TP-Link Deco X60 vs Google Nest WiFi – which has more coverage? Which is more secure to use? 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. Nest Wifi routers are strong enough to handle up to 200 connected devices, and fast enough to stream multiple 4K videos at a time.[2] Compatible with Google Wifi; Ethernet ports included on each router. 15W power adapter.
Pros & Cons – TP-Link Deco X60 vs Google Nest WiFi
TP-Link Deco X60
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
Google Nest WiFi
The Good The Google Nest Wifi is an excellent mesh router system with impressive top speeds, strong performance at range, easy-to-use features and stable band steering. The range-extending Nest Wifi Points come in your choice of three colors and double as Google Assistant smart speakers.
The Bad Similar mesh systems with comparable coverage can be had for less than half as much. Unlike the range extenders, the Nest Wifi Router only comes in white, and it only includes a single spare Ethernet jack.
Specifications – TP-Link Deco X60 vs Google Nest WiFi
TP-Link Deco X60
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 WPA, WPA2, WPA3
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
Google Nest WiFi
Wi-Fi Spec: 802.11ac/dual-band mesh kit with speaker extension
Number of Antennas/Removable: 4/No
Ports: Router — Two Gbps Ethernet, power; Extension — None
Processor: Quad-core 1.4GHz
Memory/Storage: Router —1GB/4GB; Extension — 768MB/512MB
Wi-Fi Chip: Qualcomm QCS 400 family
Size: Router — 4.3-inch (diameter) x 3.6-inch height; Extension — 4.0-inch (diameter) x 3.4-inch height
Price & coverage
TP-Link has Google beat when it comes to pricing. One router with one node has a list price of $300, but it’s available at Walmart for just $200. You’ll get up to 4,500 square feet of WiFi with that bundle. The other option includes a second extension point and Walmart has it listed for $290, offering up to 6,500 square feet of coverage.
To that end, a Google Nest WiFi router with one node is $270. This covers up to 3,800 square feet of otherwise WiFi-less real estate. But, if you think you need more, a bundle with a router and two nodes (5,400 square feet of coverage) is available for $350. Otherwise, purchasing an individual node will cost you $150. I wasn’t lying when I said you’d have to empty your wallet to make your WiFi router work for everyone in your home.
Review comparison : TP-Link Deco X60 vs Google Nest WiFi
Design
TP-Link Deco X60
The X60 3-pack comes with three identical white cylindrical nodes that provide up to 7,000 square feet of coverage. A 2-pack system that covers up to 5,000 square feet is also available for $269.99; a good price, but still not one that will qualify the Deco family as budget routers. 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).
Google Nest WiFi
Best of all, the Google Nest Wifi modules look incredibly chic with a beautiful circular shape and soft rounded edges. The sensual and modern design is enhanced with the lack of jarring buttons and presented tastefully in a matte white finish. The router emits a soft white glow at the base when activated, providing uninterrupted feedback to your voice commands. Automatic updates to the software also ensure that your WiFi system is safely protected and always up to date.
The router has a 4.3-inch diameter and is 3.6 inches tall. By contrast, the Point extensions are a little smaller with a 4.0-inch diameter and 3.4-inch height.
Ports
TP-Link Deco X60
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.
Google Nest WiFi
The Google Nest WiFi router has a WAN port, a gigabit LAN port, and a power jack embedded in the base. As with the original Google Wifi router, USB connectivity is lacking.
WiFi 6 vs WiFi 5
The TP-Link Deco X60 is an AX3000 whole home mesh WiFi, which uses the latest next-generation WiFi 6 system. What that means is that it is capable of offering a surfing speed up to 2.5 times quicker than Generation 5 WiFi systems and an immersive streaming speed of up to 3 Gbps (to be exact 2,402 Mbps on 5 GHz and 574 Mbps on 2.4 GHz) with no buffering time at all! If you are tired of dead zones and waiting around for your data downloads or putting up with pixelated or laggy movie streaming quality, then the TP-Link Deco X60 is definitely what you’ll want for your home.
Google Nest WiFi doesn’t support the latest, fastest version of Wi-Fi, called Wi-Fi 6, but that only really matters if you expect to have an internet connection that’s faster than 500 megabits per second or so within the next few years
Voice assistant
You can also make use of the built-in Google Assistant to go online and search for food recipes, check on the weather or calendar, or play your favourite tunes off Spotify. Create a guest network easily with the Google Nest, so you can share your WiFi connection with visitors to your home with minimal fuss.
