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TP-Link announces new routers at CES 2022

2022-01-04 14:33 by Daniela
Tags: TP-Link, CES 2022, Archer AXE300, Archer AXE75, Deco XE200, Deco XE75, Deco X55

Alongside the Archer AXE200 Omni router, TP-Link announced today at CES 2022 in Las Vegas several other routers of the Archer and Deco families.

TP-Link is premiering its Archer AXE300 quad-band router with two separate 5GHz bands alongside the 2.4 and 6GHz bands. Having more bands could reduce network congestion. You can set up a dedicated band, which should be useful for things like online gaming if your console or PC is too far away from the router to connect it via Ethernet. TP-Link says the device can provide WiFi speeds of up to 16Gbps. Like the AXE200, the AXE300 features a 10Gbps WAN port, and it goes one step farther with a second Ethernet jack that supports speeds of up to 10Gbps, too. The price for this particular unit is to be determined but is scheduled to become available in Q2 of 2022.

Also headed into the Archer lineup is the Archer AXE75, a tri-band AXE5400 router with support for Wi-Fi 6E. Though TP-Link isn't sharing pricing or release dates on any of them just yet, the company expects all to arrive in the first half of the year, and flags the Archer AXE75 as the router that will offer "the best performance-to-price ratio" in 2022.

In addition, the company's latest flagship mesh system is the Deco XE200. With the help of WiFi 6E, TP-Link claims it can deliver speeds of up to 11Gbps. A two-pack should cover up to 6,500 square feet and connect more than 200 devices. You can use either the 5 or 6GHz bands as a dedicated, multi-gig backhaul connection between the router and its extenders, and each device includes a 10Gbps WAN port. The successor to the Deco X90 is planned for the second quarter 2022 and estimated to cost $799.99 for a 2-pack.

Yet another member of the Deco family is the Deco XE75. Priced to be a more consumer-friendly Wi-Fi 6E mesh system, the XE75 will be released in March 2022. It will have a 1.7GHz quad-core CPU, three gigabit ports per node, and is capable of up to 5,400Mbps throughput across its tri-band connections. Like the XE200, both the 6GHz and 5GHz bands will have equal max throughput - 2,402Mbps in this case - and the 2.4Ghz band will have a maximum theoretical throughput of 574Mbps.

The company will also be releasing the smaller-form-factor dual band Wi-Fi 6 AX3000 Deco X55. The mesh system offers HE160 support, meaning devices capable of 160MHz channel bandwidth connections will have greatly improved throughput relative to normal 80MHz devices. Like the XE75, the device will have a maximum theoretical 2,402Mbps throughput on the 5GHz band and 574Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, and each node has three gigabit ethernet ports. At first blush, it looks identical to the Deco X60 that preceded it, just with a black top instead of a white one, but the X55 is notably different in its support for HE160, among other changes. TP-Link says a 3-pack will be available this month - January 2022 - for $279.99. A variant of this device has a built-in IoT hub, which TP-Link has implemented in past Deco routers like the Deco M9, which used Zigbee and Bluetooth radios in addition to Wi-Fi to communicate with smart home devices.