TP-Link Deco XE75 review: Simplicity meets Wi-Fi 6E!

Wi-Fi 6E is slowly but steadily gaining ground, and today, we can choose between several routers and mesh Wi-Fi systems that provide support for it. While this standard is not yet available on affordable devices, you can find it on mid-range ones like TP-Link Deco XE75. It’s one of the first mesh Wi-Fi systems with Wi-Fi 6E, and it offers a unique mix between compatibility with this standard, powerful hardware, and beautiful design. To learn more, read this review:

TP-Link Deco XE75: Who is it good for?

This mesh Wi-Fi system is a suitable choice for:

• People with large apartments or multi-floor houses
• Home networks with a large number of devices
• Those who don’t need advanced features for their home network
• Users willing to pay a subscription fee for advanced security and parental controls

Pros and cons

Here are the things I like about TP-Link Deco XE75:

• Great performance on the 2.4 GHz band
• Solid Wi-Fi 6E backhaul
• Beautiful design
• Powerful hardware that can manage many networked devices
• Useful security tools and parental controls

There are some negatives to consider too:

• All the security tools and parental controls are subscription based
• Few features and limited configuration options
• No USB port

Verdict

TP-Link Deco XE75 is a niche product that aims to please users who appreciate beautiful design, Wi-Fi speed, and simplicity above all else. If you want a solid mesh Wi-Fi system that can provide reliable coverage for large apartments or multi-floor houses and a high number of devices, Deco XE75 delivers what you need. However, if you want advanced features like VPN server functionality, gaming-oriented tools, a USB port, and detailed configuration options, TP-Link Deco XE75 is not for you. And, to make things a bit more complicated, while it does provide useful antivirus protection and parental controls, it is free only for thirty days. Afterward, you must pay a subscription, increasing your total ownership cost.

Unboxing the TP-Link Deco XE75

This AXE5400 mesh Wi-Fi system comes in a beautiful large cardboard box, similar to the picture below. You can purchase it in kits of one, two, or three stations. As you can see, I received the three-pack version for this review, even though it is overkill for my medium-sized apartment. On the top of the box, you see a picture of the devices that make up the kit, the product name, and some details about what it can do. TP-Link Deco XE75 comes in a beautiful cardboard box On the back, you find further information about this product, including a description of its premium security services. When you open the box, you first see the devices that make up the kit, nicely packaged, and visual instructions on how to set them up. Unboxing the TP-Link Deco XE75 is a pleasant experience After you unpack everything, you get the following: the Deco XE75 stations, their power adapters, one Ethernet cable, the quick installation guide in multiple languages, and a troubleshooting guide. Everything you find inside the box Unboxing the TP-Link Deco XE75 is a pleasant activity, and the design of the stations is sure to impress from the moment you lay your eyes on them.

Hardware specifications and design

Deco XE75 is a beautiful mesh Wi-Fi system that aims to please users interested in interior design. The stations go great with designer homes, and they’re useful in houses with several floors or truly large apartments. The top cover is made of glossy black plastic, which discreetly hides the TP-Link icon in the middle. You will likely miss it unless you look closely. The size of each unit is 4.1 × 6.7 inches or 105 × 169 mm in width x height. Their weight is around 475 grams or 16.75 ounces, making them lightweight and easy to place on any flat surface you want. TP-Link Deco XE75 looks good doesn't it? The rest of the body is made from matte white plastic, with deco 6E printed subtly on the bottom. Turn the TP-Link Deco XE75 upside down, and you see some ventilation grids, the Reset jack, a LED which discreetly signals the working status, and a sticker with information about the unit you’re using (its default MAC address, serial number, and network name). The LED on the bottom is barely visible On the back of each TP-Link Deco XE75, there are three Ethernet ports at 1 Gbps, one of which can be used to connect the system to the internet. You also find the TP-Link logo and the Power jack. Unfortunately, there’s nothing else available, not even a WPS button. There’s no USB port, either. The ports on the back I received for review the V1.0 hardware version of the TP-Link Deco XE75, which is equipped with a powerful Broadcom BCM6756 1.7GHz quad-core processor, 512MB RAM, and 128MB of storage for the firmware. It provides 2x2 MU-MIMO wireless transfers on all its three bands: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz. However, TP-Link also sells a V2.0 hardware version with a less powerful dual-core 1.0 GHz processor, but I don’t know the exact hardware configuration for the second version. So, if you see it in stores, you should ask for details because your experience will be different than what you’ll see in the rest of this review. TP-Link Deco XE75 has some powerful hardware Getting back to the V1.0 hardware version I’m testing: each Deco XE75 has four high-gain internal antennas emitting the signal over the three bands I’ve mentioned earlier. The total theoretical maximum bandwidth is split as follows:

• 2402 Mbps on the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands, using the 160 MHz channel width, on Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, respectively.
• 574 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band, using Wi-Fi 6.

