TP-Hyperlink’s newest addition to the Archer household of Wi-Fi routers, the GE800 ($599.99), is a modern tri-band gaming router that makes use of Wi-Fi 7 know-how, 6GHz transmissions, and a number of high-speed wired community connections to convey blazing knowledge charges to your on-line gaming. It comes with parental controls and community safety software program and provides a number of gamer-friendly options, together with lighting results, sport optimization, and a cool-looking case with hidden antennas. The GE800 is extra reasonably priced than the $799.99 Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Professional, nevertheless it’s nonetheless costly. General, the Editors’ Alternative-winning GT-BE98 Professional is a greater purchase if you happen to can afford it, providing a second 6GHz band, quicker 6GHz throughput, stronger sign efficiency, and an additional LAN port.Design: Spaceship or Wi-Fi Router?One take a look at the GE800 tells you that this router is designed for players. As with the Netgear RAX120, it has a double-wing design harking back to one thing straight out of Star Wars, however the GE800 router provides a extra chiseled look. At 11.5 by 8.1 by 8.8 inches, it leaves a pretty big footprint.
RGB LED strips on every wing and within the base increase an in any other case plain matte black end. The lighting results may be adjusted utilizing each an on-board button and the Tether cellular app. The wings comprise a complete of eight antennas (4 on all sides) which are used to broadcast Wi-Fi over the two.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz radio bands. A fan embedded within the base between the wings helps preserve inside parts cool.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
The entrance of the router incorporates a WPS button, a Wi-Fi On/Off button, and an Acceleration button, which mechanically detects and optimizes gaming streams and accelerates sport purposes for optimum efficiency. You may additionally discover the button to allow and disable the RGB lighting results on the entrance. In the event you press and maintain this button, you possibly can cycle via the assorted results, which embrace Rainbow, Fireplace, Wave, Comet, Ripple, Spectrum, and Loop. The LEDs additionally act as standing indicators and can flash crimson and blue throughout startup, blink crimson if there isn’t any web connection, blink orange when Wi-Fi is off, blink yellow when Wi-Fi is off with no web connection, and blink blue throughout a firmware replace.
The rear panel is the place you’ll discover the GE800’s I/O ports, which embrace a 10GbE WAN/LAN port, a 10GbE WAN/LAN SPF+ combo port for fiber connections, a 2.5GbE WAN/LAN port, and three 2.5GbE LAN ports, certainly one of which is a devoted gaming port. The entire WAN and LAN ports help hyperlink aggregation. Again right here, you’ll additionally discover a USB 3.0 port, an influence jack, an influence swap, and a reset button.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
The GE800 has a 2.2GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. It’s a BE19000 router, which implies that it will possibly hit most theoretical speeds of as much as 1,376Mbps on the two.4GHz band, as much as 5,760Mbps on the 5GHz band, and as much as 11,520Mbps on the 6GHz band, for a complete of roughly 19,000Mbps. It makes use of the entire newest Wi-Fi 7 applied sciences, together with 320MHz channel bandwidth, 4K QAM, direct-to-client beamforming, MU-MIMO knowledge streaming, Multi-Hyperlink Operation (MLO), and orthogonal frequency-division a number of entry (OFDMA) transmissions. The GE800 is EasyMesh appropriate, which suggests you should utilize it as a fundamental router or node in a mesh community when paired with different TP-Hyperlink EasyMesh units.You possibly can handle the GE800 utilizing a web-based console or with the TP-Hyperlink Tether cellular app. The app opens to a Gaming display screen that shows the title and an image of the router, its present standing, and its present web add and obtain knowledge charges. Faucet the image to view CPU and reminiscence utilization, MAC and IP handle data, and the firmware model.Beneath the info price readings is a Recreation Middle panel, and under which are tiles labeled Community Standing, Shoppers, Recreation Statistics, RGB Results, Visitors Utilization, and Visitor Community. The Recreation Middle is the place you go to allow Recreation Increase, which mechanically detects gaming shoppers and optimizes their connections to lots of of supported video games for elevated efficiency. Right here you too can allow the Recreation Server Acceleration function that lowers latency between the consumer and sport server.Whenever you faucet the Community Standing tile, you’ll see the identical CPU utilization and statistics that you just see once you faucet the router image, and once you faucet the Shoppers tile, you possibly can see which shoppers are at the moment related and which band they’re utilizing. You can even view a listing of offline shoppers and see once they have been final energetic. The Recreation Statistic tile opens a display screen the place you possibly can view a historical past of video games performed and the overall on-line time, and the Visitors Utilization tile presents a display screen with every day and weekly community site visitors charts and the way a lot site visitors every app is chargeable for. The RGB Results tile opens a display screen the place you possibly can select a lighting impact, disable lighting results, and create customized multicolor results.
