That’s not much to go around, especially since smart home hubs and the like are so common these days, so bear in mind you may need to budget extra for a separate Gigabit switch to add connectivity.
As with many mesh systems, there’s no facility to share storage or a printer via USB, either, though the Deco X60 does make up for this with its range of software features.
TP-Link Deco X60 review: Setup and software features
The easiest way to set up the Deco system is via the Deco smartphone app, which takes you through setup, step-by-step, unit-by-unit until everything is up and running. I had the system in place and live in less than 20 minutes, which is exactly what you want from a modern Wi-Fi product.
Once the system is live, the app is used to manage the system’s various settings. There is a web-portal you can access with a browser from your laptop but it’s limited in scope and doesn’t allow you to access the same range of settings you can via the app.
The Deco app is split into three main sections. The Overview page shows you all the devices that are connected to the system currently and how much bandwidth they’re using up.
The Homecare section is for managing security and parental controls settings, while the More page gathers together a selection of tools such as a speed test, and advanced settings.
The Deco X60’s security controls are among the most impressive I’ve seen in any router, mesh or otherwise. Not only does it include antivirus cover for the whole network, courtesy of Trend Micro, it also has a malicious content filter, intrusion prevention system and will automatically quarantine devices it sees as a threat.
Parental controls are impressive, too. As with many systems, you can create users and groups of devices belonging to those users, and pause internet access for individual users with a tap of a finger.
You can set a “bedtime” schedule (for weekdays and weekends) and daily limits for each user (on weekdays and weekends again) for total time spent online. Most impressively, perhaps, there’s category-based web filtering with presets for young children, pre-teens, teens and adults, and the ability to block and unblock various categories of websites as you see fit.
As far as traffic management goes, that’s slightly less impressive. There’s nowhere where you can see a meaningful breakdown and analysis of who and what is using up bandwidth. There is, however, an easy to use QoS (quality of service) feature, which allows you to set certain devices as “High Priority” and prioritise certain types of traffic over others at a network level.
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TP-Link Deco X60 review: Performance
Testing was performed in our usual way. I wandered around the house transferring a series of large files back and forth from the laptop to a network share and timed the results. I’ve compared the Deco X60 with the cheaper Netgear Nighthawk AX1800 and the Netgear Orbi WiFi 6, which is the fastest mesh system we’ve tested.
It’s clear to see that the TP-Link Deco X60 is the more effective mesh system than the Nighthawk, especially at close range. That’s what you’d expect given the higher speed rating of the X60. Speeds in the kitchen and living room were, surprisingly, closer together but the X60 eked out a lead again outside on the patio, suggesting it’s a more effective system for larger homes.
Impressively, the TP-Link Deco X60’s close-range performance was better even than the Netgear Orbi WiFi 6, the Deco X60 beating its top download speed of 60.3MB/sec by a 10MB/sec margin, and its upload by nearly double.
The Deco X60’s lack of a dedicated backhaul link showed in the medium-range tests, however. Where speeds fell to a maximum of 22.13MB/sec for downloads and 24.49MB/sec for uploads, the Netgear Orbi WiFi 6 managed to keep speeds up at around 48.1MB/sec and 23.9MB/sec.
