TP-Link Deco E3 Review: The Easiest Way To Improve Wi-Fi At Home


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- Do not go to the kitchen with a laptop; Wi-Fi does not finish there.
folk wisdom

Common situation? if you

lucky enough to not live in a smart apartment orwork in a small office where everything depends on you, what do you do in such cases? Yes, you buy a second router - for the kitchen or accounting department. And write down on a piece of paper which has which name (that is, SSID). And enter the password every time. You can do it differently: buy a mesh system once. This is a set of several devices that work as one router, and provide coverage as two or more routers at once. To get acquainted with such a system for your home, I recommend reading our recent review of Deco E4. And when you read it and wonder why the kit includes two routers at once and whether it’s possible to do it cheaper, read about setting up a mesh system yourself here. Difficult or expensive? Come back here. Here I will tell you about Deco E3, the junior version of the ready-made mesh system. It is more affordable and works out of the box, it couldn’t be simpler.

What is it?

TP-Link Deco E3 is a home mesh system,which “according to the passport” covers up to 220 square meters of area with a wireless network with a communication speed of up to 867 Mbit / s at a frequency of 5 GHz. The kit consists of a Deco E4R router and a Deco M3W signal amplifier.

What makes her interesting?

Maximum ease of use and cost effectiveness among neighbors in the line. This is the optimal starter kit, in which there is nothing superfluous, now you will see why.

What is in the box?

Another box. Seriously: inside a presentable outer box &#8211; another one, made of white cardboard, and it already contains the contents. Packed in a rich way, you can’t say that this is a budget product.


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But then it’s easier. In addition to two devices, only a power supply and a flat Ethernet cable a little more than a meter long. And all kinds of pieces of paper. The length of the power cable from the complete unit is about 140 cm. Its black color spoils the overall picture a bit, in some promotional photos I saw that it should be white.


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What does it look like?

Unusual.The big device is the Deco E4R router. Minimalistic white plastic cylinder, antennas do not stick out. It looks like a stylish cactus pot or decorative vase. Or some kind of starship.


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There are no buttons on the case.At the top end in the center of the relief pattern is the manufacturer’s logo, also known as a status LED. This is the only indicator of what is happening with the system, and it is not located in the most visible place. But it is quite powerful, and when the device is on a shelf, it illuminates the space above it. Interesting effect. You can find out what is happening with the router by the color of the indicator. Details are described in the instructions.


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Deco E4R is equipped with two RJ-45 ports.You need to connect an external Internet cable to one, and to the second, for example, a computer. Or nothing if you don't need wired connections. It doesn’t matter what goes to which port, the system recognizes the type of connection itself. The device is clearly designed for a wireless network, so to connect multiple devices using cables, you will need a separate switch (it can be included in the second port).


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On the bottom there is a connector for the power supply, a little space for a twisted cable and a small hole for the reset button.


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No wall mounting optionsprovided. The only correct installation method is vertical. On the one hand, such a form factor may seem inconvenient and unusual. On the other hand, this is clearly a decorative element (which is played up in the name of the entire line of devices), and not the usual box with antennas and light bulbs.


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The smaller device is the Deco signal boosterM3W. It does not require a separate power supply; there is a plug on the case for plugging into an electrical outlet. Considering the compactness of the amplifier, this is convenient.


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The display here is more familiar.In a prominent place are white indicators for power, wireless signal and operating modes: 2.4 and 5 GHz. There is a hidden reset button on the side. There are no more controls; they are not needed here.


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How to connect and configure?

It’s quite easy. First of all, you should connect the incoming Internet cable and plug in the router and amplifier. Without this, unfortunately, no way, the router is not yet able to independently generate neither the Internet nor electricity. Looking ahead, I’ll say that you can skip all the preparatory steps and proceed immediately to the installation of the mobile application. The setup wizard in this application covers the entire connection process, starting with the location of devices and connecting cables.


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We place the router next to the Internet source(modem, power socket, cable hanging from the ceiling, whatever). We plug the amplifier into an electrical outlet at some distance from the router, for example, in another room or on another floor. So that both devices, being Wi-Fi signal sources, cover the maximum area, including hard-to-reach corners, but at the same time reach each other with a signal. If you fail to find the optimal location the first time, the signal amplifier can be switched to another outlet in a more convenient location at any time. It does not depend on other cables, and this is really very convenient. Moreover, the network coverage can be expanded in the future by purchasing one or more of the same additional signal amplifiers.


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So, the glands were arranged and turned on.Next, install the Deco mobile application on your smartphone to control the system. The link to the app store and play market is in the form of a QR code on the box. I didn't really like this idea because I already have the Tether application for managing TP-Link routers. It would be better if all devices of the same brand were supported by one program. The second disadvantage is the need to register an account in TP-Link services and confirm your email address. This may not be exactly what you expected when connecting the router. On the other hand, this way you get the opportunity to use the cloud service, that is, control the device through the application while outside the home.