(Credit score: TP-Hyperlink)
Faucet the Safety button on the backside of the display screen to scan the community for potential malware and to isolate consumer units that could be contaminated utilizing the free HomeShield software program. If you wish to add Net Safety to dam entry to malicious websites, Intrusion Prevention to defend in opposition to exterior assaults, and IoT Safety to defend your related sensible dwelling units from hackers, you’ll must subscribe to a $4.99 month-to-month ($35.99 yearly) HomeShield Safety+ plan. The $5.99 month-to-month ($69.99 yearly) Complete Safety bundle provides antivirus safety, a VPN service, password administration, and PC cleansing instruments.The free model of HomeShield provides sturdy parental controls with age-based web site filters, content material filtering, and bedtime scheduling, all of which you’ll be able to configure by tapping the Household button on the backside of the display screen. For added options, together with SafeSearch content material filtering and Time Limits that allow you to set a every day restrict of on-line time, you’ll must pay one other $2.99 per 30 days or $17.99 per 12 months.To entry superior settings, allow an IoT community for sensible units, create a mesh community, and run community diagnostics, faucet the Extra button on the backside of the display screen. Right here, you too can entry RGB results, configure the router to function an entry level, view system data, and create a listing of blocked units.Testing the Archer GE800: Blistering 2.4GHz and 5GHz SpeedsI used the Tether app to put in the router and tapped Add Machine on the Welcome display screen. I chosen Gaming Router from the checklist, tapped Archer GE800, and adopted the directions to energy down my modem, join the router to the modem, and energy the whole lot again up. I confirmed that the LEDs have been blinking crimson, used my cellphone’s Wi-Fi settings to hook up with the router, and entered the password discovered on the underside of the router. I returned to the app, then tapped I’m Related; the router was instantly acknowledged. I tapped the router icon and created a brand new native account when prompted. I advised the app which WAN port to make use of, chosen a connection sort (DHCP), and chosen Do Not Change MAC Deal with. Subsequent, I disabled Good Join, created SSIDs and passwords for all three bands, and utilized the brand new settings. I used to be prompted to hitch the community with my cellphone, and after a number of seconds, the set up was full.The GE800 carried out nicely on our throughput exams. Its rating of 195Mbps on the two.4GHz shut proximity check took high honors, beating the Asus RT-BE96U (150Mbps), the Asus GT-BE98 Professional (148Mbps), and the TP-Hyperlink Archer BE800 (175Mbps). Its rating of 86Mbps on the two.4GHz 30-foot check was quicker than the RT-BE96U (83Mbps) and the GT-BE98 Professional (74Mbps) however not the Archer BE800 (88Mbps).
On the 5GHz shut proximity check, the GE800 led with a rating of 1,989Mbps. The RT-BE96U scored 1,548Mbps, the GT-BE98 Professional scored 1,828Mbps, and the Archer BE800 scored 1,880Mbps. On the 5GHz 30-foot check, the GE800 couldn’t preserve tempo with the remainder of the pack. It managed 736Mbps, whereas the RT-BE96U scored 906Mbps, and the GT-BE98 Professional garnered 911Mbps. The Archer BE800 beat all of them with 978Mbps.The GE800 delivered 2,337Mbps (at shut proximity) and 338Mbps (at 30 toes) on the 6GHz throughput exams, whereas the RT-BE96U scored 2,451Mbps and 311Mbps, respectively. In the meantime, the GT-BE98 Professional offered the quickest scores we’ve seen on this check, delivering 3,075Mbps at shut proximity and 442Mbps at 30 toes.We use Ekahau’s Sidekick 2 Wi-Fi diagnostic machine and Survey cellular app to generate warmth maps that present the router’s 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz sign power all through our check dwelling (Observe: Ekahau is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag.com’s father or mother firm. For extra, examine our ethics coverage within the Editorial Mission Assertion.) The white circle on the map represents the situation of the router, and the colours characterize sign power, with darker greens representing the strongest sign, yellows representing a weaker sign, and grays indicating a really weak or nonexistent sign.As proven on the maps under, the GE800 Professional delivered comparatively sturdy 2.4GHz indicators all through the home, however 5GHz indicators confirmed important degradation within the three farthest corners of the home. As we’ve seen with each different 6GHz-capable router, the 6GHz sign had a brief vary as a result of energy limitations.
2.4GHz Ekahau Wi-Fi protection map for the TP-Hyperlink Archer GE800 BE19000 (Credit score: Ekahau)
5GHz Ekahau Wi-Fi protection map for the TP-Hyperlink Archer GE800 BE19000 (Credit score: Ekahau)
6GHz Ekahau Wi-Fi protection map for the TP-Hyperlink Archer GE800 BE19000 (Credit score: Ekahau)
On our file switch exams, during which we measure learn and write speeds by shifting a 1.5GB folder containing photographs, video, music, and workplace doc information forwards and backwards between a USB 3.0 drive and our desktop PC, the GE800 scored 87MBps on the write check and 84MBps on the learn check. The RT-BE96U scored 82MBps on the write check and 83MBps on the learn check, and the GT-BE98 Professional scored 89MBps on each exams. The Archer BE800 beat all of them with scores of 102MBps on the write check and 109MBps on the learn check.
Verdict: Wi-Fi 7 Gaming for LessIf your present router can’t present the community efficiency you want for fast-paced on-line gaming, take into account upgrading to the TP-Hyperlink Archer GE800 BE19000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Gaming Router. It provides numerous game-enhancing options and settings, it has a glance that many players crave, and our exams present it delivers exceptionally speedy throughput on the two.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Whereas it is true that you just’ll get a lot quicker 6GHz throughput and higher 5GHz sign efficiency with our Editors’ Alternative winner, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Professional, it’ll price you an additional $200.
TP-Hyperlink Archer GE800 BE19000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Gaming Router
Professionals
Glorious 2.4GHz and 5GHz efficiency
Wi-Fi 7 know-how with 6GHz transmissions
A number of high-speed networking ports
Plenty of gamer-centric options
Modern design
View
Extra
The Backside Line
The TP-Hyperlink GE800 BE19000 is a tri-band router designed for players, with Wi-Fi 7 tech to ship speedy throughput and a beneficiant assortment of gamer-friendly options. Solely its comparatively weak sign power holds it again from excellence.
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About John R. Delaney
Contributing Editor
I’ve been working with computer systems for ages, beginning with a multi-year stint in buying for a significant IBM reseller in New York Metropolis earlier than finally touchdown at PCMag (again when it was nonetheless in print as PC Journal). I spent greater than 14 years on employees, most lately because the director of operations for PC Labs, earlier than hitting the freelance circuit as a contributing editor.
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