When is a router not a router? When that router looks like the D-Link Aquila Pro AI M30 which is designed to blend in or fade in to the background in your home.

This worked out well for our review because my daughter had asked me to come and fix up the wi-fi in her two-level apartment.

The issue for her was that upstairs, where the NBN modem router was located, the wi-fi was good not great but downstairs it was rubbish.

This is a common occurrence for many NBN customers with the modem at the front of the house and their TV and gaming consoles and anything else that needs the internet located at the back of the home.

So it’s the Aquila Pro Wi-Fi 6 mesh wi-fi router to the rescue.

My daughter wouldn’t want anything too big and definitely nothing that obviously looks like a modem with flashing lights.

The Aquila Pro was the perfect fit. The two-pack ($399.95) includes two routers that look more like a work of art than a tech product.

In fact, it won the 2023 Good Design Award.

With its curved wing design, the Aquila Pro looks more like a sculpture than a piece of technology but under the hood it’s got what you need.

This includes speeds of up to 3Gbps with 160Hz bandwidth support along with a Gigabit Internet WAN port and four Gigabit LAN ports so you can plug in other products like smart TVs, gaming consoles, 4K players and set top boxes.

It also has AI onboard including AI Wi-Fi Optimiser, AI Mesh Optimiser and AI Traffic Optimiser which all add up to improved wi-fi performance in your home.

Wi-Fi Optimiser works out the best channel for each connected device on the network while AI Mesh Optimiser can also head off any potential network issues.

The AI Traffic Optimiser make sure that you have uninterrupted 4K and 8K streaming with AI-powered QoS (quality of service) technology to make sure your connections are fast and smooth.

Set up is a breeze thanks to the Aquila Pro companion app that takes you step by step through the process.

In our case, it was a matter of first of connecting the D-Link router to the modem and establishing that connection before positioning the second unit downstairs and joining them together using the WPS (Wi-Fi protected setup) button on each unit.

This got the two units talking to each other and connecting.

As a result the faster connection downstairs was extended and shared downstairs.

Our subsequent speed tests showed the wi-fi speeds downstairs were the same if not slightly faster than those upstairs.

Even the wi-fi speeds upstairs had improved from our first test thanks which the Aquila Pro routers.

What helps here is the special antenna array system which cover up to 465 square metres. And if you buy the three pack you can cover up to 650 square metres.

As we demonstrated with my daughter’s two-level apartment – the Aquila Pro is built to handle multi-storey dwellings.

The one downside of the device is it offers one combined network and doesn’t separate the 2.4Ghz band from the 5Ghz band.

Having the 2.4Ghz band on its own makes it easy to connect certain smart products that can only connect to the 2.4Ghz portion of the network.

But that’s not an issue here because the AI Wi-Fi Optimiser steers the product to the right band.

The D-Link Aquila Pro is available now and priced at $399.95 (two pack) and $549.95 (three pack).

VERDICT