Often it can be frustrating when you have high speed broadband connected to your home only to find your favourite corner room upstairs with the perfect view does not have or has poor WiFi signal. Due to huge houses some you live in, and thick concrete walls to add the complication, a single WiFi router in the living hall just doesn’t do it, you need to invest in a good range extender to reach the far corners of the house without losing the strengths, especially if you’re gamer or movie buff, to overcome this issue is where the RE550 Range Extender steps in.
Launched at IFA recently, we had a change to have a up close look at what TP Link calls the worlds first tri-band Wi-Fi Range Extender RE550. What they do is basically, expand the main router’s Wi-Fi signal wherever the home needs it, filling up ‘dead zones’. Powered by the Qualcomm Atheros chipset, the extender uses 11ac Wi-Fi, and can reach speed up to 2134Mbps of which 400Mbps 2.4GHz band can handle the simple stuff like web surfing, emailing, and social media posting while the two 867Mbps 5GHz bands can be used for serious matters like 4K video streaming and of course gaming.
The four antennas are there for a reason although it looks like a bug, this creature can connect to any router even if they are kept far away transmitting strong signals in every direction, as well as beamforming to create wider, targeted connections to wireless devices. Folks at TP Link say the RE550 can achieve speeds up to 2X faster than standard AC range extenders.
Here is the list of key features found on the products, we were told that these networking gears will be available in Malaysia by next month.
Key Features:
- AC2200 simultaneous tri-band with 4-Stream technology delivers up to 2134Mbps Wi-Fi speeds over 2.4GHz (400Mbps) and two 5GHz (867Mbps each) bands
- 2×2 MU-MIMO technology allows the router to run multiple devices at the same time to achieve speeds up to 2X faster than standard AC range extenders
- Beamforming technology to send targeted Wi-Fi signals to individual devices
- 4 fixed external antennas provide optimal Wi-Fi coverage and reliable connections
- Gigabit Ethernet port provides gigabit speed for wired devices
- Supports AP mode to create a new Wi-Fi Access point
