TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) review – what is the best price?

TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) review

TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) comes with revolutionary OFDMA and MU-MIMO technology that Cover up to 7,000 sq. ft. in high-performance 3 Gbps (3000 Mbps) speeds, perfect for 4K/8K streaming, intense online gaming, and more throughout your whole home. auto-selects the best connection as you move around your home. What is the TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) best price? Find more in TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) review.

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Pros & Cons – TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack)

PROS

  • Easy to install and manage
  • Good signal range
  • Robust parental controls
  • Lifetime malware protection
  • Alexa voice control

CONS

  • Middling throughput performance
  • Lacks USB connectivity
  • Dynamic (not dedicated) wireless backhaul

Specs – TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack)

  • Wireless Specification 802.11ax
  • Number of Bands 2
  • AC Speed AX3000
  • Number of Antennas 4
  • Number of Wired LAN Ports (Excluding WAN Port) 1 on main router, 2 on node
  • MU-MIMO Yes
  • Quality of Service (QoS) Yes
  • Security WPA3, WPA, WPA2
  • Parental Controls Yes
  • IPv6 Compatible Yes
  • Coverage Area for Hardware as Tested 7000 sq ft
  • Number of Nodes 3
  • Wired Backhaul Yes
  • Anti-Malware Tools Yes
  • Number of USB ports 0
  • Separate Bands Yes
  • DD-WRT / Tomato-Compatible No

TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) best price

TP-Link’s Deco X60 AX3000 Whole Home Mesh WiFi System costs $329.99 and comes as a three-piece Wi-Fi mesh network system designed to blanket your home in Wi-Fi 6 goodness.

A 2-pack system that covers up to 5,000 square feet is also available for $269.99; a good price

There is tons of competition in the mesh networking space, however. As mentioned, Google Nest Wi-Fi is an option, as are products from Eero, Netgear, and Asus. The $449 Asus ZenWiFi AX is a great Wi-Fi 6 choice. Some might find the $200 Netgear Orbi AC1200 a more budget-friendly pick. If you care to stick with TP-Link, the Deco X20 AX1800 is a less expensive option that covers less square footage.

A price of £420 might sound a lot but the Deco X60 is decent value for a Wi-Fi 6 mesh system. The Netgear Orbi WiFi 6, which was the first such product we reviewed, costs more than £700 comes with only two units in the box.

There are cheaper Wi-Fi 6 mesh systems in the pipeline, however: both the BT Whole Home Premium (£270) and the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 (£299) are available for £300 or thereabouts.

TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) Review

Design

The X60 3-pack comes with three identical white cylindrical nodes. Standing 4.5 inches high and 4.3 inches wide the nodes do not offer the low-profile aesthetics of the Deco M9 Plus nodes (2.5 by 5.7 inches) but are still smaller than the TP-Link Deco M4 nodes (7.5 by 3.6 inches). 

Ports

The back of each node holds two gigabit LAN ports and a power jack, and there’s a reset button on the bottom of the base. Missing are the USB and multi-gig ports that you get with Asus ZenWiFi AX XT8 Wi-Fi system. 

These Ethernet ports can also be used to strengthen your mesh with a wired backhaul. If you need more Ethernet options, you’ll need to pair this system with a switch. That being said, the Deco X60 can be run in either Access Point mode or Bridge mode. Most people will want to use Access Point mode, which is selected by default.

LED indicator

An LED indicator on the base blinks blue during set, is solid green when everything is working properly, and glows red when the node is experiencing connectivity issues.

Antenna

There’s no visible antennas as all the 6 antennas are cleverly hidden inside the device. It only comes with a matte white color which resist fingerprint and dust. The Deco X60 is the fastest mesh WiFi sold by TP-Link at the point of writing this article.

Hardware

The TP-Link Deco X60 AX3000 is a great way to get Wi-Fi 6 into your home. Each node has four antennas and is powered by a quad-core 1GHz processor. It can handle up to six streams across the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands with MU-MIMO data streaming at 1024QAM. Advanced features include band steering and beamforming.

WiFi Band 12.4GHZ Wireless AX up to 574Mbps (2X2 40Mhz)
WiFi Band 25Ghz Wireless AX up to 2404Mbps (4X4 80Mhz)
CPUQualcomm 1Ghz Quad-Core CPU
RAM512MB
Ports2 x Gigabit Ethernet LAN/WAN Port

Speed you are getting TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) price

The Wi-Fi 6 powers of the Deco X6 allow it to support theoretical speeds up to 3Gbps. In order to reach speeds that high, it’ll need to attain a peak of 574Mbps in the 2.4GHz band and 2.4Gbps in the 5GHz band. More importantly, your connection speed will need to be able to handle that.

My home internet service (Verizon FiOS) is limited to 100Mbps up and down, so those are the max speeds I saw from the TP-Link Deco X60 AX3000. Clearly, I’m underutilizing the system. If you’re lucky enough to have gigabit service, you should see much higher speeds. Coverage, however, is more important than raw speed, and that’s one of the major benefits of the Deco X60.

Protection

The X60 comes with a lifetime subscription to TP-Link’s HomeCare, a suite of parental controls, anti-malware, and Quality of Service (QoS) tools powered by Trend Micro. The parental controls offer age-based presets (Child, Pre-Teen, Teen, Adult) that prevent your child from accessing websites with gambling, social media, file sharing, pornography, and other adult oriented content. You can add any URL to your blocked website list and create access schedules and time limits.

TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) Installation

As we’ve stated, the was a breeze when it came to setup. We had the X60 up and running in no time, a process that started by downloading the Deco app and creating an account. After that we just tapped Let’s Begin, selected the X60 from the list of Deco models, and followed the instructions to power down our modem. We connected a Deco node to the modem using the supplied LAN cable and powered up the modem and the Deco node.

After a few seconds the node’s LED went from yellow to flashing blue, indicating that it was ready for setup. Using our smartphone’s Wi-Fi settings, we connected to the Deco’s SSID and waited a second or two for the app to find the node. We then gave the node a location (office) and let the app use the DHCP and default MAC address settings to configure Internet access.

Finally, we gave the new network a name and password, connected our phone to the new SSID, and network setup was complete. We tapped Next and followed the instructions to plug in the other nodes, which were recognized within 30 seconds or so. We gave them each a location name, and after a quick 5 minute firmware update, we were fully up and running.

TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) App

When you launch the app you’ll see an Overview screen with the name of the network and its Internet status as well as a list of currently connected clients. Tapping the Internet icon takes you to a screen that displays all connected mesh nodes, and tapping any node opens a screen with real-time time upload and download speeds and a list of clients currently connected to that node. Here you can turn off seamless roaming for any client.

You can manage the X60 using TP-Link’ Deco mobile app or with a web console but the web console lacks access to many of the management options that you get with the app including parental controls, quality of service, and anti-malware settings.

The More button opens a Settings screen with buttons that allow you to configure Wi-Fi settings, test your Internet speed, create a network black list, view monthly usage and security threat reports, and update the firmware. Use the Advanced button to configure IPv4 and IPv6; Port Forwarding; and Fast Roaming settings, create IP address reservations, and enable/disable IPTV/VLAN and MAC Cloning options.

At the bottom of the Overview screen are three buttons: the Overview button takes you back to the main screen from wherever you are in the app, and the HomeCare button takes you to a screen where you can configure the above-mentioned parental controls, anti-malware settings, and quality of service (QoS) settings.

TP-Link Deco X60 AX3000 router network testing and QoS controls screen shots
TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) review and price

The X60 supports Amazon Alexa commands which allow you to use your voice to do things like pause internet access for clients, enable/disable guest networking, and turn off LED indicator lights.

TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack) Performance review

I tested the Deco X60 in three locations around my home with two Wi-Fi 6 devices and a Wi-Fi 5 device. I have a 500Mbps down internet connection from Cox. Upload speeds on Cox are limited to just 10Mbps, and all testing locations were able to deliver these slow speeds with no issue, so they weren’t included in the table.

DeviceLiving room
(Main Deco)
Front room
(Mesh Deco)
Bathroom
Galaxy S20+544 Mbps
554 Mbps
309 Mbps
314 Mbps
345 Mbps
342 Mbps
LG G8368 Mbps
384 Mbps
270 Mbps
257 Mbps
326 Mbps
333 Mbps
iPhone 11 Pro473 Mbps
445 Mbps
361 Mbps
366 Mbps
334 Mbps
376 Mbps

Speed tests around my home were generally very good though there were some issues getting my devices to connect to my desired band. For the most part, devices were assigned logically and delivered solid speeds. My devices had no issue seeing both of the Deco nodes in my house, so it wasn’t possible to guarantee that they were connected to the closest one. Still, I cycled Wi-Fi off then on before testing at each location.

The X60’s score of 758 Mbps on our close proximity (same room) test was certainly faster than most Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) mesh router scores, which average somewhere in the 540 Mbps range. But it trailed the Wi-Fi 6-based Linksy Velop MX10, Netgear Orbi RBK852, and Asus ZenWiFi XT8 routers by more than 100 Mbps. The Velop MX10 led with a score 865 Mbps. On the 30-foot test the X60 router’s score of 290 Mbps was a bit slower than the others, but not by much. The ZenWiFi XT8 led with a score of 347 Mbps.

The X60 satellite node didn’t fare so well. It garnered 521Mbps on the close proximity test, trailing the leader, the Asus ZenWiFi XT8, by 154 Mbps. The Linksys Velop MX10 and Netgear Orbi RBK852 both were more than 100 Mbps faster than the X60. On the 30-foot test the X60 node scored 386 Mbps. That’s 233 Mbps slower than the ZenWiFi XT8 node. 

Alternate of TP-Link Deco X60 (3-pack)

The Netgear Orbi RBK752 is a tri-band Wi-Fi system that doesn’t operate like a true mesh but has a base router and satellites for expansion. This still allows you to use the same Wi-Fi name but makes future expansion a bit more challenging. It’s more expensive than the Deco X60 but offers greater speeds at AX4200. The Orbi also has more Ethernet ports, with three open on the base router and two on the satellite.

Nest Wifi from Google is well-known as a reliable mesh solution with adequate speeds and regularly updated software. Nest Wifi also works well with other Nest products, and its extenders can even be used as Google Home smart speakers. Nest Wifi is slower than the X60 and only uses Wi-Fi 5, but it has more than enough speed for many people.

The TP-Link Deco X68 has a lot in common with the X60, but it also has an extra 5GHz band. This can help the X68 deliver consistently higher speeds since it will not need to share a band between the mesh and devices. This can also help if you live in an area with lots of 5GHz traffic, thanks to the additional 5GHz channels available.

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