Installation takes place using the wizard inapplication. The wizard is very detailed and easy to understand. Turn this on, press that, wait, done. During the initial installation process, you will need to connect to the router by the name (SSID) indicated on the sticker below, then this name can be changed.


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When setting up, it is possible to sign whichthe device included in the kit where it is installed and then in the application you can see, for example, that someone unplugged the “signal amplifier in the bedroom” from the socket. In general, everything is simple and humane.

What can?

Cover an area of ​​up to 220 square meters with Wi-Fimeters. It is clear that the actual values ​​depend on the shape of the room, the configuration and material of the walls. But the fact that with the help of the kit you can get rid of areas with weak signal levels is absolutely certain. Let me clarify again for clarity. The router in this kit is the main device. It distributes the Internet, and the amplifier picks it up and transmits it to places where the signal from the router itself cannot reach. In this case, there is only one network, with one name and password. Switching (roaming) between devices happens unnoticed by you, it all looks like one big network. By the way, it is also dual-band, there is no need to think about the frequency, and 2.4 and 5 GHz are supported and automatically selected depending on the device. I had no complaints about the speed of the connection.


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So, now let's look at the settings and features. All of them are concentrated in the application and there are relatively few of them. Nothing like huge control panels of sophisticated network equipment. Here everything is imprisoned for the convenience of the user, who is too lazy to understand obscure terms. Take the same parental control. You can choose which age category the child belongs to (preschooler, schoolboy, teenager) and specify his device in the list of connected ones. The system itself will suggest whether the child should use social networks, and if so, in what mode. Fortunately, a slightly finer tuning of this is also available. Just in case, remember that no control settings can replace simple parental attention in the real world.


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But we go further. In the application, you can see a list of devices connected and connected earlier, but inactive now. Each device can be given a name and, if necessary, set a high priority when using the network. You can enable the separate guest network mode, blacklist the most unpleasant guests, set up address reservation or port forwarding. Updating the device firmware over the air also comes from here. By the way, you can also turn off the excessive illumination, which I wrote about above, here: for an unusually bright LED indication, a night mode is provided. In general, there are few settings, but for most users this will be enough.


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A separate feature of the device can be calledsupport for Amazon Alexa voice assistant and IFTTT service. I didn’t have the opportunity to test how it works with Alexa, but I’ve been watching the development of IFTTT almost since its inception and can comment on it. If this is your first time hearing such an abbreviation, you can skip the next paragraph; you can talk about this service for a long time.


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So, triggers for running scripts are availablethere are only three: connecting a previously connected device to the network, disconnecting such a device and connecting a new one. This sparse set results in rather geeky scenarios like “record every fact of connecting a new device on the network into a Google table.” Perhaps if you install a router, say, in a cafe, and then track the dynamics of guests who use Wi-Fi in tables and graphs, this could be interesting. Another scenario &#8211; sending an email when a specified device is disconnected from the network. In this way, you can organize simple monitoring of some device. I set up a script for sending push notifications when a new device is connected and watched with interest as my home zoo of devices gradually connected to the new network. But the same thing could be achieved without the help of such a complex workaround. In general, this is cool, but the feature is unlikely to be appreciated by most home users. End of nerdy paragraph.

In the dry residue

TP-Link Deco E3 kit - the most affordable,yet a simple, out-of-the-box, future-scalable solution for large Wi-Fi coverage. On the one hand, there are options that are more functional and more expensive. For example, Deco P7 (here is a review) at a price of about 7,000 UAH. Home solutions are produced by Tenda, but all of them are also more expensive than Deco E3. Zyxel also has nice devices, although they are not visible on our market. On the other hand, there is a shaman’s drum and ways to assemble a large network from improvised routers. But here we have a kind of golden mean. Deco E3, with a price tag of 2,300 hryvnia, now looks like the easiest to use and affordable mesh solution for the home user.

3 reasons to buy TP-Link Deco E3:

  • flexibility and simplicity of system configuration through a cloud service
  • good coverage and speed
  • stylish and unusual appearance

3 reasons not to buy TP-Link Deco E3:

  • redundancy for small rooms
  • lack of gigabit ports
  • unusual ergonomics

 

TP-Link Deco E3

Relatively inexpensive and very easy to useusing the kit to cover a Wi-Fi network in a small apartment or house. Stylish in appearance, flexible in scaling, with cloud management service. But with weak support for a wired network and without gigabit ports.

buy at M.Video

the most affordable mesh system