Wifi 6 is today’s latest wifi technology; however there are still heaps of wifi 5 products available in the market today. And one of them is affordable tplink deco m4 which is affordable product you may consider for daily internet tasks for both work and play. This is one of most competing products for popular Google wifi.
In this article:
What this Deco m4 does
TP-link Deco M4 is like other mesh wifi system model such as Google, or Orbi. TP-link needs to add richer features to this product for better competition with most popular products such as Google wifi or Orbi. Few of these feature additions are mu-mimo, band steering, beamforming, self-healing and auto patch selection, and this product can also be configured either as wireless mesh router or wifi access point.
You may also like to see another series of deco ac1200 – tp-link deco s4 which is also almost the same as deco m4.
AC1200
Tplink deco m4 is ac1200 wifi 5, it is a dual band mesh wifi system with signal rate speed up to 867Mbps @5GHz and up to 300Mbps @2.4Ghz band, wifi backhaul and optional wired ethernet backhaul. The same speed as tplink deco m5, the first model of mesh wifi system introduced by TP-link.
What is the difference between deco m4 and deco m5?
TPlink Deco M4 vs Deco M5
The first mesh wifi ac product released by tplink is the deco m5 powered by a quad core processor and equipped with 4x internal antennas. Why did tplink release the deco m4 series which is slightly lighter in terms of price and slightly lower spec?
Probably tplink provides a slightly lower spec on the deco m4 than deco m5, however the performance is still the same and this means that from a production cost perspective the deco m4 is expected to be a substitute for the deco m5 at a lower price.
See more details on the following spec comparison table for deco m4 vs deco m5.
Deco m4 vs deco m5
Deco series | Deco m4 | Deco m5 |
Wifi network | Dual band ac1200 with 2×2 mu-mimo | Dual band ac1300 with 2×2 mu-mimo |
Signal rates | 300Mbps @2.4Ghz 867Mbps @5GHz | 400Mbps @2.4GHz 867Mbps @5GHz |
Antennas | 2x Internal antennas | 4x internal antennas |
Router / AP mode | Yes | Yes |
WPA3 ready | No | No |
Price | $149.00 | $189.99 |
This is almost the same case as deco x20 and then comes newer model of deco x25 with the same ax1800 mesh wifi 6.
The faster model for the first generation of tplink mesh wifi is TP-link Deco M9 which is based on AC2200 and is slightly larger, and is featuring Smart IoT hub for Zigbee based device, similar with the new model of eero wifi 6 series. See also new model of eero pro 6 vs orbi, eero with built-in zigbee smart hub.
Deco mesh technology
Remember in the past when you have multiple access points in a wide area, you need to switch from one network name to another. With this deco product and other mesh wifi products today including Google wifi, you have a single network name throughout the area, you can roam seamlessly from one room to another, no more switching from one network name to another.
With Deco M4 three-pack you can roam as wide area as up to 5,500 sq ft area, fits to all home sizes from base to attic. It’s wider coverage than Google which is only 4,500 sq ft. Your devices will automatically connect / switch between Deco points for the fastest possible speed.
AP mode
In a situation where you need strong backhaul link between router and satellite nodes you can configure deco m4 with wired ethernet backhaul in daisy chain topology. Ethernet port #2 of the first deco (router node) is connected to the first ethernet port of the second deco, and the second port of this second deco is connected to the first port of the third deco.
In a situation where you already have internet network at home with wired router, or a gateway, you cannot function this m4 as the router. Connect this router deco unit to the existing ethernet network and configure the system to work as the wifi access point. The default setting is router mode, so you need to go to the ‘Operation Mode’ menu and click the ‘Access Point’ radio button to change from the default ‘Router’ mode to the AP mode. I cannot find that Google wifi can work as wireless access point.
What this deco m4 does
Highlights
- Creates seamless whole home with ac1200 wifi network with single network name with seamless roaming
- Blanket your home with solid wifi up to 5,500 sq ft (three-pack)
- You may add more Deco unit (any Deco model) to expand the coverage
- Can be configured as router (default) or wireless access point
- Provides up to 100 devices for lag-free connection
- Comes with Deco app for easier setup including parental control
- 2x Gigabit Ethernet WAN/LAN port with auto sensing
Today you can find that deco m4 is tagged with lower price than other models in the market, and lower price than deco m5. Click the link below to learn more details and find best deal from Amazon (#ads).
Click here to learn more details TP-link Deco M4 (#ad)
One of popular similar products is offered by Google, let’s compare this two products.
TPlink Deco M4 vs Google Wifi
When we are offered two similar products with quite different prices, we will think about looking for differences between the two. And the easiest way is to look for spec differences between the two.
Google wifi and tplink deco m4 mesh wifi systems have been around for some time, Google wifi is popular with its easy to setup and TP-link is always coming with cheaper price without sacrificing the performance.
Take a look at the following spec comparison table comparing TP-link Deco vs Google mesh wifi system. At a glance, not much difference you can see that speeds is the same, but network coverage is slightly difference. TP-link Deco M4 offers wider coverage than Google.
Table 2 TP-link Deco vs Google
Model | TP-link Deco M4 (3-set) | Google mesh wifi (3-set) |
Wifi technology | AC1200 wave1 | Wave 2 AC1200 |
Wifi speeds | 300Mbps @2.4Ghz 867Mbps @5Ghz | 300Mbps @2.4Ghz 867Mbps @5Ghz |
Wifi coverage | 5,500 sq ft | 4,500 sq ft |
Backhaul | Wifi and Optional Ethernet backhaul | Wifi and wired option |
Ethernet Ports | 2x WAN/LAN auto sensing | 2x WAN/LAN auto sensing |
MU-MIMO | Yes | Yes |
Mode | Mesh router / AP mode | Mesh |
Antennas | 2-internal dual band antennas / Unit | Internal dual band antennas |
Price | $149.99 | $148.99 |
Google mesh was tagged with the price around $240 at the first time it was released so was Google wifi. Today you can find that the legacy products are dropped amidst the emerging of wifi 6 products in the market.
Click here to learn more detail Google mesh wifi (#ad)
Related products
Instead of investing new deco m4, you may invest the product with latest wifi 6 technology such as deco x75 which is axe5400 wifi 6e system with three distinct radio bands with the addition of @6ghz band.