I bought a bunch of stuff for myself this Black Friday. One of these is a new wireless router system. I’ve been using a Netgear Wireless N150 router from more grad school days, and I get spotty connections from my bedroom and bathroom in a small 620 sqft apartment, so it’s time to upgrade. I decided to get the TP-Link Deco X55 Mesh WiFi two unit kit, and here are my first impressions.
When I was looking at which router to buy during the Black Friday sales, I was looking for a WiFi 6 system since that is that’s the newest standard. Also I wanted a mesh system so I’ll still get good coverage once I move to a bigger home. The Deco X55 two unit system fit the bill, was on sale, and had good reviews about ease of setup. I could have paid more for the 3 unit system that covers a 6000 sqft house, but I doubt I’ll be living in a house that big anytime soon.
The Deco X55 two unit system comes in a box the size of a large shoebox. The packaging is nice and the box has all the relevant specs printed on the surface. Opening up the lid shows the can-shaped mesh router units, and there is a box in the bottom with the power plugs for the two units and an ethernet cable. Each unit has three gigabit ethernet port that auto detects if it’s connected to the WAN (internet/modem) or a LAN (local area network) device.
As seen in the reviews I’ve read, setting up the system was really simple. Just needed to download app onto my smartphone, and the app works through the process of setting the first unit that connects to the modem/internet. Each mesh unit has an easy-to-see light that change color depending on the status of the unit. The unit initially has an open WiFi network for the app to connect to, and then that goes away once I set up my own network.
After setting up the initial unit, connecting the 2nd unit was even simple, since the unit automatically join the first unit. One unit is probably enough to cover my small apartment, but I set up my second unit just to check that it works and to ensure I have good coverage throughout the place. The app is a pretty simple way to see what devices are connected to each unit and how much data is each network device uploading and downloading. There are probably some other cool features, but I haven’t needed them yet.
With the new Deco X55 system, I now have good WiFi coverage at all corner of my apartment. The difference is WiFi speed from my old ancient 150Mbps system is noticeable too, especially when I was transferring files to the new network attached storage that I also bought for Black Friday. The Deco X55 is rated up to 3000Mbps. None of my current devices have WiFi adapters with that kind of bandwidth, but I’m sure new devices I get in the future will take advantage of that bandwidth.
That’s my first impressions on the Deco X55 Mesh WiFi kit. Hope this new WiFi system will last me many years like the old Netgear router.