TP-Link Deco PX50 review

As we purchase increasingly cellular and sensible house units, it turns into fairly clear that the common Wi-Fi router isn’t as much as the job. The additional away from it you might be, the much less dependable the connection, which might have an effect on the pace and even whether or not you will get on the web in any respect.

Sadly, fashionable properties aren’t precisely Wi-Fi pleasant. Obstacles comparable to metallic beams, thick partitions and huge home equipment can weaken or intervene together with your router’s Wi-Fi sign.

The brand new Deco PX50 from TP-Hyperlink tries to beat these obstacles utilizing not solely typical Mesh Wi-Fi, but in addition Powerline know-how. Which means your house’s mains wiring carries knowledge between every router, rendering these obstacles largely irrelevant.

It means you get a single community that gives wonderful Wi-Fi protection and pace all through your complete property… and past.

Options & design

For this evaluation, TP-Hyperlink despatched the three-pack of the Deco PX50. Within the field you will see that three white items which can be equivalent in measurement (165mm x 105mm), weight (330g), and options.

Usefully they every have 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and a cloverleaf-type energy socket – the transformer and powerline tech is all constructed into the items.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

An ethernet cable is offered so you’ll be able to join one of many Decos to your current modem/router. Any of the three items can be utilized as the principle one, with the opposite two (or extra, when you purchase extras) used because the receivers or ‘nodes’ that are positioned round your house.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Setup is sort of simple. There is no such thing as a consumer guide: a fast setup information asks you to begin by downloading the Deco App in your cellular machine comparable to a smartphone or pill. As soon as put in you merely open the app and observe the step-by-step directions.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

This course of takes just some minutes, and we had our first Deco PX50 related to the prevailing router and set-up as the principle unit. After that, it’s merely a case of deciding the place the opposite two Deco units ought to be positioned round the home, plugging them right into a mains socket and once more utilizing the Deco App so as to add one other unit.

You may identify every in order that they’re simpler to establish within the app. Final, it’s good apply to disable Wi-Fi on the outdated router to keep away from interference with the brand new mesh system.

On this reviewer’s typical three-bedroom British terraced home, there have been some Wi-Fi blackouts particularly in two of the upstairs bedrooms, that are one flooring up and furthest away from the outdated ISP-supplied router.

Efficiency

To be able to see how a lot of an enchancment the PX50 would convey, we examined Wi-Fi protection with the outdated router, after which, individually the PX50 system. Utilizing the Netspot app, we went across the complete home, testing at numerous factors to verify sign energy.

You may see from the warmth maps beneath how robust the protection is on every flooring with the outdated router put in.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Right here’s the way it seems with the PX50 put in.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

It’s plain to see the Deco PX50 offers a big enchancment in Wi-Fi protection and particularly when there are stable partitions between rooms. As you may count on, this was extra obvious on the first-floor: the unique Wi-Fi router carried out surprisingly properly all through the bottom flooring regardless of a number of stable concrete partitions.

The place the Deco PX50 actually shines is its means to get rid of the pesky blackspots upstairs, and since it additionally offered a good Wi-Fi sign within the backyard.

However what in regards to the pace? Properly, when you’re on typical UK broadband it’s possible this may the bottleneck. In different phrases, the PX50 offers a lot sooner speeds than the 80Mbps you might be getting out of your ISP.

As long as you don’t have full fibre with 900Mbps obtain speeds, you ought to be very pleased with the PX50. And it’s additionally good for futureproofing, because the system ought to offer you loads of pace now and in future when your web pace will increase.

To check pace, we used Wi-Fi SweetSpots on a 2022 iPadAir and noticed simply over 800Mbps when inside a meter of any of the three Deco units. This means that the powerline tech does work, however not as marketed – extra on that later)

Speeds dropped to about 550Mbps at 5m away from any node and had one wall between the iPad and node. On the furthest level – 7m (round 21ft) away from the Deco, we nonetheless obtained a really respectable 277Mbps.

Impressively, we may even get 141Mbps on the finish of the backyard, which is about 12m (nearly 40ft) from the closest Deco, with a cavity brick wall in the best way.

