TP-Link adds WiFi 7 mesh extenders to its oddly robust WiFi 7 lineup
Early bird (router) gets the worm (2023 CES Innovator awards)
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: TP-Link, router flouter
📡 TP-Link announced two Wi-Fi 7 range extenders at CES 2023
😳 TP-Link has now announced 11 – yes, 11 – WiFi 7 consumer products
🤔 There won’t likely be WiFi 7 smartphones until at least 2024
Router manufacturer TP-Link, who makes one of our best WiFi router picks, the Archer GX90, debuted two new Wi-Fi 7 range extenders at CES 2023. The company has been aggressively staking its claim as the firstest with the mostest when it comes to WiFi 7, having held an event back in November to unveil a shockingly large number of routers supporting the expanded 6GHz protocol.
The roster included a $700 quad-band router (Archer BE900), two high-speed tri-band routers (Archer BE800 and BE805), two slower Wi-Fi 7 models, the Archer BE550 and the Archer BE230, the latter of which is intended as an entry-level router, and the GE800, a tri-band gaming router.
TP-Link also announced three coming Wi-Fi 7 products to update its Deco mesh line. With the new WiFi 7 range extenders to the mix, bringing its total number of announced WiFi 7 products to a strangely robust eleven, if you don’t count its enterprise products.
TP-Link’s naming scheme goes awry
The first range extender is called – and this is a doozie if you’ve ever made words on a calculator – the RE800BE. Leaving the jokes at the door, the RE800BE isn’t really a traditional range extender, but is actually a mesh node clearly intended for use with the Archer BE800, given the visual similarities the two share.
Like the BE800, TP-Link says the RE800BE offers up to 19Gbps throughput (which, let’s be very clear, you will never see on a single device, as that represents the combined throughput potential of all its bands), as well as a single 10Gbps port and two gigabit ethernet LAN ports.
Called the RE550BE, the second mesh node, then, would be intended for the Archer BE550. It gets 9,213Mbps (again, combined) and offers a 2.5Gbps port instead of 10Gbps, in addition to its two gigabit ports.
Both mesh nodes are tri-band, like their associated gateway routers, and would work on TP-Link’s EasyMesh system. The announcement joins news that TP-Link has won CES Innovator Awards for both its Deco BE95 quad-band mesh system and its Archer GE800.
Will my phone work with a WiFi 7 router?
The short answer to this question of whether or not your phone will work with a WiFi 7 router is yes, since WiFi 7 is a backwards compatible standard, like those before it.
But you won’t get the full benefit of the router anytime soon – the some 55% of US smartphone users have iPhones, which don’t even support WiFi 6E, and few non-premium Android phones do. The first WiFi 7 smartphones aren’t expected until 2024 after the spec is finalized.
Pricing and release dates
While TP-Link did not release pricing information for the new mesh extenders, it did give pricing info for some of its already announced routers, as follows:
Archer BE900 | $699.99
Deco BE85 2-pack | $999.99
Deco BE95 2-pack | $1199.99
Those three will release in Q1 2023, while the rest are coming later this year.