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HomeShield includes the Free Basic Plan. Fees apply for the Pro Plan. Visit https://www.tp-link.com/homeshield for more information We again see the two WiFi 5 client devices managing to remain below 150ms for the most part, the ZimaBoard 832 going above it for 1% of the cases, while the MacBook Pro seeing spikes for 5% of the time (once every 20 times, so not great, but not really terrible). The worse offender is again the WiFi 6E client which is pretty much unusable, while the two WiFi 6 client devices will experience buffering more often (10% of the times). TP-Link AX5400 AX73 – Multi-client stress test using 5 client devices – 4K streaming (5GHz, 80MHz). The target throughput is 25Mbps. These feet have the role of keeping the device into place even after you have connected a few Ethernet cables, but the Archer AX50 will roam around on your desk, so it’s better to mount it on the wall – and yes, there are a couple of dedicated holes for mounting on the bottom side. The AX53 clearly comes from the same stable as the older Archer AX50. The physical design is pretty much identical and the core specifications are the same, too: four antennas support 4×4 MU-MIMO with a maximum speed of 2.4Gbits/sec on the 5GHz band and a respectable 574Mbits/sec over the 2.4GHz radio. Like its predecessor, the AX53 also supports the wide 160MHz channel width to maximise bandwidth. ZTE proudly advertises that the Miracle has won multiple design awards, and it’s certainly a visually striking design. It’s cutely sized, with a footprint of 245 x 130mm, and while the overall shape is similar to the Honor Router 3, it’s more interesting to look at thanks to tasteful bevels on the casing and antennae, which create pleasing geometric patterns of light and shade.
As an equivalent to real life, I suppose you could imagine probably about 50 (or more) users still fairly violently surfing the web. But, this is a veritable stress test, so how well did the TP-Link AX5400 perform? Surprisingly, not that bad. We see that the ZimaBoard 832 deviates a bit for 5% of the time (I suppose it makes sense considering that it’s the farthest client device). The other client devices did good, with the WiFi 6E client experiencing some latency spikes for 1% of the time. TP-Link AX5400 AX73 – Multi-client stress test using 5 client devices – 1080p streaming & web browsing (5GHz, 80MHz). The focus is on the web browsing. The lower the score, the better. This doesn’t necessarily damn the AX3000 Pro, however. It still projected a strong wireless signal to every part of my three-bedroom maisonette, and it drew a moderate 13.4W while doing so, dropping to 9.7W when sitting idle. That’s perfectly acceptable for everyday internet duties. change device might be a costly task without gaining any specific advantage... less than being OCD compliant. The real good network gear uses their own chips. Aka just licenced designs from arm. Since that allows them the most flexibility. Note: The TP-Link AX73 is advertised as an AX5400-class WiFi 6 router, so it features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 4,804Mbps on the 5GHz radio band and a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 574Mbps on the 2.4GHz band – these are theoretical values, so you won’t be able to reach this performance inside your home (they can hardly be achieved in a lab). The WiFi Features
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The circle on the heat map represents the location of the router, and the colors represent signal strength, with dark green being the strongest signal and lighter yellow being the weaker signal. Gray areas indicate no measurable signal reception. As shown on the 2.4GHz map above, the AX50 delivered a strong 2.4GHz signal throughout most of our test home, but the signal became slightly weaker in the far corners of the house and garage. The router’s 5GHz radio delivered better range, in which the signal remained relatively strong throughout the entire house. The Best Wi-Fi 6 Router for the Price Four high-gain external antennas and Beamforming technology combine to extend strong, reliable WiFi throughout your home. TP-Link has unveiled the Archer AX53 IPv6 IPoE compliant Wi-Fi 6 router, which provides high-capacity connection without stress even amid congestion. Actually, if you’re coming from a WiFi 4 generation router, you’d see much more improvement in upgrading to WiFi 5 or better. Unless you live on a farm in the rural countryside where you don’t have to worry about your neighbours’ WiFi interference. This also means you can no longer have 2 sperate networks if you wish that on 2.4ghz and 5ghz unless the router allows that modification.
On most wireless routers, the WLAN and LAN are bridged by default. So a client’s connection to either band takes them to the same network. As expected, there was a noticeable drop in both speed and link stability the further away I travelled from the TP-Link Archer AX50. Adding RE605X to the network controlled by AX55 was easy with WPS. I simply had to press the WPS buttons on the two devices to let them pair up on their own. Here are the details on my wireless network signal strength around the house after adding the RE605X: BTW, WiFi 6/6E were just incremental upgrades over WiFi 5 wave 2 (wave 2 implemented MU-MIMO technology, IIRC). WiFi 7 is a much larger step with MLO, potential for real-world +1Gbps WLAN speeds, and 320MHz channel width support. TP-Link Australia has also kindly provided me their RE605X AX1800 Wi-Fi Range Extender to further boost the signal around our house. It supports Wi-Fi 6 and is a great companion to the Archer AX55 (or any other wireless router you may have at home).
The Tether app opens to a My Devices screen, which displays all installed TP-Link devices. Tap the AX73 router panel to open a Home screen with a network map, a list of connected devices on the wireless and guest networks, and buttons for Home, Clients, HomeShield, and Tools. It’s worth mentioning the OFDMA implementation should be up/dl on both bands, but so far, the manufacturer hasn’t disclosed whether the Archer AX50 does supports OFDMA dl/ul on the 2.4Ghz band. So, as you can see, the focus is now towards a better handling of the bandwidth, as well as of multiple clients, while the throughput may seem to take a secondary priority.