These speeds are nowhere close to what you’ll see marketed on the field (2402Mbps with 5GHz and 574 with 2.4GHz) however are nonetheless very acceptable for the value.

Regardless of the claims of “AI-Pushed Mesh” and “Seamless roaming”, the PX50 didn’t appear to be any smarter than different mesh system that don’t speak about AI, particularly in the case of handing off.

The method of fixing over the connection of your cellphone, say, from one Deco unit to a different may take a minute or extra. Which means you would be related to at least one downstairs, the stroll upstairs however stay related to the downstairs node for some time with a weaker sign and slower pace than when related to the close-by node upstairs.

Plus, often, the one strategy to power a handover was to show the cellphone’s Wi-Fi on and off to get it to decide on the Deco unit that was closest. However normally, this wasn’t an enormous subject, and probably not noticeable in day-to-day use. It merely means it is best to take the “AI” speak with a pinch of salt.

G.hn powerline

One of many foremost causes to decide on the PX50 over, say, the X50, is as a result of it has built-in powerline tech. Which means though it’s technically solely a dual-band Wi-Fi system, the actual fact it could possibly ship knowledge to the opposite Deco units utilizing your current house electrics means it’s actually a tri-band system. And it use each “PLC” and Wi-Fi to speak.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

TP-Hyperlink claims speeds of as much as 1428Mbps utilizing “subsequent era” G.hn powerline. It isn’t the primary to make use of it, although: Devolo has been benefiting from this sooner powerline know-how for fairly some time now, and claims speeds of virtually 1Gbps extra.

And simply as with the theoretical Wi-Fi pace you see plastered on the field, we noticed a most of 811Mbps and a mean of 780Mbps when near a Deco machine – round half the marketed pace.

Since there isn’t a strategy to flip off the powerline backhaul, it wasn’t doable to check the system with and with out it to seek out out whether or not it may go sooner (or slower) utilizing Wi-Fi solely.

As ever, your mileage could differ. Powerline speeds differ in several properties. However as that is solely a six-year-old home, the electrics ought to be first rate.

Deco app

The Deco app is generally simple to make use of and perceive. It’s an effective way to verify If all Deco items are related to one another, if there are any issues, and what number of units are utilizing the system.

You may create a visitor community for once you need to quickly and safely share your Wi-Fi password with family and friends. And you may even block sure units from connecting altogether.

There are additionally additional options comparable to safety, which scans your community for vulnerabilities and any intrusions, and parental controls, the place you’ll be able to arrange profiles for your loved ones members and set-up age-appropriate net filtering in addition to bedtime restrictions.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

The Parental Management restrictions generally is a bit heavy-handed, stopping our son from accessing his college Google account amongst different issues.

Sadly, to get entry to all of the options, it’s good to subscribe to HomeShield Professional which prices of £5.99 monthly or £53.99 per 12 months. You do get a free one-month trial that will help you resolve, however do notice that you simply’ll nonetheless want correct antivirus software program at the least in your Home windows and Android units.

Worth & availability

The three-pack Deco PX50 prices £300, though you’ll discover it cheaper than that from Amazon, the place it was £239.99 on the time of evaluation.

TP-Hyperlink additionally gives a 2-pack and you should purchase single items so as to add to an current system.

The corporate says a 3-pack is sweet for 6500 sq. ft of protection, lowering to 4500 for a 2-pack and 2500 for a single unit.

Within the US, a 3-pack is $299.99, however once more Amazon sells it for less: $269.99 once we checked.

Because it’s comparatively new, it may be arduous to seek out single items on the market, and even the 2-pack is just not good worth: the place we may discover it, it was costlier than the 3-pack.

For various programs, learn our roundup of the perfect mesh Wi-Fi kits.

Verdict

So long as you’re smart to the advertising and marketing and don’t count on the speeds you see on the PX50’s field, it’s an amazing mesh system that ought to work properly in nearly all properties due to its use of powerline.

For the value, protection and speeds are good, and it’s good to have three Ethernet ports on every node, ought to you may have wired units that want hooking up.

TP-Hyperlink’s app is first rate, too, with the one destructive being the nagging to pay for HomeShield Professional which, in our view, isn’t price the associated fee.