TP-Link AX3000 Whole Home Wi-Fi 6 Mesh System (Deco X55 Pro) | Up to 6500 Sq.Ft. ?×?.?? WAN/LAN Ports Wired Ethernet Backhaul ????? ??? ????+ ???????? 2023 Release (3-Pack)

Thanks to Prime Day it was time for me to finally upgrade my home network. I was looking for a reasonably priced WiFi-6 mesh system with 3 stations (1 main 2 satellites), at least AX3000 speeds, and a price tag of up to $300. It came down to two choices: the Eero 6 and what I chose instead, the TP-Link Deco X55. Both systems had similar specs, but I liked how the TP-Link Deco had 3x Gigabit ethernet ports per satellite (the Eeeros have just 2). That meant I could wire each satellite in a daisy-chain configuration for a wired backhaul AND connect the 3rd ethernet plug to the gigabit switches I had at each satellite location. This meant that all of my hard-wired devices could stay hardwired, while adding mesh WiFi at full speeds (no bandwidth reserved for transmission thanks to the backhaul).Installation was quick and easy - I simply turned off my cable modem, disconnected my previous router, installed one of the Deco X55's in its place (in my bedroom), and turned everything back on. After downloading the TP-Link Deco app I had an internet connection set up and good to go in less than 5 minutes! Once that was working, I added the other two Deco's into the mix - one in the living room and one in the family room - with all three forming an almost perfect triangle for whole-home coverage. In less than 15 minutes after opening the box, I had a fast, Wifi-6 mesh system in my home.I had been using an older AC1900 router for almost 10 years now and back then it was just fine - but with more and more smart home devices being added to my home, it no longer was enough. I have a medium-sized amount of smart home devices (around 50 devices including hubs) and on occasion, I'd experience signal dropouts on some of the farther cameras, and other devices would sporadically go offline/online at random. With the X55 mesh installed, all of my issues disappeared! My smart cameras used to show a signal strength of between 80% (indoor cameras) down to around 55% (outdoor cameras). With the TP-Link Deco mesh in place, the signal strength changed to 100% indoor and 95% outdoor - a major improvement for sure. Pulling up live and recorded footage from the outdoor camera is so much quicker now. All of the other indoor smart devices I have all show 98-100% signal strength. Needless to say, this was a definite upgrade!As for my rating, I give it a solid 4-stars. There are a few small details that keep me from giving it a full 5-stars: some missing features that I had with my old router. One of them is being able to bulk reserve IPs by entering them into the app beforehand; with the TP-Link Deco, the device has to be connected to the network FIRST (with whatever DHCP IP address the Deco gives it), then you have to go into the app to reserve it with a static IP. I would rather have the more common table where you just enter each Mac address, static IP, and device name and it's done. Another missing feature is being able to have at least 2 separate SSIDs (not including a guest SSID). With the Deco you can only have one main SSID and one isolated guest SSID.Finally, to see some speed numbers I ran speed tests using both fast.com and speedtest.com, and the day before installing the mesh system I had an average internet speed of around ~260Mbps. The day after I installed the TP-Link mesh system my speeds went up to well over 490Mbps! Downloading is a lot faster, and streaming is super snappy as well.So in the end, I am very happy with my purchase of the TP-Link Deco X55 Wifi6 mesh system. Aside from the small feature complaints above, everything is awesome! I no longer have devices going offline/online. My internet speed has almost doubled (my old router was the bottleneck!) and streaming seems quicker as well. If you are looking for a mesh system to upgrade your current home network to the current WiFi6 standards, I would say that this is definitely a good buy!------------EDIT 02.18.2024: TP-Link Improvements Are Awesome!TP-Link has been steadily pushing out Deco firmware and app updates, and my -1 star complaint no longer exists thanks to two added features that completely address my complaints:- CUSTOM IP RESERVATIONSFirst, I don't have to play the game of connecting a new device, letting the Deco assign a DHCP address to it, then having to go back into the app to manually change the reserved IP. Now I can go straight into the Deco app and under the "Address Reservation" tab I can now select "Custom"; this brings me to a page where I can manually type in a MAC address AND the local IP address that I want to assign to it - without having to connect the device first.- SEPARATE IoT NETWORKMy other complaint was that I only had the option to have two SSIDs - one main and one guest network. I wanted to be able to configure another SSID specifically so I could group all of my Smarthome devices, and after a couple of firmware updates later TP-Link not only gave me that option, but an even better one: they added a dedicated Iot (Internt of Things) network! Not only does this group my sparthome devices separate from my main network, but it also restricts communications between networks so that the IoT devices stay isolated. This is exactly the feature I wanted them to add during my initial review.- VPN COMPATIBILITYTP-Link has also added the option to use a VPN (server or client) directly through the router, as opposed to having to VPN each individual device manually. Furthermore, the VPN can be assigned to the network in two ways: either all devices (every device connected to the mesh will go through the VPN) or I can select specific MAC addresses that must pass through the VPN before reaching the Internet (tI chose option #2). With this I can make sure that certain devices that like to "call home" can only do so through the VPN, helping to protect my network and privacy.All in all, TP-Link has done a great job at supporting these devices, and their ability to add additional features over time have made me feel confident to revise my initial review now give this system a worthy 5 stars!

I’ve been extremely pleased with this X-55 Decco Mesh system (non pro version) 3-pack!I’ve been using it for about 3 days and it is working incredibly well. I am using mine in access point mode and my internet has never performed better.Setting up the main unit (any of the units in the three pack can be set up as the main unit) was straight forward. The Decco app walks you through everything step by step. However, the setup became challenging because I got the dreaded flashing red light on one of the two units I was setting up as a satellite unit. The flashing red light means connection failure - the unit will not connect to the system.This was very frustrating. I tried to resolve this by power cycling and rebooting my ISP modem and all of three Decco units multiple times. Each time the main unit would smoothly connect, then the second unit, but for some reason that third unit wouldn’t connect and kept flashing red.Finally, to resolve the problem I factory reset all the units and started from scratch and the three units finally connected and are now working together to give me great coverage in most areas of my home.Also, note that if you plan on using these in access point (AP) mode you have to set them up in the router mode first then go to advanced settings to switch it to AP mode. But you can’t switch it over until you complete the set up the other way. The option to switch will not appear in the Decco app until the set up is fully complete.I have purchased a fourth unit (the Decco x-55 1 pack) that I will add to the system because there are still sections of the home where the mesh system’s signal still isn’t able to push through. It says it covers about 6,000 square feet and my house is nowhere near that size but I have a lot of thick concrete walls in my home so that might account for my not getting the advertised range of coverage.Regardless, I am very pleased because the coverage and connection in the areas it does reach is solid and fast!I am sure that once I add the fourth unit I will get the coverage and performance I require. This is not a “paid for” review and I would definitely recommend this product. Will update if anything changes.