BT MINI WI-FI HOME HOTSPOT 500 KIT

£55 inc VAT • bt.com

The BT Wi-Fi Home Hotspot 500 Kit is a well-made, fully featured 500Mb/s Wi-Fi Powerline set of adaptors that performed well in our real-world speed tests. It stands out from other Powerlines with its striking black design. There are two versions: one Mini Wi-Fi Home Hotspot kit, and the other main set that includes a handy passthrough power socket, but might be rather too big and black for most living rooms. The latter can create a new Wi-Fi hotspot in the room, offering much faster Wi-Fi for your laptop or tablet.

The BT Wi-Fi Home Hotspot 500 is about as fully featured as 500Mb/s Powerline adaptor kits go. It offers both fast downloading over ethernet and speedy Wi-Fi. It has two 10/100 ethernet ports on the second adaptor, so you can connect more than one device via ethernet. Take a look at the back of your Sky+ box or TV, and you’ll soon see why having at least two ports is a real benefit. Like most 500Mb/s Powerline adaptors, because it uses 10/100 ethernet ports, its maximum speed is pegged back to 100Mb/s. If you want to hit faster speeds, you need to go for a Powerline product that boasts gigabit ethernet ports.

The larger BT Wi-Fi Home Hotspot 500 has a useful passthrough power socket on the base unit. Most routers find themselves near computers, printers, hard drives and other gadgets – all of which demand a power source – so keeping one socket working is a real help. It would have been even more useful if both adaptors offered this, however – as you get with the Devolo, Solwise and TP-Link