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

Familiar situation? if you

was lucky not to live in a smart apartment orwork in a small office where everything rests on you, then what do you do in such cases? Yes, you buy a second router - to the kitchen or to the accounting department. And write down on a piece of paper with which name (i.e., SSID). And enter the password every time. You can do otherwise: once to buy a mesh-system. 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 the home, I recommend reading our recent review of Deco E4. And when you read it and ask yourself why there are two routers in the kit at once and is it cheaper, read about the independent layout of the mesh system here. Is it difficult or expensive? Come back here. Here I will talk about Deco E3, the younger version of the finished mesh system. It is more affordable and works out of the box, nowhere is easier.

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 the presentable outer box is 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?

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

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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, it is also the 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 powerful enough, and when the device is on a shelf, it illuminates the space above itself. 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 a computer, for example. Or nothing if you do not need wired connections. What port is not important, the system recognizes the type of connection itself. The device is clearly sharpened for a wireless network, so to connect many devices using cables, you will need a separate switch (it can be included in the second port).

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At the bottom - 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 mount optionsprovided for. The only correct installation method is vertical. On the one hand, such a form factor may seem uncomfortable and unusual. On the other hand, this is clearly an element of decor (which is played out in the name of the entire line of devices), and not the usual box with antennas and bulbs.

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A smaller device is a Deco signal boosterM3W. A separate power supply is not needed for it, there is a plug on the case for plugging into an electrical outlet. Given the compactness of the amplifier, this is convenient.

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With an indication here is more familiar. In a conspicuous place there are indicators of power, wireless signal and operating modes glowing in white: 2.4 and 5 GHz. On the side there is a hidden reset button. 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(a modem, a power outlet, a cable hanging from the ceiling, anyone like that). We stick the amplifier into the power outlet at a certain distance from the router, for example, in another room or on another floor. So that both devices, being sources of Wi-Fi signal, cover the maximum area including hard-to-reach corners, but at the same time reach each other with a signal. If the first time you can’t find the optimal location, then the signal amplifier at any time can be switched to another outlet in a more convenient place. It does not depend on other cables, and it is really very convenient. Moreover, network coverage can be further expanded by purchasing one or more of the same additional signal amplifiers.

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So, the pieces of iron were placed and turned on. Next, install the Deco mobile application on your smartphone to control the system. The link to the appstore and playmarket is in the form of a QR code on the box. I did not really like this idea, because I already have a Tether application for managing TP-Link routers. It would be better if all devices of the same brand are supported by one program. The second minus is the need to register an account in TP-Link services and confirm the email address. Perhaps this is not quite what you expected when connecting the router. On the other hand, this way you get the opportunity to use the cloud service, that is, manage the device through the application, while being outside the home.

Installation is done using the wizard inapplication. The wizard is very detailed and easy to understand. Turn it on, click it, wait, done. During the initial installation, 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 from the kit where it is installed and then in the application see, for example, that someone pulled the “signal amplifier in the bedroom” from the wall outlet. In general, everything is simple and human.

What can?

Weifai cover area up to 220 squaremeters. It is clear that the actual values depend on the shape of the room, the configuration and the material of the walls. But the fact that using the kit you can get rid of areas with a weak signal level is absolutely accurate. Let’s clarify again for clarity. The router in this kit is the main device. It distributes the Internet, and the amplifier picks it up and sends it to where the signal from the router itself does not reach. Moreover, the network is one, with one name and password. Switching (roaming) between devices is invisible to you, it all looks like one big network. By the way, it is also dual-band, it does not need to think about the frequency, and 2.4 and 5 GHz are supported and automatically selected depending on the device. I have 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 device chip can be calledAmazon Voice Assistant and IFTTT support. I did not have the opportunity to test work with Alex, but I have been observing the development of IFTTT almost from the moment of its appearance and I can comment. If this is the first time you hear 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 availableonly three: connecting to the network of the device that was previously connected, disconnecting such a device and connecting a new one. This rather poor set results in rather geeky scenarios like “write down every fact of connecting a new device to the network in a Google table”. Perhaps, if you put a router, say, in a cafe, and then monitor the dynamics of guests using Wi-Fi in tables and graphs, it can be interesting. Another scenario is sending an email when a given device is disconnected from the network. Thus, you can organize simple monitoring for any device. I set up a script for sending push notifications when a new device is connected and watched with interest how the device’s home zoo is gradually connecting to the new network. But the same thing could be realized without the help of such a complex roundabout maneuver. In general, this is cool, but most home users are unlikely to appreciate the chip. The end of the zadroth paragraph.

In the dry residue

TP-Link Deco E3 kit - the most affordable,and yet a simple, out-of-the-box scalable solution for future Wi-Fi coverage. On the one hand, there are options more functional and more expensive. For example, Deco P7 (here is a review) at a price of about 7000 UAH. Homemade solutions are released by Tenda, but all of them are also more expensive than Deco E3. Zyxel also has nice devices, however, they are not visible on our market. On the other hand, there is a shamanic tambourine and ways to assemble a large network from improvised routers. But here we have a certain middle ground. Deco E3 with a price tag of 2300 hryvnia now looks 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 toUsing a kit for Wi-Fi network is not a very large apartment or house. Stylish looking, flexible in scale, with a cloud management service. But with poor wired network support and no gigabit ports.

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