Are you looking for a high-end range extender that can help you extend the coverage of your wireless network to those remote corners of your house or office? Then you will want a device with support for the 802.11ac networking standard that can offer fast transfers, and TP-LINK RE580D is one of the fastest devices of its kind. We tested this dual-band range extender for about a week and, after many tests and measurements, we are ready to share our opinion, in this review:
Unboxing the TP-LINK RE580D AC1900 Wi-Fi range extender
The packaging used for the TP-LINK RE580D AC1900 range extender uses calm green colors. On the front of the box you see a picture of the device and a list with its most important features.
On the back there's a detailed presentation of what this product does, as well as a comparison with other similar devices from TP-LINK's portfolio.
Inside the box you will find the following elements: the range extender, 3 detachable antennas, the power adapter, a network cable, the quick installation guide, the product license, technical support information and the warranty.
Now that you know about the unboxing experience, let's see what you get in terms of hardware and specifications.
Hardware specifications and design
TP-LINK RE580D is the company's top range extender in their 2016 portfolio of networking products. It features a dual core processor running at 1 GHz. Unfortunately we don't know the exact model but it might just be the Broadcom BCM4709 that is used on several of the company's wireless routers. Also, the amount of RAM memory on this device is unknown. The advertised total maximum bandwidth is an impressive 1900 Mbps, split as follows: 600 Mbps for the 2.4 GHz wireless band and 1300 Mbps for the 5GHz wireless band. The three external antennas are dual band and the range extender uses the beamforming technology to ensure highly targeted and efficient wireless connections.
TP-LINK RE580D looks like a wireless router, which in our view, is a good thing, as its design is quite elegant. It's also similar to wireless routers in terms of external antennas as well as Ethernet ports.
On the back of the device you will find five Gigabit ports, as well as plenty of buttons for things like: resetting the range extender, turning WPS on, turning the LEDs on and off and turning the device on and off. Alongside these buttons we also have the power jack.
The range extender can be used both horizontally and vertically. To use it vertically, find the provided base support, insert its clips into its marked slots marked and then push it leftwards. Again, this is the kind of flexibility that you tend to get from wireless routers, not range extenders.
When it comes to standards support, TP-LINK RE580D work with all the modern standards: 802.11ac, 802.11n down to 802.11b. Obviously, it is compatible with just about any wireless router, no matter the brand and with all the major operating systems, from Linux to Mac OS X to Windows.
In terms of size, TP-LINK RE580D has the following dimensions: 9.5 inches or 242 mm in width, 6.4 inches or 162 mm in depth and 1.7 inches or 44 mm in height. The device weighs 3.9 pounds 1.8 kgs with the three antennas mounted, as well as the base support.
If you want to read the official specifications of this device, go to this page: TP-LINK RE580D Specifications.
Setting up and using the TP-LINK RE580D AC1900 Wi-Fi range extender
Setting up the TP-LINK RE580D range extender is similar to other devices of its kind: you connect to a computer using the Ethernet cable that's found in the packaging or you turn it on and connect from a laptop or tablet to the default wireless network that it broadcasts. Then, you launch a web browser and go to "https://tplinkrepeater.net" and start configuring the device. We liked that it asks the user to change the default username and password, so that unwanted parties will have a hard time accessing your range extender.
The next step is to choose the region you're from and then to select the two wireless networks that you want to extend: the 2.4 GHz wireless network and the 5GHz wireless network.
You then set the name for the two WiFi networks that are broadcast by the range extender and a summary is shown of all your initial settings.
You can now start using TP-LINK RE580D. However, we recommend that you continue by accessing its more advanced settings and configuring absolutely everything. When you log into its user interface, you will notice the following aspects:
- It looks good and it's very easy to use, even by a beginner
- It's available only in English
- It doesn't include much in terms of advanced settings, only the basics that you need to get the job done
- Help documentation is easily available with a click on the ? (question mark) button on the top-right corner
One of the steps that you should take into consideration is checking for firmware updates and installing them. This is easy to do and it will improve the experience you get when using this device. Before doing our testing, we updated the TP-LINK RE580D to the latest firmware version that was available at the time.
TP-LINK brags on its website about a mobile app that it offers for managing this device. The app looks good and makes it easy to configure the functioning of the range extender from your smartphone with iOS and Android. Below you can see a screenshot of a list of its main features.
Unfortunately, at least on Android, this app asks for permissions that it shouldn't request, like managing your phone, contacts and storage. Why does it have to get access to my contacts? Why does it want to manage my storage when you can't use it to download files from your range extender or your network?
We have serious privacy concerns about this app and we don't recommend that you use it. Another downside that we encountered was the lack of USB ports and the fact that we couldn't set the range extender to broadcast a separate network for our guests.
Once we were done configuring the range extender, we moved on to connecting our devices to it and testing how well it works. We did not encounter connectivity or stability issues. We were able to join or create a Homegroup in Windows, share files on the network, stream video and so on. Also, we were very pleased by how fast our wireless connection was on the 5GHz band so we couldn't wait to test things more thoroughly.
This range extender tends to remain quite cool, even after extended periods of use, and this may be an important feature for users who need to place it in warmer environments.
While using it, you notice that its LEDs are quite discreet . However, if you don't want to be bothered by them, you can turn them off using a button on the back of the device or from its firmware.
The shiny surface on the top of the range extender looks very nice but it is also a dust and fingerprint magnet, so you may need to dust it relatively often.
This is all we had to say about the user experience offered by this device. If you would like to learn how fast the wireless networks that are broadcast by TP-LINK RE580D are, its extra features and our final verdict, go to the next page of this review.