A heat sink inside the unit and refined case design keep the system cool which helps in keeping the performance as high and consistent as possible. And during the reviewing period for about 2 weeks and more, I’ve never had any issues with the Archer AX55 or experience any reduced performance or network instability. While the 1080p and 4K traffic simulations can be easily run while the client devices are connected to the 5GHz network, things aren’t that smooth on 2.4GHz. That’s why I decided that it’s best to only run the simulated fast web browsing simultaneously on all five clients. The limit for a somewhat decent experience remains 1.5s and the results were interesting. TP-Link AX5400 AX73 – Multi-client stress test using 5 client devices – simultaneous web browsing (2.4GHz). The lower the score, the better. Note: For those that are interested in the maximum theoretical data transfer rate (which doesn’t really show the real-life performance of a router), know that the TP-Link Archer AX50 is an AX3000-class WiFi 6 router and the max data transfer rate on the 2.4GHz band is 574Mbps, while on the 5GHz band, it’s 2,402Mbps. Features and PerformanceHomeCare includes a more advanced QoS with optimization by application as well as the standard devices QoS. This can help make sure the games or services you care about the most are first in line for connections no matter the devices you use them on. If you have an online gamer in the house, this feature can keep their pings consistent. I noticed that on the bottom of the AX73, TP-Link has added four silicone feet to keep the router in place (still can’t fathom why they haven’t done the same with the AX50) and there are also a couple of holes to help you mount the device on the wall. If you want to keep the TP-Link AX73 on a desk, know that the router is not that compact (it measures 10.7 x 5.8 x 1.9 inches) and there are lots of antennas, surrounding the case. The AX73 does come with six antennas, four positioned on the rear side and two on the left and right side of the device and no, they’re not detachable (the trend of upgrading the antennas is essentially gone by this point). I know that a lot will say that these tests are not purely objective and yes, the results will differ depending on the amount of interference, the location and the type of client devices. Surely, there are better multi-client tests out there, such as the octoPal, but that will have an impact on the wallet and not many professionals bother with non-enterprise wireless networking devices since the cost is just too high. So yeah, netburn and net-hydra are the best we got for now. I rarely had problems opening the case of any TP-Link routers, so the tear-down process of the TP-Link AX73 is not that difficult. Do be aware that even if there aren’t any sealed screws, you can still void the warranty by opening the device. If that’s fine with you, remove the four screws from underneath the four silicone feet and then gently detach the top cover. It’s not that easy to do it, so I suggest using a prying tool and start from the front side of the case and then slowly move towards the rear until the top pops off. Archer AX53 supports OneMesh to form seamless coverage throughout your home, preventing drops and lag when moving between signals.
TP-Link recommends both of these routers for three-bedroom homes. With the same antenna setup, wireless streams, and coverage features, either router should work in a small home or apartment. The 1.0 version of the AX20 and AX1800 now support OneMesh, with version 1.2 getting support soon. This means that if you want to expand your wireless network's reach in the future, you can get another AX20 or OneMesh router to act as a mesh node. This will be great for those with a large house and don't know if a single router will provide enough coverage. We can see from the graph that two client devices remained under this limit pretty much for the entire duration of the test, but three clients, the WiFi 6 Lenovo Y520 laptops and the WiFi 6E PC did experience a latency spike (the latter did not surprise me). With the exception of one of the two Lenovo laptops, it shouldn’t have a noticeable impact on the streaming experience. And even in the Lenovo laptop case, it does seem to experience it only for 1% of the time. TP-Link AX5400 AX73 – Multi-client stress test using 5 client devices – 1080p streaming (5GHz, 80MHz). The target throughput is 5Mbps.Following the saga of testing the wireless routers in a better way than just relying on the single-client tests (which are the easy way out for most publications), I decided to put a second TP-Link router (the Archer AX5400) through the hurdles of the multi-client stress test. And yes, the principle is the same as it was with the TP-Link AX3200, the ASUS GT-AX6000 and the TUF-AX5400– we connect five client devices to a server computer and then simulate various types of traffic (at the moment, I have simulated 4K and 1080p streaming, web browsing and VoIP). The software side is more ambitious. The AX53 runs TP-Link’s standard router firmware, with largely the same set of features as the company’s flagship models. This means you get not just port forwarding and QoS controls but also some surprisingly advanced options, such as IPv6 and ALG configuration. Those wanting to really take control of their network can configure up to four VLANs and set up static routing. To do so, I had to rely on a client device equipped with an AX200 WiFi adapter (TP-Link TX3000E) and on a server device that will be directly connected to the router (via an Ethernet cable). For the first test, I connected the client device to the 5GHz network (160MHz, OFDMA enabled) and, upstream, I measured an average of 938Mbps at 5 feet and 363Mbps at 30 feet. TP-Link EasyMesh-Compatible products can network with other devices that use EasyMesh. Failed connections may be due to firmware conflicts of different vendors. The EasyMesh-Compatible function is still being developed on some models and will be supported in subsequent software updates. Yet the ZTE still has its appeal. It’s attractive to look at, and not unpleasant to use, as long as you don’t expect too much from the app. Yes, there are any number of faster routers, but for a medium-sized household with medium-sized internet demands it’ll do a fine job.
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