Speed
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 Nest averaged the fastest download speeds throughout the house, with an impressive overall average of 222Mbps. The Eero was the runner-up with a whole-home average of 204Mbps, and the budget-priced Netgear Orbi finished a respectable third, averaging 195Mbps.
Build & hardware
TP-Link Deco X60
Under the hood are four internal antennas, a 1 GHz quad-core CPU, and 802.11ax circuitry. The X60 is a six-stream, dual-band AX3000 system capable of throughput speeds of up to 574 megabits per second (Mbps) on the 2.4 GHz band and up to 2,402 Mbps on the 5GHz band. It employs all of the latest Wi-Fi 6 technologies, including 1024 QAM, Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) data transmissions, WPA3 encryption, MU-MIMO simultaneous data streaming, band steering, and direct to client signal beamforming.
Google Nest WiFi
The lack of Wi-Fi 6 support might seem like a missed opportunity, but the Nest Wifi does include support for modern features like WPA3 security, device grouping and prioritization and 4×4 MU-MIMO connections that offer faster aggregate speeds for devices like the MacBook Pro that can use multiple Wi-Fi antennas at once. It’s also fully backward-compatible with previous-gen Google Wifi setups, which is a smart touch. All of it is easy to set up, easy to use and easy to rely on, making it the most well-rounded mesh router pick of the bunch, and the first one I’d recommend to just about anyone looking to upgrade a home network.
This is a 4×4 AC2200 dual-band router that can reach maximum data rates of 400Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 1,733Mbps on the 5GHz band and is powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of flash memory. The original router also uses a quad-core CPU, but it is a 2×2 AC1200 router with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of flash memory.
App usage – TP-Link Deco X60 vs Google Nest WiFi
TP-Link
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. 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.
Google Home app
The app is clean and fairly simple, and it does a great job of walking you through a setup process that’s easy to begin with. You just plug everything in, tell the app to connect with the router, and then scan a QR code on the bottom of each Point with your phone’s camera. A few minutes later, your mesh network will be up and running.
Alternate of TP-Link Deco X60 or Google Nest WiFi
NETGEAR ORBI – The best mesh networking system for most people
While you’ll see Netgear Orbi kit sold alongside mesh networks, it’s actually a little different to most packages: it’s more like a turbo-charged wireless extender than a conventional mesh network. All the nodes talk to the main router unit, rather than to each other, so you need to take that into account when positioning them.
In our testing, using a pair of Orbi nodes to cover the areas of the house where a normal router starts trailing off, the Netgear Orbi gear performed admirably, with very little loss of speed when connected to the secondary box.
Setup is refreshingly painless, as well, and the Orbi router and satellite extenders are stylishly designed. Each of the satellites brings with it a generous four Ethernet ports and a USB connection too (though that port is currently used to connect printers, rather than offering a way to add networked storage).
Orbi is also a great home networking solution as it can be picked up in either a 2-pack or a 3-pack, so depending on how big or small your home is you can get it covered accordingly. The new Netgear Orbi Voice system also allows you to add in smart speaker functionality (Amazon Alexa built in) to your base router, too.
Overall, then, strong home networking performance and easy setup, as well as a large dollop of style and scalability, really do combine to make this the best mesh networking system going today in 2021.
NETGEAR ORBI WIFI 6 – The best premium mesh network
There are cheaper Orbi options (see below), but the Orbi WiFi 6 is the latest and greatest mesh network system from Netgear – with full Wi-Fi 6 compatibility, it’s able to reach blazing fast speeds, and uses a dedicated backhaul channel to make sure the connection between the router and its satellites is always rock solid.
It’s certainly on the expensive side, but with a total of 6Gbps of bandwidth available to up to 100 devices, the kit will create a network that it’s very hard to get the better of. Whether you want your Wi-Fi to reach right into the attic, or you need to connect up a slew of new smart home devices, the Orbi WiFi 6 can help.
Add in a straightforward setup process, an intuitive and easy to use app, and support for Google Assistant and Alexa voice commands, and you can see why the Netgear Orbi WiFi 6 makes it on to our best mesh network list… you might just have to save up a while to be able to afford it.
Editor’s recommendations
- TP-Link Deco X60 vs Netgear Orbi – review and troubleshooting
- TP-Link WiFi 6 mesh WiFi AX3000 whole home mesh WiFi review – how to setup?
- Netgear Orbi Pro AC3000 Tri-band mesh Wi-Fi system 3-pack (SRK60B03) review
- Netgear Orbi comparison 2021 – can you play 4K game?
- TaoTronics mesh WiFi system Tri band AC3000 review and setup