One important aspect you should consider is that, by default, TP-Link Deco XE75 uses the 6 GHz band as a wireless backhaul reserved for exclusive communication between the stations that make up the system. Of course, you can set it to be available to your networked devices too, but you’ll lose some bandwidth and reliability in exchange. The 6 GHz band is for the Wi-Fi backhaul Another important aspect is that Deco XE75 works using WPA3-Personal encryption, which should ensure greater security for your Wi-Fi network. If you want more technical information about this product, I recommend visiting its official page: TP-Link Deco XE75.

Setting up and using the TP-Link Deco XE75

Before setting up TP-Link Deco XE75, you must install the Deco app on your smartphone or tablet. Next, plug in the main Deco unit and look on its bottom for the default network name it uses. Then, start the Deco app, connect your TP-Link ID to it, and begin the setup process by first choosing which exact Deco you want to install. Choose your Deco Then, follow the steps from the wizard, which involve choosing the location for your main Deco, connecting it to the internet, and providing the connection details. But where did you place it? Then, you get to create your Wi-Fi network and provide a name and connection password. Smart Connect is enabled by default to make things simpler for users and have them remember only one network name and password. However, it can’t be disabled, not even later, if you want to use different names and settings for each band. Advanced users are going to be disappointed by this limitation. After the first Deco is set up, you can add the others, and they will automatically clone the settings of the configured unit. Again, the app helps you with the relevant instructions. Adding more Deco units is easy After the initial setup is finished, you can use your network and connect all your devices to it. The Deco app remains the main tool for managing your home network. However, it has a very limited number of features and settings. Managing your TP-Link Deco XE75 is not difficult Unfortunately, you can’t even do basic things like rebooting the mesh Wi-Fi system from the app, so you’ll need to access the web-based admin interface to do that. However, if you’re unfamiliar with computer networking, you’ll enjoy the simplicity and the small number of settings available to configure. There are very few settings available On the other hand, if you are a knowledgeable user, you’ll be tempted to access the web-based interface I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, this interface is also very bare-bones, with even more limited configuration options. I’m disappointed by TP-Link’s approach. On their Wi-Fi 6 routers, their web admin interface offers all the settings you need, including advanced tools and features. I don’t know why these aren’t available for TP-Link Deco XE75, but I hope future firmware updates will improve the situation. The web-based admin interface has very few options Moving on to using the home network managed by TP-Link Deco XE75, things were generally good: the Wi-Fi signal was great everywhere in my apartment, and network connections worked well and with satisfying speed. The variability of network transfers deserves some improvement on the 2.4 GHz band, but on 5 GHz, things are very smooth and stable. Again, I enjoyed my Wi-Fi experience with TP-Link Deco XE75. However, if you want to know more about the real-world performance offered by the TP-Link Deco XE75, go to the next page of this review, where I present detailed measurements and comparisons with other mesh Wi-Fi systems.

Wireless network performance

My apartment is set up similarly to the diagram below. I’ve placed the main TP-Link Deco XE75 in the largest room, where I spend most of my day. The second station is in Room 1 to provide better Wi-Fi in Room 2, where most routers struggle. The third is placed towards the entrance to my apartment. However, using the third station is overkill in a home this small. Two stations are more than enough for excellent Wi-Fi coverage. The apartment where I tested TP-Link Deco XE75 I evaluate the quality of the wireless network managed by TP-Link Deco XE75 through measurements made in three different places:

• I record the maximum speeds when no walls absorb the wireless signal in the room where the main node is placed.
• Room 1 - is separated by one wall from the main station.
• Room 2 - is separated from the main station by two walls absorbing the wireless signal. Also, the wall between Room 1 and Room 2 is twice as thick as the one between the router’s room and Room 1. As a result, Room 2 can be a difficult challenge for many routers, but it should not be a problem for a mesh Wi-Fi system.

I’ve made all my measurements using a laptop with Wi-Fi 6E, running Windows 11 with the latest drivers and operating system updates. I compared the TP-Link Deco XE75 with two other mesh Wi-Fi systems I’ve reviewed this year:

• HUAWEI WiFi Mesh 3 - an entry-level Wi-Fi 6 mesh Wi-Fi system with a similar feature set, when you compare the options available for free on the Deco XE75.
• ASUS ZenWiFi Pro ET12 - a more expensive Wi-Fi 6E mesh Wi-Fi system with a lengthy feature set, superior to Deco XE75.

