Fritz! has released a new FRITZ! Lab beta update for the FRITZ!Box 5690 Pro, enabling native support for the Matter smart home standard without requiring the separate FRITZ!Smart Gateway.

With the latest FRITZ! Lab firmware, the FRITZ!Box 5690 Pro becomes the first FRITZ! router to act as a Matter bridge. This allows Smart Home devices like the FRITZ!Smart Thermo 302 and compatible third‑party devices registered with the router to be exposed directly to Matter platforms. As a result, users can now control supported devices through Apple Home, Google Home or Amazon Alexa using only the router, rather than relying on additional hardware.

Matter support arrives alongside features previously tested on the FRITZ!Box 7690, such as configurable DNS filters and automatic prioritisation. These tools give users more granular control over network traffic and content filtering, and are now available to 5690 Pro owners through the Lab programme.

FRITZ! Lab releases serve as public beta builds, offering early access to upcoming FRITZ!OS features before they are finalised. The 5690 Pro Lab update focuses primarily on Matter integration, while also delivering ongoing improvements for security and energy efficiency. Users can install the beta firmware to test new functionality ahead of the official FRITZ!OS 8.50 update and provide feedback during development.

KitGuru Says: If you are dedicating time to a Smart Home setup, it seems that having a Fritz! router will soon make that process easier, particularly when it comes to connecting to major platforms like Google Home. If you need help setting Matter devices up, Fritz! also has a handy guide for that. 

Towards the end of last year, Fritz! published the results of a survey showing that the majority of UK and EU-based customers would distrust WiFi routers made in China or Russia. Now in a follow-up survey, Fritz! has found that the majority of customers also aren't aware that many ISPs send customers re-badged Chinese routers.

YouGov conducted the survey, finding more than 16,000 participants across 14 European countries, including the UK. The results found that European customers have a “high level of mistrust of products from China, Russia and the USA”.

Looking at the UK-specific stats, the survey found that 59% would mistrust a router from China, while 70% would mistrust a router from Russia. However, only 11% would have low trust in a router from Europe.

However, the survey also found that most respondents were also unaware of exactly where the devices they own have come from, particularly when it came to ISP-supplied routers.

Only 14% knew that TP-Link is a Chinese brand, and 49% of respondents were unsure of where Netgear originates. Only a couple of brands like Starlink and Huawei were associated correctly often. Fritz! itself was only correctly identified by 26% of respondents in the UK.

More than half of respondents (55% to be exact) would prefer to see more devices ‘Made in Europe'. We expect that such labels will soon become a good part of the marketing for companies like Fritz! in the near future.

KitGuru Says: Do you use your ISP-provided router, or have you swapped it out for a third-party one?

Mobile World Congress is back this year, running from March 2nd to March 5th. In the lead-up, Fritz! is unveiling its new generation of routers, targeting 5G, WiFi 7 and fibre connections. We also get a sneak peek at their plans for WiFI 8.

For homes and regions without fast cable‑based broadband, Fritz! is introducing two new routers designed for reliable Fixed Wireless Access – the FRITZ!Box 6835 5G and the FRITZ!Box 6825 4G. The FRITZ!Box 6835 5G delivers up to 2Gbit/s over 5G with Wi‑Fi 7 speeds up to 3.5Gbit/s, plus SIM/eSIM support and USB‑C power, making it suitable for both permanent installations and flexible placement. The compact FRITZ!Box 6825 4G offers 4G connectivity with Wi‑Fi 6 and USB‑C power.

For fibre, there is the FRITZ!Box 5630 XGS and FRITZ!Box 5630, supporting XGS‑PON up to 10Gbit/s, GPON up to 2.5Gbit/s and AON up to 1Gbit/s depending on the model. Both include Wi‑Fi 7 up to 3.5Gbit/s, multi‑gigabit LAN ports and FRITZ!OS features such as VPN, smart home integration and telephony.

For mesh networking, the new FRITZ!Repeater 6700 Pro delivers quad‑band Wi‑Fi 7 up to 18Gbit/s with 10Gbit/s and 2.5Gbit/s LAN ports, while the FRITZ!WLAN Stick 6700 brings tri‑band Wi‑Fi 7 to PCs and notebooks.

FRITZ! is also outlining its roadmap for Wi‑Fi 8, which will improve performance across all bands, reduce latency, enhance edge‑of‑home coverage and increase efficiency for IoT devices. The next major FRITZ!OS update will begin preparing supported hardware for the new standard.

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