After testing the U-SPEED N300 for two weeks in my 1,200 sq ft apartment, I can confidently say it's a no-frills router that gets the job done—with a few quirks.

The setup was surprisingly painless (contrary to one alarming review). I plugged it in, connected via Ethernet, and accessed the admin panel without any forced sign-ups or credit card drama. The interface is barebones but functional—I had my smart thermostat and security cameras humming on the dedicated 2.4GHz band within 15 minutes.

Performance-wise, don't expect miracles. Streaming Netflix at 1080p worked flawlessly, but when I tried gaming while my partner video-called her parents, there was noticeable lag. The QoS settings helped prioritize traffic, though tweaking them felt like playing whack-a-mole with bandwidth allocation.

The antennas provide decent coverage—I got signal in every room, though speeds dropped by 40% in my farthest bathroom (where I admittedly don't need WiFi). What surprised me most was how cool it runs compared to my old router; no more random reboots from overheating during summer.

For $30? Absolute steal if you need a secondary network for IoT devices or a backup router. Just don't make it your primary if you're a power user with gigabit internet dreams.