TP-Link Deco M5 Whole Home Wi-Fi
A family-friendly mesh solution.
TP-Link’s Deco M5 is similar in many ways to the Google WiFi, but with a few added extras that will likely appeal to families with kids.
What sets the Deco apart most of all is its parental controls and antivirus. Every Deco comes with a three-year subscription to Trend Micro’s antivirus and parental controls. Viruses and malicious websites are filtered before they even get to the user, and there are actual content-based parental controls built into the Deco, as opposed to just the time controls built into most competing solutions.
The antivirus and timeand content-based parental controls are baked into the mobile app. TP-Link’s mobile app is very well made, comparable in quality to many of the competition. Bluetooth-based setup and monitoring is easy, and TP-Link has done an admirable job of making the app both accessible and deep.
In terms of hardware, it’s very much on par with the Google WiFi, right down to the hockey-puck industrial design. It’s symmetrical, so you just add as many as you need to cover your house. There are two Ethernet ports; one of these will be assigned as the WAN port on the first Deco you set up. It has the same network speed as the Google WiFi as well; 866Mbps with in-band backhaul.
It’s not likely to be fastest mesh network you can get (Netgear’s Orbi wins that battle), but the great app design and support for content filtering and anti-malware is a huge bonus for the TP-Link. It’s a great pick for sure, and excellent value when purchased in packs.