How the TP-Link Deco XE75 performs on the 2.4 GHz band

I first measured the signal strength using NetSpot. TP-Link Deco XE75 delivered a reasonably strong signal everywhere except for the room where the main unit is placed. Unfortunately, the Deco XE75 can’t be set to emit the signal using only an older standard like Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 4. Instead, it uses only Wi-Fi 6 as the default. Therefore, I couldn’t compare the signal strength it offers when using other standards. Signal strength on Wi-Fi 6 (2.4 GHz band) However, I was able to set the network card drivers on my laptop to forcefully use older standards when connecting to Wi-Fi. So, for the next set of measurements, I used the SpeedTest app to measure the maximum speed you get when transferring data to and from the internet on the 2.4 GHz band, using Wi-Fi 4. As you can see below, Deco XE75 delivers fast downloads over Wi-Fi 4. SpeedTest - The download speed on Wi-Fi 4 (2.4 GHz) The same happens with the uploads, even though the speeds you get are not as impressive. SpeedTest - The upload speed on Wi-Fi 4 (2.4 GHz) I then switched to Wi-Fi 6 on the 2.4 GHz band and repeated the same measurements. First, I noticed a meaningful improvement in speed when switching from Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 6 on the 2.4 GHz band. Also, the download speeds were highly competitive everywhere in my apartment, which is great. SpeedTest - The download speed on Wi-Fi 6 (2.4 GHz) Uploads improved even more than the downloads when switching from Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 6 on the 2.4 GHz band.

SpeedTest - The upload speed on Wi-Fi 6 (2.4 GHz) For the next set of measurements, I used the PassMark Performance test to transfer data between two computers connected to the network. On the 2.4 GHz band using the Wi-Fi 4 standard, the average download speed was excellent everywhere in my apartment. Network downloads on Wi-Fi 4 (2.4 GHz) TP-Link Deco XE75 also delivered fast uploads in all rooms. Network uploads on Wi-Fi 4 (2.4 GHz) I repeated the same measurements on the 2.4 GHz band using the Wi-Fi 6 standard. TP-Link Deco XE75 delivers fast download speeds, especially in rooms far from the main station. Network downloads on Wi-Fi 6 (2.4 GHz) Uploads were satisfyingly fast too, everywhere in my apartment. Network uploads on Wi-Fi 6 (2.4 GHz) TP-Link Deco XE75 offers a large coverage area on the 2.4 GHz band and performs very well. I appreciate that when switching from Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 6 on this band, you get meaningful improvements in speed, which is great.

How the TP-Link Deco XE75 performs on the 5 GHz band

I moved on to the 5 GHz band and repeated the same measurements, starting with the signal strength. Unfortunately, since the TP-Link Deco XE75 doesn’t let you set it to use a specific standard for each band, and it uses Wi-Fi 6 by default, I couldn’t measure its signal strength through Wi-Fi 5, as I usually do. However, when broadcasting its signal on the 5 GHz band through Wi-Fi 6, Deco XE75 has excellent signal strength, as shown below. Signal strength on Wi-Fi 6 (5 GHz band) I used the SpeedTest app to see how fast the internet connection is when using the Wi-Fi 5 standard. As expected, TP-Link Deco XE75 delivered fast download speeds everywhere in my apartment. SpeedTest - The download speed on Wi-Fi 5 (5 GHz) The same was true for the upload speeds I measured. SpeedTest - The upload speed on Wi-Fi 5 (5 GHz) When switching to the Wi-Fi 6 standard on the 5 GHz band, download performance degraded, which was quite surprising. SpeedTest - The download speed on Wi-Fi 6 (5 GHz) Uploads were also slower than they were on Wi-Fi 5. SpeedTest - The upload speed on Wi-Fi 6 (5 GHz) I switched to the PassMark Performance test and transferred data between two computers connected to the network. This benchmark tells me the average speed you get when transferring data only inside the network and not on the internet. Again, TP-Link Deco XE75 delivered fast download speeds everywhere in my apartment. Network downloads on Wi-Fi 5 (5 GHz) I noticed the same trend when measuring the upload speed too. Network uploads on Wi-Fi 5 (5 GHz) When switching from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6, there was a minor improvement in the average download speed. Network downloads on Wi-Fi 6 (5 GHz) However, uploads were slower than when using Wi-Fi 5. Network uploads on Wi-Fi 6 (5 GHz) TP-Link Deco XE75 performs great on the 5 GHz band when you connect Wi-Fi 5 devices to it. However, when using Wi-Fi 6, you sometimes get slower speeds than through Wi-Fi 5, which is a bit disappointing.

