TP-Link Next-Gen Wi-Fi 6 AX3000 Mbps Gigabit Dual Band Wireless Router, OneMesh™ Supported, Dual-Core CPU, HomeShield, Ideal for Gaming Xbox/PS4/Steam, Compatible with Alexa (Archer AX53)

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I rarely had problems opening the case of any TP-Link routers, so the tear-down process of the TP-Link AX73 is not that difficult. Do be aware that even if there aren’t any sealed screws, you can still void the warranty by opening the device. If that’s fine with you, remove the four screws from underneath the four silicone feet and then gently detach the top cover. It’s not that easy to do it, so I suggest using a prying tool and start from the front side of the case and then slowly move towards the rear until the top pops off.

To put my performance figures into context, Zoom recommends that you need only 4Mbits/sec for a video call – equivalent to 0.5MB/sec – and even streaming 4K UHD video from Disney Plus only requires 25Mbits/sec, or just over 3MB/sec. In other words, the Miracle router proved perfectly fast enough to allow multiple family members to watch videos and chat online at once. To do so, I had to rely on a client device equipped with an AX200 WiFi adapter (TP-Link TX3000E) and on a server device that will be directly connected to the router (via an Ethernet cable). For the first test, I connected the client device to the 5GHz network (160MHz, OFDMA enabled) and, upstream, I measured an average of 938Mbps at 5 feet and 363Mbps at 30 feet. Again, only the WiFi 5 client devices went to 25Mbps, the others a bit below it, and the worst offender is once again the WiFi 6E PC which only reached 21.9Mbps. Surprisingly, we see that this client performed a bit better than when the test was run only with the 4K streaming simulation (perhaps we see some features finally starting up and helping the client a bit). TP-Link AX5400 AX73 – Multi-client stress test using 5 client devices – 4K streaming + simultaneous browsing (5GHz, 80MHz). The target throughput is 25Mbps. Multi-Client Stress Test – 2.4GHz Following the saga of testing the wireless routers in a better way than just relying on the single-client tests (which are the easy way out for most publications), I decided to put a second TP-Link router (the Archer AX5400) through the hurdles of the multi-client stress test. And yes, the principle is the same as it was with the TP-Link AX3200, the ASUS GT-AX6000 and the TUF-AX5400– we connect five client devices to a server computer and then simulate various types of traffic (at the moment, I have simulated 4K and 1080p streaming, web browsing and VoIP). This means that users will experience noticeable buffering fairly often. What about the fast web browsing? It always remained below the 1.5s limit, so all is decently well. The question is whether the clients were able to go to the 25Mbps limit and were they able to remain there? TP-Link AX5400 AX73 – Multi-client stress test using 5 client devices – 4K streaming & web browsing (5GHz, 80MHz). The focus is on the web browsing. The lower the score, the better.Wifi 6 does have more bands available BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN ITS LESS CONGESTED. These still overlap with current wifi devices so in the real world this benefits little to nothing. We can see from the graph that two client devices remained under this limit pretty much for the entire duration of the test, but three clients, the WiFi 6 Lenovo Y520 laptops and the WiFi 6E PC did experience a latency spike (the latter did not surprise me). With the exception of one of the two Lenovo laptops, it shouldn’t have a noticeable impact on the streaming experience. And even in the Lenovo laptop case, it does seem to experience it only for 1% of the time. TP-Link AX5400 AX73 – Multi-client stress test using 5 client devices – 1080p streaming (5GHz, 80MHz). The target throughput is 5Mbps.

The idea is to simulate these types of traffic on all client devices at the same time, and it can be two or more variations at the same time on a single client device (for example, 4K streaming, while the user navigates the web as well, furiously). I didn’t use iperf, but relied on the open-source tools developed by Mr. Jim Salter, netburn which creates the traffic simulations and the net-hydra which runs multiple instances of netburn on the set client devices (it relies on SSH to accomplish it). We found TP-Link's mobile interface was simple enough, but it does require deeper navigation to access more options that would have been nice to access on a dashboard or higher level. In general, mobile friendliness was a tad below the average for the entire test group. As an equivalent to real life, I suppose you could imagine probably about 50 (or more) users still fairly violently surfing the web. But, this is a veritable stress test, so how well did the TP-Link AX5400 perform? Surprisingly, not that bad. We see that the ZimaBoard 832 deviates a bit for 5% of the time (I suppose it makes sense considering that it’s the farthest client device). The other client devices did good, with the WiFi 6E client experiencing some latency spikes for 1% of the time. TP-Link AX5400 AX73 – Multi-client stress test using 5 client devices – 1080p streaming & web browsing (5GHz, 80MHz). The focus is on the web browsing. The lower the score, the better. READ NEXT: The very best Wi-Fi 6 routers currently available ZTE Miracle AX3000 Pro review: Price and competition A heat sink inside the unit and refined case design keep the system cool which helps in keeping the performance as high and consistent as possible. And during the reviewing period for about 2 weeks and more, I’ve never had any issues with the Archer AX55 or experience any reduced performance or network instability.

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The real good network gear uses their own chips. Aka just licenced designs from arm. Since that allows them the most flexibility.

That still translates to a perfectly usable connection throughout the house. Even 4K video streaming over Wi-Fi 5 should be fine in most locations, and overall the AX50 proved faster than our recommended Honor Router 3. I know that a lot will say that these tests are not purely objective and yes, the results will differ depending on the amount of interference, the location and the type of client devices. Surely, there are better multi-client tests out there, such as the octoPal, but that will have an impact on the wallet and not many professionals bother with non-enterprise wireless networking devices since the cost is just too high. So yeah, netburn and net-hydra are the best we got for now. Qam1024. Pretty much just look higher number is possible but also higher number means overlapping and signals smashing into eachother is much more likely so this is often not used to the fullest as its not issue free As expected, there was a noticeable drop in both speed and link stability the further away I travelled from the TP-Link Archer AX50. Apart from that, we’ve had tons of Zoom meetings and didn’t experience any instability or disconnections.Without replacing your existing devices or buying a whole new WiFi ecosystem, OneMesh™ helps you create a more flexible network that covers your entire home with TP-Link OneMesh™ products.