Biareview.com - TP-Link Archer C7 (V2)

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amazon TP-Link Archer C7 (V2) reviews

For $99.99, TP-Link’s Archer C7 AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (V2) is an affordable router that acts like a more expensive router. Its scores in our 2.4GHz and 5GHz transfer rate tests are significantly faster than the competition, and it offers a great feature set, including four Gigabit LAN ports and a pair of ports USB 2.0. Management settings are plentiful, but the web control panel is slow to respond and lacks user-friendly icons to help you navigate the menu system.

Design and Features

The latest Archer C7 is a dual-band AC1750 router using a 720MHz CPU. It can reach speeds of up to 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 1,300Mbps on the 5GHz band. In terms of design, the C7 is unchanged from the TP-Link Archer C7 AC1750 Dual-Band Wireless Gigabit Router we reviewed in 2014. It uses the same glossy black housing 9,6 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches. The back of the router is home to three detachable, adjustable antennas, four Gigabit LAN ports, one Gigabit WAN port, and two USB 2.0 ports. Combined with them are an On/Off button, a Reset/WPS button, a Wi-Fi On/Off button, and two USB activity LEDs. The front of the router has LEDs indicating power, both radio, all four LAN ports, WAN ports, and WPS activity.

The web control panel is the older, text-based version used on the original TP-Link Archer C7 and lacks the graphical elements you’ll find on newer TP-Link Routers, such as the Bandwidth Router. Wireless Dual Band AC2600 Archer C2600 and Gigabit Router AC3150 MU-MIMO Gigabit Archer C3150. There is also a noticeable delay between the time you make the change and the time the change is saved; in some cases, I have to wait up to 30 seconds. That said, it offers tons of basic and advanced settings. The main Status page lists settings on the left and the center’s LAN, WAN, Wireless, and Traffic Statistics information.

On the right is a detailed explanation for each setting. Network settings include WAN, LAN, MAC Clone, and IPTV options.

Settings and Performance

Installing Archer C7 is easy. After connecting it to my desktop and the Internet, I booted it up and typed http://tplinkwifi.net into the browser address bar to access the management console. I click on the Quick Settings tab on the left and select Autodiscover. The control panel found my internet connection and asked if I wanted to run Wi-Fi Simultaneously (dual band) or just single-band (2.4GHz or 5GHz, but not both). I selected Simultaneous and was taken to the wireless settings screen to configure the security settings. Once configured, I’m ready to use.

The Archer C7 shined in our transfer speed tests. A 2.4GHz proximity test (in the same room) score of 91.3Mbps is vastly superior to its less-popular cousins, the Netgear AC1200 Smart Wi-Fi Router (R6220) (74.1 Mbps), the D-Link AC1200 Wi-Fi Router (DIR-842) (75 Mbps), and the Linksys EA6350 AC1200+ Dual-Band Smart Wi-Fi Router (72.5 Mbps). Likewise, its 62.8 Mbps during the 30-foot test blew all others out of the water; The Netgear R6220 scored 48.3 Mbps, D-Link DIR-842 transfer rate was 41.5 Mbps, and Linksys EA6350 speed stands at 39.3 Mbps.

The Archer C7 glistened in our 5GHz transfer rate tests-for budget routers, anyway. It scored 509Mbps on the proximity test, while Netgear R6220 got 331Mbps, the D-Link AC1200 Wi-Fi Router (DIR-842) got 332Mbps, and the Linksys EA6350 hit 427Mbps. At 30 feet, the 250Mbps score of the Archer C7 managed to score first again over Netgear R6220 with 104Mbps, D-Link DIR-842 with 111Mbps, and Linksys EA6350 with 199Mbps.

A USB drive and a folder measuring 1.5 GB containing mixed photo, music, video, and document files were used to test the router’s file reading and writing speeds. Being an average file transfer speed for other budget routers, the write speed is 21.5 Mbps for the Archer C7, the same as that of the Linksys EA6350 and slightly faster than 17.6 Mbps posted by the Netgear R6220. The Linksys EA6100 AC1200 Dual-Band Smart Wi-Fi Router managed to hit 27.4MBps write speed. During the reading test, only slightly behind the Linksys EA6350 (28 Mbps) and the Linksys EA6100 (28.3 Mbps) and a little ahead of the Netgear R6220 (25.6 Mbps), the Archer C7 registered 27.5MBps transfer speed. D-Link DIR-842 was not included in the tests since it does not feature a USB port.

Conclusion

TP-Link Archer C7 (V2) may be under $100, but you’ll never know it based on its performance and feature set. Its 2.4GHz and 5GHz transfer rate scores are better than similarly priced budget models, including the $90 Linksys EA6350 AC1200+ Dual-Band Smart Wi-Fi Router, and it offers plenty of management settings and multiple I/O ports. However, the Archer C7’s user interface could update, and its file-transfer performance could be better. That said, it’s the fastest dual-band router in its class.