This review is for the Deco M4 with 3 units. It is an annoyance that Amazon continues to lump reviews for different model/specs together!
Our broadband supplier is vodafone. The broadband connection into the house is good, their supplied router is beyond hopeless. Really poor signal strength and frequent dropouts. Parts of the house had no signal at all, in the room where the router was the wifi signal would just drop numerous times in the day and no amount of changing channels or letting it adjust channels automatically seemed to resolve that. I received this product yesterday. First impression - the units are packaged adequately and look reasonably neutral and unassuming as they should. They were a bit bigger than I expected. Roughly the size of two tins stacked on top of one another but mostly these will be hidden out of sight behind units etc anyway. Maybe not the best laboratory conditions but probably typical of most users.
SETUP - was simple enough although it is not quite as simple as being plug and play it isn't far off. The app appears to be very good both in terms of initial setup and then management of the devices. I turned off wireless on the original router in order that the initial tp-link device acted as the router. The setup of the first device then simply requires to be connected into the LAN on the original modem/router and plugged in. I set the SSID and password to be the same as the existing one it was replacing and, in that way, all existing devices would automatically connect with no need to adjust their connection settings. On setup of the first device it became quickly apparent that the range was already significantly better than from the existing router. I added one more unit downstairs, and one upstairs. Adding the additional devices was extremely straight forward - just tell the app you are adding a new device, plug it in, wait for the status LED to start flashing and then proceed on the app and the connection is made. Perhaps a little more info on placement would be ideal i.e. should you always aim to place devices where you register a full strength signal on your phone or is it ok to extend that more to gain maximum range. That wasn't totally clear to me but my ideal required positioning meant that I was setting up where it was showing strong signal anyway and I assume that is the best way to ensure best speeds.
PERFORMANCE - With all three devices now in place I register a full wi-fi signal in every room of our 4 bed house. Speed tests conducted throughout the house show close to maximum expected through our line (78 mbps down) and so far everything has worked flawlessly with no dropouts. Streaming is fast both through internet services (iPlayer, Netflix etc.) as well as though local network from my plex media server. Assuming it remains this way then I am extremely happy that this has taken our broadband from being slow and unreliable to a smooth operator. I've used powerlines and extenders in the past, and whilst they had their place they are no substitute for either the performance or the simplicity of use we're getting through this mesh system. It just works. For every device and throughout the house. It is also good to know that, should you require to add additional units, then all deco models are compatible with one another. I don't feel a need to add a unit right now as whole house is covered but now I've seen how well these works I might get one to put in the kitchen with the view to extending wifi signal further into the garden. I read one review on here that said that these units do not work with Amazon Echo/Alexa devices. They do. In fact they state they are compatible with Alexa on the box and their is a tp-link Alexa skill that can be used although the benefit of doing so seems minimal.
THE APP - A final word about the app and the additional controls that come with these units. Firstly the app is well presented. It guides you through initial setup very smoothly. Once set up you can monitor which devices have connected, which are online, the data pull for different devices etc. You can blacklist devices or set certain devices to have high priority over others either full time or temporarily (e.g. if bandwidth is an issue you might prioritise a movie streaming to your tv for a couple of hours). You can easily turn on and off a guest network and easily share connection details. The parental controls aren't something I need right now but will in the near future. You can register users and set their level of appropriate access (and adjust that as necessary). You assign certain connected devices to a user and then control when those devices have access. I can't speak to how it actually performs but it looks a simple and neat solution and certainly better than anything available through the ISP supplier. I was particularly pleased that, with one unit in the bedroom, that there were settings for the status LED. Whilst fairly unobtrusive I don't want an LED permeating through the darkness but at the same time I do occasionally want a visual indicator as to whether the device is working/connected. No problem - you can set the LEDs to either be on, off, or scheduled. I have them switched off between 10:00 and 07:00.
I don't have too many complaints about my ISP but the supplied router wasn't up to the job. All in all this has been a simple solution that has essentially fixed what I considered to be a broken internet service so it's five stars from me. Only time will tell if it remains stable and if the devices are reliable. I'll update this review should anything change.
UPDATE - almost a couple of years on and the system is going strong. I can't recall a single issue. I bought a further unit to try to stretch more signal out in the garden and that's worked great.
| Brand | TP-Link |
|---|---|
| Product Dimensions | 9.07 x 9.07 x 19 cm; 2.44 Kilograms |
| Item model number | Deco E4(3-pack) |
| Manufacturer | TP-Link |
| Series | Deco E4(3-pack) |
| Wireless Type | 5 GHz Radio Frequency, 2.4 GHz Radio Frequency |
| Are Batteries Included | No |
| Item Weight | 2.44 kg |