How the TP-Link Deco XE75 performs on the 6 GHz band

TP-Link Deco XE75 is a Wi-Fi 6E system, and it also delivers a third 6 GHz band which, by default, is used for the backhaul. However, you can set this band to be shared with other devices. When you do this, you can connect your Wi-Fi 6E devices to it and share the bandwidth with the Decos in your home network. I started by measuring the signal strength with NetSpot, and I noticed that the signal strength delivered by TP-Link Deco XE75 on the 6 GHz band is weaker than on the 5 GHz band. This confirms the theory that the Wi-Fi 6E standard was designed to provide a shorter range than Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6. Since Deco XE75 uses the 6 GHz band for the wireless backhaul, this can mean that it delivers coverage on a slightly smaller area than a similar mesh using the 5 GHz band for the backhaul. Signal strength on Wi-Fi 6E (6 GHz band) Next, I used the SpeedTest app to measure the maximum speed you get when transferring data to and from the internet on the 6 GHz band. The download speed was a lot higher than when using Wi-Fi 6 on the 5 GHz band. SpeedTest - The download speed on Wi-Fi 6E (6 GHz) Uploads were fast too, as shown below. SpeedTest - The upload speed on Wi-Fi 6E (6 GHz) For the next set of measurements, I used the PassMark Performance test to transfer data between two computers connected to the network. The average download speed was even better than when using SpeedTest. Network downloads on Wi-Fi 6E (6 GHz) The same happened with the upload speed too. Network uploads on Wi-Fi 6E (6 GHz) TP-Link Deco XE75 delivers fast connection speeds over the 6 GHz band and the Wi-Fi 6E standard. However, this band is reserved for the wireless backhaul. If you want the best performance from this mesh Wi-Fi system, it’s best to keep it this way instead of sharing it with other devices.

Wired network performance

In this section, I evaluate the performance of Ethernet network connections. My internet connection offers a maximum of 1 Gbps for the download speed and 800 Mbps for uploads. As expected, when using SpeedTest, TP-Link Deco XE75 got very close to the maximum speeds allowed by my connection. SpeedTest on wired connections As expected, TP-Link Deco XE75 has no problems handling 1 Gbps Ethernet connections. It also works perfectly well with 1 Gbps internet connections.

Extra features

The firmware on the TP-Link Deco XE75 is pretty thin in terms of advanced features, and many useful security options are available for free for only thirty days. After that, you must pay a relatively expensive subscription, with prices varying from market to market.

• Guest network - you can enable a separate guest Wi-Fi to broadcast its signal on the band you choose, using one name and password. Unfortunately, you can’t set any time limits or access rules for your guests.
• Device Deny List - you can choose devices for which you want to block access to your network. You can also specify the MAC addresses that you want to be blocked.
• WPS - even though there’s no WPS button on TP-Link Deco XE75, you can enable and use this feature from the Deco app for adding new Deco stations to your mesh Wi-Fi. You can’t use WPS for other purposes, like adding a wireless printer to your network.
• Manager - you can add friends and family members to act as managers for your home network if they create a TP-Link ID and allow you to set their access from the Deco app.
• DDNS - you can create a custom domain name through TP-Links free DNS Service and access your Deco from anywhere on the internet.
• Port forwarding - you can set custom rules to ensure that devices on the local network are accessible to others over the internet.

There are few advanced features available TP-Link Deco XE75 also includes some powerful and useful security tools accessible through the HomeShield section of the Deco app. Its protection is split into two levels: Basic (free) and Pro (subscription-based). You get access to Pro for free for the first thirty days of use. Then, you have to pay a monthly or yearly subscription, which is quite expensive. Prices vary from country to country but in my home country (Romania), TP-Link asks for the equivalent of 6 USD for a monthly subscription and 50 USD for a yearly subscription. The free security you get is rather basic, and all the juicy stuff is behind the Pro paywall, as you can see below. HomeShield Basic vs Pro The same story applies to the Parental Controls too, which are included in HomeShield Pro. For free, you only get the option to pause internet access and block specific websites on your children’s devices. The more advanced stuff, like setting time limits, flexible bedtimes, detailed statistics, etc., are behind the paywall. This approach is disappointing because TP-Link Deco XE75 is not a budget mesh Wi-Fi system. I think it would have been better for TP-Link to offer the Pro service for at least the first year of use. What do you think? HomeShield Basic vs Pro TP-Link Deco XE75 doesn’t offer many features, and this is going to disappoint advanced users. Also, the advanced antivirus, firewall, and parental controls protection included in the HomeShield Pro service are free for 30 days. Then, you have to pay for a subscription. Some similarly priced mesh Wi-Fi systems from the competition offer the equivalent features for free.

What is your opinion about the TP-Link Deco XE75?

At the end of this review, you know the strengths and weaknesses of TP-Link Deco XE75 and how it compares to some of its competitors. However, before closing this article, I’m curious to see what you think about it: Do you like what it offers? Are you considering buying it? Comment using the options below, and let me know. Also, if you already own a Deco XE75, what has been your experience with it?