I have had the netduma r3 for about a week and this is my first impression. I have the 4.0.23 firmware. This is my first Netduma router even Dumas router in general since the r1I had back in 2015. Before the r3 I have the r1 and a Netgear R8500. The r3 is supposed to replace both of these routers but there are some issues I had with it.
Cons:
1- My biggest issue is that the wifi speed and coverage are so terrible. It's not normal for my dad to complain that his YouTube video has been loading for ages and his TV is only 3 meters away from the router. He is from the basement. I have to set the Netgear r8500 back up because he complains about so much. Even at my setup some of the devices are taking some time to load video or stream. I look at the forum for some help and it doesn't help at all. I split the wifi bands, I tried so many different combinations with width and channel and the speed is still slow compared to the r8500. Which I bought back in 2017. 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz doesn't matter.
2- Upnp seems to not work. In PC mw3, I can't have open nat type. I tried to reboot and factory reset the router and reset the network connection on Windows. It still doesn't work. I get moderate nat type no matter what.
3- I think steady ping adds way too much ping or doesn't work at all. I know that steady ping adds artificial ping. However, it adds way too much. For example, the nearest server for me in mw3 is the New York server which is on the ping heat map and is apparently 26. However, on the geo filter is apparently about 35 ping with steady ping. That is not the case in the game. In the game, it is said to be around 50 pings. When I disable steady ping, my ping in the game is similar to the ping heat map with 3-5 ping off. I think is a margin of error. In some cases, where I have a Texas server which is said to be 58 in the ping heat map, I experience from 80 to 100 ping. I don't even know if the steady ping is working as advertised when I experience way too much of a ping increase compared to when I have it off. First impression, I believe steady ping adds about 20-50 pings extra which I think is way too much.
Pro:
1-smart boost is a big improvement compared to the QoS of the r1. I experienced way fewer packet bursts in mw3 since I received the r3. I don't if it's due to smart boost or not but I give it the benefit of the doubt.
2- The Geo filter is so far as advertised when steady ping is turned off. This is the main reason to buy a dumasOs router
3- The RGB is a cool touch.
In conclusion, so far, the negatives of the r3 outweigh the positives. The wifi speeds and coverage are a huge blow to me. You need to connect your devices with an ethernet cable to make the internet usable. I want to make this router my all-purpose router however that is not the case. It is still just a "gaming router". I hope most of these issues will be fixed with a firmware update or it's just my setup configuration. I'm not a network guru. I contemplating returning the netduma r3 but I will wait for the upcoming firmware update to make a judgment.