Back in 2018, Razer jumped into the router market with Sila, a gaming router designed to offer high-speed and reliable Wi-Fi performance for gaming. And now, at CES 2020, the company is showing off a concept for a 5G version of that router, the Sila 5G, which would rely on a wireless 5G connection as the source of your internet rather than conventional cable.
Interestingly, unlike many other home routers, the Sila 5G also features a rechargeable battery, allowing it to double as a mobile hotspot — albeit a mobile hotspot that features four Ethernet ports and can theoretically run a small LAN tournament wherever you go.
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Like the original Sila, the Sila 5G also features Razer’s FasTrack technology, the company’s proprietary traffic management tool that automatically analyzes and prioritizes certain traffic on the router. There’s also a dedicated “gaming mode.”
Razer says that users will also be able to manually prioritize specific hardware (like a console or gaming PC) or specific apps (or categories of apps). Companion iOS and Android apps can be used to manage the Sila 5G’s settings, including creating guest networks or changing networking priorities.
On the hardware side of things, the Sila 5G relies on Qualcomm’s X55 modem for connecting to 5G networks (but sub-6GHz and mmWave frequencies) as well as for LTE. The Wi-Fi side of things is handed by a Hawkeye IPQ8072A chipset, which features Wi-Fi 6 support. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Razer product without Chroma lighting, which Razer says will also be included.
Given that it’s just a concept, there’s no price or release date announced yet.
Author: Chaim Gartenberg
Source: Theverge
