Legacy Wi-Fi AC

Three products from three different vendors who started their debut in the wifi mesh products based on wifi-5 (wireless ac) technology are so popular to date. Those three products are tp-link deco m5; Amazon eero and Google wifi. TP-link and eero have released their new products with wifi-6 technology, while Google wifi still hasn't released a mesh wifi-6 product so far. How does deco m5 compete with Amazon eero and how does Amazon eero compete with Google wifi? Should you upgrade deco m5 with the deco x20, or replace the Amazon eero with the eero 6 series? See also comparison between eero 6 series vs deco x20. Deco m5 vs eero vs Google eero is the first startup mesh wifi product introduced to the market. this mesh wifi system combines the functions of a wifi router and range extender in a home wifi mesh network. Generally in a home wifi network, a wireless router is often constrained by a dead zone that requires adding one or two range extenders to reach further. For this reason, eero as a startup product released their first product, eero with three nodes that form a whole home network. This product was so popular and proven to deliver best wifi network for homes, and the price was costly. However today you can find eero products are tagged with lower price since Amazon acquired this startup company. Since then eero is under Amazon Company and the products are redesigned to truly comply with Amazon smart home devices including Alexa. With the introduction of eero, few vendors released similar products with the same mesh wifi system including TP-link with its deco m5, Google with its Google wifi, Netgear with its Orbi series, Linksys with its Velop series, Asus and still more. Let’s discuss most popular deco m5 and Google wifi and compare them with eero under Amazon umbrella. Deco m5 Demand still high The demand for deco m5 is still high even though tp-link has released its newest deco products based on latest wifi-6 technology such as Deco x20 and its newer model deco x25 and the latest one is Deco x90 with AI feature. So do eero and Google wifi. In addition of deco m5 as the first deco series introduced by TP-Link, it also introduced couple of similar deco series: deco M4 and Deco S4. See also comparison between tp-link deco m4 and m5 mesh wifi ac1300. TP-Link Deco M5 There are still few things related to this high demand, especially the urgency to switch to wifi-6 based mesh wifi while the price is still quite expensive. On the other hand, the deco m5 and similar products that are still based on wifi5 have started to drop in price. Today you see that deco m5 (3-pack) is around $150 while the lowest deco series based on wifi-6 is still around $225.0 (3-pack). On the other hand, Amazon eero (3-routers) and Google wifi (3-pack) are tagged a bit higher around $200. Assuming that you still need to consider deco m5, or eero, or Google wifi which one is suitable to meet your business? Table 1 and 2 show you spec comparison table between the three products. Table 1 shows spec comparison between deco m5 vs eero. On the other hand, table 2 shows spec comparison table between Google wifi and eero. Wifi design Most vendors release their WiFi mesh products in the entry level segment; they are equipped with wireless AC1200 with simultaneous dual band. Unlike eero and Google, the deco m5 is designed to be slightly higher @2.4GHz while @5GHz all three products are the same @867Mbps. In real world speed depends on environmental conditions including thick of walls between rooms, and other obstacles. Backhaul link The three products use wifi backhaul link for communication between nodes and this affects clients' connections because this backhaul link also shares bandwidth with connected devices. These three products are dual band wifi, different from Orbi products which are generally three bands where one band is used as a dedicated backhaul link. All the three products support wired Ethernet backhaul for better backhaul link. Deco m5, eero and Google wifi give you option to use wired Ethernet backhaul after you have completed configuration with the app with wifi backhaul. This means the system is ready with wifi backhaul, and when you wired the backhaul the wifi backhaul will work in case of there is wired backhaul disruption. The system still reserve the wifi bandwidth for backhaul link even though wired backhaul in place. Amazon eero mesh wifi With all the three products come with only two Gigabit Ethernet port, you can only connect the units in daisy chain topology. Except if you use unmanaged switch you can use star wired backhaul topology. Security Today, TP-link offers deco m5 with free lifetime HomeCare security protection for all connected devices on your network. This includes built-in antivirus system