TP-Link AV1200 Gigabit Passthrough Powerline Adaptor Starter Kit

Most of us nowadays have either a smart television, Sky+, Apple TV, desktop computer or laptops, games consoles, or Tivo DVR. Or most of the above. These come with ethernet ports on the back, so you can get super-speedy internet connections for catch-up TV, over-the-internet gameplay, or web access.

But your internet router/modem is usually in a different room to all these digital home-entertainment devices. And who wants to stretch ugly ethernet cables all over their house? This is where a Powerline network comes in.

One of the best-known providers of such adaptors is TP-Link. Here we review the company’s AV1200 Starter Kit, which uses the latest fast Powerline chips to make it one of the fastest we’ve tested.

TP-Link has two versions of its AV1200 Gigabit Passthrough Powerline Starter Kit. The £79 TL-PA8010P has one Gigabit Ethernet port on each adaptor (pictured above), while the £88 TL-PA8030P Kit (pictured below) has three sockets.

Both options are subtle white in colour, and are larger than many Powerline adaptors. This is because they have a power socket on the front, which is handy since it means you don’t give up a valuable wall socket by using these adaptors. The ethernet ports are located at the top of the adaptor, which is handy if your power sockets are close to the floorline.

Setting up a home network is easy. Plug one Powerline adaptor into the wall socket near the router, and then connect the adaptor to the router via ethernet cable. Then take the other Powerline adaptor and plug that into a power socket near the TV, Xbox, and so on. You can now connect these to the second adaptor via another ethernet cable. In between the two adaptors, your home’s electrical wiring operates as the ethernet cable.

We put our review unit through two tests. The first of these involves plugging an adaptor into a power socket and then transferring a large file from one computer to another. On this test, the AV1200 equalled our previous top speed of 410Mb/s, by transferring a 1GB file between PC and laptop in 20 seconds.

Our next test adds the second adaptor, which is placed a couple of floors away from the first one. Here, the TP-Link AV1200 managed just over 100Mb/s, which is only slightly slower than the other two Gigabit Powerlines we have tested: the uglier but cheaper Solwise SmartLink 1200AV2 (107Mb/s) and larger but more costly Devolo 1200 (104Mb/s).

Every house is different, so you may get faster speeds than this, but we test all Powerlines in the same house for comparison purposes.

Powerline speed is also heavily affected by what else is using your home writing at the time. Battery chargers and microwaves will noticeably slow Powerline speeds.

Verdict

The TP-Link AV1200 Gigabit Passthrough Powerline Adaptor Starter Kit matches its rival Gigabit Powerline adaptor sets in our real-world speed tests. We prefer the only slightly more expensive TL-PA8030P as it has three Gigabit Ethernet ports, compared to the TL-PA8010P’s single port adaptors. Neither version, however, includes functionality to add a new Wi-Fi hotspot in your house, as some other Powerline adaptors do. That said, if your Wi-Fi signal is acceptable, you can live without a new hotspot, and the TL-PA8030P especially represents great Powerline value.