• D-link DIR 685 Storage Router

    D-link DIR 685 Storage Router

    Rohan Naravane, Jan 21, 2010 1617 hrs IST

    A router, photo-frame and NAS

    Color screen, 2.5-inch internal hard drive bay, Framechannel and BitTorrent support, 2 USB ports

    Laggy UI on the device, Small screen not ideal for photo viewing, expensive, only EXT3 format for hard drive supported

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The D-Link DIR 685 is a combination of an 802.11n wireless router, a digital photo frame and a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. It also has cool features like a built-in BitTorrent downloader and the ability to show a variety of content on the screen by pulling it from the internet. But does this combo device make sense? Or are you better off with different individual devices? We find out.

Design and Build

The DIR 685 is unlike any ordinary router and looks rather cool with its upright posture. The overall build quality is quite decent. The front face bears a 3.2-inch LCD display. It is meant to also double up as a photo frame other than displaying information. But here lies the problem - 3.2 inches is a little too small to be viewed clearly from a distance. Thus, you can only admire photos if the router is kept right next to you. Also, the glossy pane covering the display offers a slightly irritating glare. We wouldn't really call the DIR 685 an ideal replacement for a digital photo frame.



There are touch-sensitive buttons at the side of the display. They were alright, but the UI is to blame (more on that later). There's also a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Security) button. At the back, we have the regular array of ports: 1 WAN, 4 LAN, 2 USB and one power. There's also a side-door through which a 2.5-inch laptop hard drive can be inserted into the device, which is the unique aspect of the device. It supports up to 500GB HDDs. There's an eject button at the other side to get the drive out.




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Discussion Board
(2) Comments
Dharmesh
,Mumbai, on Jan 22, 2010 01:01 PM
Seems to be a very interesting & different products with a router, storage device & photoframe all together in one device. Cant wait to get my hands on this :)
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HaRMaN
,United States of Chandigarh, on Jan 22, 2010 01:16 AM
I'll rather prefer Asus EeePC hung @ my Wall, with a LAN cable in, an WiFi @ AdHoc.. :P
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