Five years after the Fritz!Box 7590, AVM has delivered an AX version to this classic router series.
The AVM FRITZ!Box brand is well known across Europe but relatively unknown in many other regions. AVM has built a reputation for producing high-quality products focused on functionality rather than coffee-table aesthetics.
It’s been five years since the FRITZ!Box 7590 and AVM has now launched a new model, the 7590 AX.
While this might seem somewhat late to the AX party, based on our previous experiences with this maker, we’re genuinely interested in what this new design offers and how it compares with the better-known brands.
The 7590 AX is designed specifically for the home market, but a router this comprehensively featured could easily find use in business.
It’s been a while, so what new things have AVM added to their seminal router design?
As routers made for both home and business users go, the AVM FRITZ!Box 7590 AX isn’t exceptionally expensive, but it isn’t cheap either.
The RRP is £265 plus VAT. The cheapest listed on Amazon at the time of writing was £329.82 inclusive of VAT. European resellers do offer it at closer to £300, although you’ll have shipping costs and import duty to add to that outside the EU.
Being German-made, this hardware is most available in Europe, but it is only available on import for US and Australian customers.
AVM makes a German-specific model and an International model, which comes with slightly different cabling.
When this reviewer covered the original 7950 model five years ago, I described its appearance as being a ‘little too Jetsons’, and the 7590 AX has a similar signature styling.
In retrospect, it has more of a throw-back to business telephones from a particular era, with a curious combination of red and beige plastic that guarantees that nothing else in this category looks remotely like it.
The 7590 AX has expanded vertically over its predecessor and has a more pleasant shape that’s reminiscent of telecoms hardware from the 1990s.
It needs to be mentioned that this is the second iteration of this design, as AVM previously launched a 7590 AX and had a few issues with it. These problems are related to overheating, according to some customer complaints posted on Amazon.
While it’s taken some time for AVM to get from the vanilla 7590 to the AX version, they revamped this equipment once the problem was realised, and this model has ventilation slots entirely covering the underside.
Having used the V2 release for some days during an exceptionally hot spell, I can say with some confidence that overheating no longer appears to be an issue.
The layout of this router is simple but effective, with most of the networking and telephony ports on the rear, a single USB port on one end and a TAE socket for analogue phones or faxes on the other.
Where this design diverges from the usual router discord is it combines an ADSL router, network switch, analogue phone relay, digital phone point, DECT phone base, WiFi 6 router and NAS box in a single solution.
Years ago, the hardware here would have been at the heart of any small business phone exchange, probably rack mounted and requiring a dedicated machine room.
That all this technology is crammed into a box just 256mm wide, 200mm deep, and 60mm high is impressive. Its small enough that it can be placed on any flat surface or wall mounted as required.
