TP-Link Deco XE75

One of the fastest meshes money can buy, with good supporting features and a reasonably attainable price

-  DARIEN GRAHAM-SMITH

In early 2022 we tried out the industry's first Wi-Fi 6E mesh, the Netgear Orbi RBKE963 (see issue 331, p68). It was an impressive showcase for the potential of the newly licensed 6GHz radio band, delivering some of the fastest download speeds we've ever seen.

Unfortunately, the £1,500 price was completely crackers and it's since gone up by another £200.

Now there's an alternative. TP-Link's Deco XE75 supports the same 6GHz technology at a much more sensible price: you're looking at £465 for three units, or £359 for two.

The lower price comes with a few compromises, relative to the Netgear system. The Orbi uses a quad-band radio array, with 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz client radios plus a second 5GHz transceiver solely for ferrying traffic between mesh stations. The Deco XE75 has only three bands; you can choose whether to use the 6GHz connection as a dedicated backhaul radio, or open it up to share bandwidth with 6E-compatible clients.

Wired networking isn't so well catered for, either. The Deco units have three Ethernet ports apiece rather than four, and instead of matching the Orbi's 2.5GbE support, TP-Link has stuck with gigabit sockets. This means that if you connect the Deco to a wired NAS appliance or an ultrafast internet line, it will be limited to a top speed of around 115MB/sec over Ethernet-a potential bottleneck, since a Wi-Fi 6E link can go considerably faster.