Chances are you already have a wireless router and you’re pretty much satisfied with its basic feature set. Most likely you got it for free from your ISP and it gets the job done.
If you, however, want some extra features, you’ll like the Soap. It’s an Android-based router that comes with a feature set regular routers can only dream off.
The fact that it runs Android makes this device more powerful than any other router we’ve seen before. Aside from providing connectivity to all devices in the house/office, it can also be used to enable home automation via Zigbee, Z-Wave, Insteon, and other wireless standards. Moreover, Soap can run other apps that could enable additional features we’re having hard time imagining at this stage.
Folks behind this router are currently raising funds at Indiegogo, pre-selling the Soap in four different variants, best of which has a quad-core Cortex-A9 chip clocked at 1GHz. That may sound slow for a smartphone, but it’s more than “good enough” for a wireless router running Android 4.4 KitKat.
The device has all the ports you could possibly need, including an HDMI, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, SD card slot, and five gigabit Ethernet ports, while dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity is handled by multiple antennae on the top-tier model. Perhaps more important, unlike your “dumb” router, this one has its own touchscreen, using which you can set things up without turning your computer or phone. That said, you’ll also get the Soap mobile app to achieve the same thing without getting close to the device. Pretty cool; check out the demo video below.