for internet threats protection, parental control and QoS, this is a good deal for deco m5 today. Google Wifi While with eero, besides ready with WPA3 latest wifi encryption you can opt to eero secure service plan, not free around $30 yearly. eero secure offers you a comprehensive security protection including advanced security protection against any threats, content filtering, ad block, activity insights, reporting and still more. While Google wifi doesn’t offers specific security protection but standard wifi encryption and general parental control. Table 1 Deco M5 vs eero ModelTP-Link Deco M5Amazon EeroWifi technologySimultaneous dual band ac1300 with 2x2 MU-MIMOSimultaneous dual band ac1200 with 2x2 MU-MIMO with Trumesh technologyWifi signal ratesUp to 867Mbps @5GHz; (wifi ac); Up to 400Mbps @2.4GHz (wifi n)Up to 867Mbps @5GHz; (wifi ac);Up to 300Mbps @2.4GHz (wifi n)Antennas4x internal antennasInternal antennasEthernet ports2x Gigabit Ethernet port with WAN/LAN auto-sensing2x Gigabit Ethernet ports with WAN / LAN auto sensingUSB portN/AN/ACoverage5,500 sq ft5,000 sq ftBackhaulWifi and optional wired backhaulWifi and also optional wired backhaul (much better)SecurityWPA/WPA2; HomeCare Antivirus, Free lifetime subscription to TP-Link HomeCareWPA2-aes; and WPA3-personal; Parental control; eero Secure service plan is also available Guest networkOne guest network /bandN/ASmart home supportsWorks with AlexaAlexa, Apple Homekit; BLE 4.1ProcessorQualcomm 717 MHz Quad core CPU700 MHz quad-core processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB flash storagePrice in Amazon$149.99$169.99 The following table 2 is spec comparison for Google wifi vs eero, the new Amazon eero under Amazon company. Google wifi is still a bit more expensive than Amazon eero. Table 2 Google Wifi vs eero ModelGoogle wifiAmazon EeroWifi technologySimultaneous dual band ac1200 with 2x2 MU-MIMOSimultaneous dual band ac1200 with 2x2 MU-MIMO with Trumesh technologyWifi signal ratesUp to 867Mbps @5GHz; 2x2Up to 300Mbps @2.4GHz, 2x2Up to 867Mbps @5GHz; Up to 300Mbps @2.4GHz.AntennasInternal antennasInternal antennasEthernet ports2x Gigabit Ethernet ports with WAN / LAN auto sensing2x Gigabit Ethernet ports with WAN / LAN auto sensingUSB portN/AN/ACoverage4,500 sq ft (3-pack)5,000 sq ftBackhaulWifi and optional wired backhaul (much better)Wifi and optional wired Ethernet backhaul (much better)SecurityWPA2-PSKWPA2-aes; and WPA3-personal; Parental control; eero Secure service plan is also available Guest networkYes, guest network supportedN/ASmart home supportsAlexa,Alexa, Apple Homekit; BLE 4.1ProcessorQuad core ARM-based processor700 MHz quad-core processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB flash storagePrice in Amazon$199.99$169.99 Now, you judge which one is suitable to meet your home need. Click the product link below to read more details in Amazon (#ads). Click here to SHOP Deco M5 in Amazon (#ad) Click here to SHOP Amazon eero (#ad) Or Click here for eero ac in Best Buy (cheaper) Or you may like to SHOP Google wifi (#ad) Or see it in Best Buy How urgent you need to switch to wifi 6 products? When you start to find a lot of new devices at home that are equipped with wifi6 adapter, then it's a good idea to start migrating to wifi 6 network to get optimum connection experience, no need to worry that legacy devices are not compatible because every latest wifi technology is always backward compatible with the previous wifi. Lack of wifi-6 adapters? In the past you might think that there were still no wifi 6 adapters available in the market so switching to wifi-6 system is not urgency. However, today you can find lots of wifi6 adapters for desktop computers with pci-e wifi-6 adapter or even USB wifi6 adapters have been available in the market such as the Asus usb-ax56 ax1800 adapter. The good thing is that today few models of Smartphone are enriched with latest wifi6 adapters such as latest iPhone 11 and later models; Huawei P40 Pro; Samsung Galaxy S10 and later; and still more. See also comparison PCI-e adapters between Asus ax3000 and archer ax3000 PCI-e adapters, click the following article Asus ax3000 vs Archer ax3000 adapters. Related Products For businesses, you may consider wireless AC access point for businesses such as Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Lite and TP-link EAP245 affordable business class AP; or one of best POE wireless AC AP including Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD wave 2 access point. Please note that eero introduces new model of three band mesh wifi system - click here for eero pro three band mesh system. And TP-link introduces Deco M9 three band mesh wifi router with dynamic backhaul. See here TP-link Deco M9

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