TP-Link Deco PX50 Review: Powerline Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System

Price when reviewing

$269.99 (2-pack); $299.99 (pack of 3)

As we acquire more and more mobile and smart home devices, it’s becoming apparent that the average Wi-Fi router just isn’t up to snuff. The further away you go, the less reliable the connection, which can affect speed or even the ability to access the Internet.

Unfortunately, modern homes aren’t exactly Wi-Fi-enabled. Obstacles like metal beams, thick walls, and large appliances can weaken or interfere with your router’s Wi-Fi signal.

TP-Link’s new Deco PX50 tries to overcome these obstacles by using not only typical Mesh Wi-Fi, but also Powerline technology. This means that your home’s AC wiring carries data between each router, making these obstacles largely irrelevant.

That means you get a single network that delivers great Wi-Fi coverage and speeds throughout your property…and beyond.

Features and design

For this review, TP-Link sent the three-pack of the Deco PX50. In the box you will find three white units of identical size (165mm x 105mm), weight (330g) and specifications.

Helpfully, they each have 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports and a cloverleaf type power outlet – the transformer and powerline technology are all built into the units.

An Ethernet cable is provided so you can connect one of the Decos to your existing modem/router. Each of the three units can be used as a main unit, with the other two (or more, if you buy extras) used as receivers or “nodes” which are placed around your home.

The setup is quite simple. There is no manual: a quick installation guide asks you to start by downloading the App Deco on your mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Once installed, all you have to do is open the app and follow the step-by-step instructions.

This process only takes a few minutes, and we had our first Deco PX50 connected to the existing router and configured as the main unit. After that, it’s just a matter of deciding where the other two Deco devices should be placed in the house, plugging them into a power outlet, and using the Deco app again to add another unit.

You can name them so that they are easier to identify in the app. Finally, it is recommended to disable Wi-Fi on the old router to avoid interference with the new mesh system.

In this reviewer’s typical British three-bedroom terraced house, there were Wi-Fi blackouts, particularly in two of the upstairs bedrooms, which are one floor and furthest from the old router provided by the ISP.

Performance

To see what improvement the PX50 would make, we tested Wi-Fi coverage with the old router and then, separately, the PX50 system. Using the Netspot app, we walked around the house, testing in different spots to check signal strength.

You can see from the heatmaps below the strength of coverage on each floor with the old router installed.

Here’s what it looks like with the PX50 installed.

It is evident that the Deco PX50 offers a significant improvement in Wi-Fi coverage and especially when there are solid walls between rooms. Predictably, this was most apparent on the first floor: the original Wi-Fi router worked surprisingly well throughout the entire ground floor despite several solid concrete walls.

Where the Deco PX50 really shines is in its ability to eliminate pesky black spots upstairs, and because it also delivered a decent Wi-Fi signal in the garden.

But what about speed? Well, if you’re on typical UK broadband, that’s likely to be the bottleneck. In other words, the PX50 offers much faster speeds than the 80 Mbps you can get from your ISP.

Until you have full fiber with 900Mbps download speeds, you should be very happy with the PX50. And it’s also good for future-proofing because the system should provide you with plenty of speed now and in the future when your internet speed increases.

To test the speed, we used Wi-Fi SweetSpots on a 2022 iPadAir and saw just over 800 Mbps within one meter of one of the 3 Deco devices. This suggests the Powerline technology is working, but not as advertised – more on that later)

Speeds dropped to around 550Mbps at 5m from any node and had a wall between iPad and node. At the farthest point – 7m (about 21ft) from the Deco, we still got a very respectable 277Mbps.

Impressively, we could even get 141Mbps at the end of the garden, which is about 12m (almost 40ft) from the nearest deco, with a cavity brick wall in the way.

These speeds are far from what you’ll see advertised on the box (2402 Mbps with 5 GHz and 574 with 2.4 GHz) but are still very acceptable for the price.

Despite claims of “AI-Driven Mesh” and “Seamless roaming”, the PX50 doesn’t seem to be any smarter than other mesh systems that don’t talk about AI, especially when it comes to handoff.

The process of changing your phone’s connection, for example, from one Deco unit to another can take a minute or more. This means you could be connected to one downstairs, go upstairs but stay connected to the downstairs node for a while with weaker signal and slower speed than when connected to the nearby node upstairs. stage.

Also, sometimes the only way to force a transfer was to turn the phone’s Wi-Fi off and on again to choose the nearest Deco unit. But in general it wasn’t a big issue, and not really noticeable in day-to-day use. It just means you have to take the “AI” talk with a pinch of salt.

G.hn power line

One of the main reasons to choose the PX50 over the X50, for example, is that it has built-in powerline technology. This means that although it is technically only a dual-band Wi-Fi system, the fact that it can send data to other Deco devices using your existing home electricity means that it is really a tri-band system. And it uses both “PLC” and Wi-Fi to communicate.

TP-Link claims speeds of up to 1428 Mbps using the “next generation” G.hn power line. It’s not the first to use it, however: Devolo has long taken advantage of this faster powerline technology and claims speeds of almost 1 Gbit/s more.

And just like with the theoretical Wi-Fi speed you see on the box, we saw a maximum of 811Mbps and an average of 780Mbps near a Deco device, about half the advertised speed.

Since there’s no way to disable the powerline backhaul, it wasn’t possible to test the system with and without to see if it could go faster (or slower) using only Wi-Fi.

As always, your mileage may vary. Power line speeds differ from house to house. But as this is only a six year old house, the electrics should be fine.

Deco app

The Deco app is generally easy to use and understand. This is a great way to check if all Deco units are connected to each other, if there are any issues and how many devices are using the system.

You can create a guest network when you want to temporarily and securely share your Wi-Fi password with friends and family. And you can even prevent certain devices from connecting altogether.

There are also additional features such as Security, which scans your network for vulnerabilities and any intrusions, and Parental Controls, where you can set up profiles for your family members and set up web filtering tailored to your needs. age as well as bedtime restrictions.

Parental control restrictions can be a bit cumbersome, preventing our son from accessing his school’s Google account, among other things.

Unfortunately, to get access to all the features you need to subscribe to HomeShield Pro which costs £5.99 per month or £53.99 per year. You get a one-month free trial to help you decide, but note that you’ll still need proper antivirus software at least on your Windows and Android devices.

Pricing & Availability

The Deco PX50 3-pack costs £300, although you’ll find it cheaper than the one on Amazon, where it was £239.99 at the time of the review.

TP-Link also offers a 2-pack, and you can purchase individual units to add to an existing system.

The company says a 3-pack is good for 6500 square foot coverage, reducing to 4500 for a 2-pack and 2500 for a single unit.

In the US, a 3-pack costs $299.99, but again Amazon sells it cheaper: $269.99 when we checked.

As it’s relatively new, it can be difficult to find individual units for sale, and even the 2-pack isn’t good value: where we could find it was more expensive than the pack of 3.

For alternative systems, read our roundup of the best mesh Wi-Fi kits.

Verdict

As long as you’re savvy on the marketing and don’t expect the speeds you see out of the box of the PX50, it’s a great mesh system that should work well in just about any home thanks to its use of the power line.

For the price, coverage and speeds are good, and it’s nice to have three Ethernet ports on each node, if you have wired devices that need to be connected.

TP-Link’s app is also decent, the only downside being paying for HomeShield Pro which we don’t think is worth the cost.