things a little differently from other router manufacturers. Throughout the years, we've been impressed by the company's unusual features. The AVM FRITZ!Box 5690 Pro is the second WiFi 7 router we have seen from the company, adding a tri-band radio and direct connectivity for optical fibre broadband. But it still includes some of AVM's unique telephony abilities and, on paper at least, ups the bandwidth considerably over the 7690 router we looked at a few months ago.

The AVM FRITZ!Box 5690 Pro has a more angular design aesthetic than the AVM FRITZ!Box 7690 we looked at in January. The Pro nomenclature would imply this is more directly aimed at small businesses than homes, and indeed it does still offer DECT cordless telephony for up to six handsets. But there are still smart home features, primarily via support for Zigbee, a wireless standard for controlling smart home devices such as lightbulbs, roller blinds, temperature and motion sensors, smart plugs, and switches.

The headline features are the upgraded networking capabilities of the 5690 Pro. You're spoiled for choice for broadband connectivity. Not only is there a port for DSL and another for 2.5Gbit WAN/LAN, but also a third one for an SFP (small form-factor pluggable) module. In the box, you get AON and GPON optical options, depending on the kind of fibre home connection you might have. The tri-band WiFi has an aggregate bandwidth of 18,490Mbits/sec, divided into 11,530Mbits/sec at 6GHz, 5,760Mbits/sec at 5GHz, and 1,200Mbits/sec at 2.4GHz. The 7690 did not offer the 6GHz waveband. As well as WiFi 7, the 5690 also supports WiFi 6E, which more devices support already than 7. There are optional extras to create a mesh network, too.

There are wired RJ11 and German TAE analog phone ports on the back plus a four-port Gigabit Ethernet switch (albeit no faster LAN connections unless you don't use the WAN port for broadband). You also get a single USB 3.1 connection for media server storage or NAS options. All this comes in at well under £400, which is pricey for a router but not one with this range of features available. Read on to see how the promising specifications shape up in reality.

The AVM FRITZ!Box 5690 Pro is available from Amazon UK for £356.32 inc VAT.

Specification:

• Wireless protocols: MU-MIMO with 802.11b/g/n/be 2.4GHz, 802.11a/n/ac/ax/be 5GHz and 6GHz
• Performance: BE18490 (11,530 + 5,760 + 1,200 Mbits/sec)
• Antenna Configuration: 4×4 internal antennas
• Ports: 4 x Gigabit Ethernet, 1 x 2.5Gigabit Ethernet WAN/LAN, 1 x ADSL,  1 x SFP AON or GPON fibre optic, 1 x USB 3.1, 1 x RJ11 phone, 1 x TAE phone
• Modem Support: Fibre, VDSL/ADSL 2+ or cable

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