I have had it for a week and I use it constantly since the signal of the router does not reach the bedrooms of the house.
Summary: For the 20€ that I bought it, I am relatively satisfied. It does not disconnect and the connection with the router through the TP-Link application (Tether) is quite easy. ⚠️ My impressions in the first few days follow. Scroll down for the problems that arise over time. ⚠️
In detail:
Positives:
- Very easy and fast installation as mentioned before. Both bands work without interruptions.
- The speeds, at least for me, are the same as the router (50mbps). It loses a bit in upload (from the 4-5 that the router gives, I get 2-3), but the only upload I do is a photo in an Instagram Messenger conversation, so I'm not really concerned.
- It is smaller than I expected, to tell the truth. I had a bigger one before and I got used to it. For others, the size may seem large, but it doesn't bother me.
- In case it needs to be unplugged and reconnected, the connection is made in less than a minute. Sometimes not all the lights turn on immediately, but it still provides internet, so we're fine.
- As is natural for all repeaters/extenders, there is a delay, a latency in the transfer of packets/data to the router and in turn to the ISP. This results in frequent "lag spikes" (sudden increases in ping) when the user is doing something in real-time, such as playing an online game. These lag spikes are minimal on the 5G band. With the previous repeater I had, which was only 2.4G, I couldn't play a single match of any game without getting disconnected. Thanks to the reconnects, I can now go through an entire match of League of Legends without experiencing any lag spikes.
Negatives:
- It is simply unacceptable for downloading large files. Okay, up to a point and considering the price, it is understandable, but for every 1.5-2GB file, it stops downloading at maximum speed (for example, if it is downloading at 5MBps, it drops to 0.1MBps or something similar for a few seconds). It resumes on its own after a while. This is due to the "capacity" it has to send and receive data packets during file downloads. If you want to learn more about this, search for how it works, it's not too difficult. Or wait for your first year of high school computer science class ;) I have seen better repeaters in this area, but oh well... I'll compromise.
Conclusion: As I said in the summary, it's a good little device, but if you plan on downloading a lot of large files, it's better to move your device closer to your router or get a long Ethernet cable.
⚠️I am coming back after a few days to edit the review and cancel almost everything I said above. The speed drops from 50 to 20-30 sometimes and to 5-6 without any other device connected except for the PC and the modem. I will try everything I can and I will come back. However, if you want to get it for gaming, USE AN ETHERNET CABLE.
- And the disappointment continues. I am starting to notice a significant decrease in speed and an increase in latency for some reason with the router. I am forced to disconnect the repeater every time I want to do something in real-time on the main router (games, video calls, etc.). I truly regret the purchase I made.