Introduction

With 802.11ax, also commonly referred to as Wi-Fi 6, slowly and steadily coming to the retail space, a lot of the networking companies have gone on to update their existing routers to comply with the new standard. But with well over a year since the first of these products came out, the older 802.11ac and the even older 802.11n WiFi protocols still continue to be used far more. This means the market for these routers and mesh WiFi systems is still larger to this day, which allows for some companies to get a piece of this pie for themselves. Gryphon is a relatively new company in this sector, but their co-founders have over 20 years of experience in networking technology and security, which they aim to leverage in their products. We take a look at their offerings today, and thanks again to Gryphon for sending along the review samples.


As of the date of this article, there are two different hardware solutions from Gryphon. The original, and their flagship in performance, is the Gryphon Tower, with the newer of the two the Gryphon Guardian released during testing. As the name suggests, the Gryphon Tower is a literal tower, but built with aesthetics in mind. As with most such mesh WiFi systems, it has a clean white color scheme and curved exterior that resembles some of the more eccentric buildings in the middle east today. The company sells each tower individually for those wanting a single router with all their network security features, but also has multi-packs wherein units can act as mesh repeaters to create a WiFi system as you need it. We will go over the Gryphon Tower as a 2-pack in the configuration received and test performance and all the features in this review beginning with a look at the specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

The thing to know about the Gryphon Tower is that there is no specific master and satellite attribution. A 2-pack of the Gryphon Tower is the exact same as two 1-packs. Indeed, I got two separate single Gryphon Towers in for the review, and the unboxing experience is the same for both. Each tower comes in a fairly compact box for the size of the router inside, with a thick cardboard box employed here. On the front of the box is the company name along with a marketing tagline and a large render of the router inside. This continues on the sides with more of the same, along with the product specifications and a contents list, as well as marketing features expanding on the network security aspect the company boasts of here. There are also two seals on the bottom to help keep the contents inside in place.


We see that Gryphon employs a two-piece packaging with the top simply lifting upwards and away to reveal a note on EU compliance, and underneath are the actual contents. The router is immediately to the left, with the accessories inside a separate box that clearly lists what is inside. But then we see a quick start guide as well, which is good given Gryphon is making a big deal about the user-friendly installation of their products for the not-so-tech-literate among us as well.


For each router, we get an accompanying AC wall adapter and an Ethernet cable, both in white and in sealed plastic bags. The cable is two meters long, which allows for a decent amount of room for cable management along a wall if needed. It terminates in a standard RJ45 connector on either end and is compatible with the 1-GigE LAN ports on the router. The power adapter works for a wide range of input voltages (100–240 V) and across a frequency range of 50–60 Hz. On a 110 V/60 Hz line, say, it takes in 0.9 A of maximum current and outputs a maximum of 36 W over 12 VDC and 3 A. I am not a fan of the plug configuration, however, since it takes up a lot of room sideways and could block more ports on a multi-outlet cord/UPS. If you plan to use this with a standard wall socket, you should be good to go.


The Gryphon Tower comes packaged between two pieces of thick, dense foam which are cut to snugly fit the router. The curved exterior of the router means that these are custom fits, and the top is not the same size as the bottom, either. This means the router does not move during transit as the accessory box keeps it in place on the other side as well.