Wireless network performance
First, let's take a look at the apartment that was used in our testing and how it is set up (the apartment has 753 square feet or 70 square meters). You can see that the router is placed in the living room. With most wireless routers, the signal strength is not that great in rooms like the kitchen. That's why we placed the range extender in the hallway, close to the kitchen and close enough to the router so that it receives good signal from it. During our testing we used a very fast internet connection capable of downloads of 1 Gbps and of uploads up to 500 Mbps.
We used a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for all our measurements and several software tools. To get a better perspective on the performance offered by the TP-LINK RE580D, we compared it with ASUS RP-AC68U (another AC1900 range extender from an important competitor) and TP-LINK RE450 (an AC1750 range extender from the same company).
We started by evaluating the 2.4 GHz wireless network and measured the signal strength offered, using a tool named inSSIDer. As you can see below, the signal strength that was delivered by TP-LINK RE580D was very good, beating its competitors in most rooms.
Next, we measured the speed of the internet connection on the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency, using SpeedTest. In the download test, TP-LINK RE580D performed better than it's brother TP-LINK RE450 but in some rooms it was beaten by ASUS RP-AC68U.
In the upload test, TP-LINK RE580D was always outperformed by ASUS RP-AC68U.
For our last measurement on the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency, we used LAN Speed Test Lite to measure the wireless download and upload speeds when transferring a 350MB file through the network. The results were worse than those measured with SpeedTest but the trends remained mostly the same. The fight for the fastest range extender was between TP-LINK RE580D and ASUS RP-AC68U, each performing better than the other in some rooms but not in all.
The upload test was very similar to SpeedTest, with ASUS RP-AC68U outperforming TP-LINK RE580D in many rooms.
In our measurements, the performance offered by TP-LINK RE580D on the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency was good and steady but not as fast as what you get from competing range extenders with similar specifications.
Next, we analyzed the performance offered by the 5GHz wireless network. First, we looked at the signal strength. Again, TP-LINK RE580D was the best range extender, in almost every room of our test apartment.
Next, we measured the speed of the internet connection that is offered by TP-LINK RE580D on the 5GHz wireless frequency, with SpeedTest. When evaluating the download speed, the performance of this range extender was stellar, beating its competitors in all the rooms of our apartment. This was a very pleasant surprise after our measurements on the 2.4 GHz band.
In the upload test, the performance gap was the same and TP-LINK RE580D remained the uncontested leader.
Lastly, we used LAN Speed Test Lite to measure the wireless download and upload speeds when transferring a 350MB file through the network. Again, TP-LINK RE580D was the performance leader, only this time the gap was slightly smaller when compared with its competitors.
In the upload test, the gap lowered even more and this time TP-LINK RE580D was neck and neck with ASUS RP-AC68U.
The 5 GHz wireless network that is broadcast by the TP-LINK RE580D range extender is very fast,managing to beat its competitors in all testing situations .
Wired network performance
TP-LINK RE580D offers five Ethernet ports so that you can connect up to five devices to it, using network cables. Supposedly, they offer 1 Gbps connections. However, we're talking here about a range extender, not a router and such claims are overstated.
In order to test the quality of the wired Ethernet connection, we used a desktop PC, equipped with an Intel Core i5 4460 processor, running at 3.20GHz, 16GB of RAM and a very fast Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD and a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with an Intel Core i5-4300U processor, running at 1.9 GHz, 8 GB of RAM and a fast 256 GB SSD drive from Samsung. We connected the Surface Pro 3 to the TP-LINK RE580D and the desktop PC to the router.
First, we measured the download and upload speeds on the internet, using SpeedTest. The results were good: 238.07 Mbps for the download speed and 299.24Mbps for the upload speed.
Then, we used LAN Speed Test Lite to measure the wireless download and upload speeds when transferring a 350MB file through the network. This test has shown that TP-LINK RE580D is not able to match ASUS RP-AC68U in terms of network transfers when using Ethernet connections.
TP-LINK RE580D offers solid wired network connections but not as fast as those offered by its competition.
Extra features
The firmware on the TP-LINK RE580D is very basic and it has only a few features that could be considered extras:
- Tether - a mobile app for iOS and Android that allows you to manage your range extender from your smartphone. Unfortunately, the app requires permissions from the user which shouldn't be asked, like managing your storage, phone and contacts.
- Access control - allows you to whitelist and blacklist devices on the network that are managed by the range extender.
- LED control - you can set a schedule for when the LEDs are turned off.
Pros and cons
TP-LINK RE580D AC1900 is a range extender with many positives:
- The stellar performance on the 5GHz wireless network
- Solid signal strength on both bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
- Easy to use and set up
- It can be used both horizontally and vertically
- It offers mobile apps for Android and iOS that you can use to manage the range extender from your smartphone
There are also a couple of downsides you should be aware of:
- There's no USB port on this range extender
- Features like guest networks and basic parental controls are missing from this device
- The user interface is available only in English
- The mobile app, raises some privacy concerns
Verdict
TP-LINK RE580D AC1900 is a solid range extender that not only looks like a router but it also has a similar hardware configuration. It can be mounted both horizontally and vertically and it looks good. The user interface is very simple and easy to use and so is the setup process. However, it lacks advanced features and configuration options. TP-LINK RE580D is a stellar device when you look at the speed it offers on the 5GHz band and a fast but average device on the 2.4 GHz band. In our measurements on the 5GHz band, TP-LINK RE580D outperformed all the devices we compared it to. If you want to extend a modern network that uses the 802.11ac standard, it is one of the best range extenders that money can buy. You won't regret the purchase!
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