TP-Link 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐨 X55 AX3000 WiFi 6 Mesh System - Covers up to 6500 Sq.Ft. , Replaces Wireless Router and Extender, 3 Gigabit ports per unit, supports Ethernet Backhaul (3-pack)

The TP-Link Deco X55 (AX3000) is an affordable Wi-Fi 6 mesh system ideal for Spectrum gigabit users. Its dual-band AX3000 speeds (up to 2.4 Gbps) and AI-driven mesh optimization deliver seamless coverage for 6,500 sq. ft., eliminating dead zones in large homes. Each unit’s three Gigabit ports support wired backhaul for faster node-to-node speeds, while the Deco app simplifies setup and management. Users praise its plug-and-play simplicity and ability to handle 150+ devices simultaneously without lag. Though lacking multi-gig ports, the X55 offers excellent value for Spectrum households seeking reliable whole-home Wi-Fi at a budget-friendly price

UPDATED REVIEW: I have used and tested three different TP-Link outdoor units, the EAP 225 outdoor, EAP 650 Outdoor, and finally this unit the X50 Outdoor. I mounted it approximately 8 feet off the ground. The mount for the 650 will work with the X50 but not the other way around. The first two are made for business use and take a little more steps to setup and do not work seamlessly with existing mesh like the XE70 Pro's I am using. First and foremost, clear line of sight is very important. Don't expect any of these to go through a metal shed wall or a thick cover of trees. No wifi will. However, with a medium tree area that you can still see the hotspot from it will work pretty good! I used the 225 for over a year and it would achieve around 150-200 mbps download out to around 100-150 yards. The 650 was another story and I used it for about 6 months now and it will give you around 200-300mbps out 250 yards and even got 50 mbps downloads out at 400 yards. These are plenty for say a wifi camera like Reolink or yes even a battery powered Ring that I tested for several months at 250 yards while only getting around 40 mbps downloads due to shrubs and limbs partially in the way. I decided to pull the trigger on the X50 outdoor as I heard it was about the same strength as the 650 outdoor according to Tplink. There isn't much info out there comparing the two. I understand the 650 has 4 antennas and the X50 only two which made me hesitate but I really wanted a seamless mesh system inside and out so I bought an X50...lets just say I was shocked. I can easily get 300 mbps out at 300 yards and even got a mere 10 mbps at 600 yards which was through a thicket of trees but I could see the hotspot barely. Once again, line of sight is important so don't mount a camera or stand inline with a bunch of trees/tree trunks and expect to get great signal. I did get 100-150 out at 400 yards through some light tree branches though. If mounting a camera, I found the camera better have a good antenna on it because while the S24 Ultra can get great signal at say 400 yards, the new battery power Wyze V3 cannot. I haven't tested the other cameras at that distance but I'm willing to bet the old Reolink Go Plus with external antenna probably will be fine.So if considering any of the three outdoor units above...don't hesitate on the X50 outdoor! Great price at $119, now $99. I do have all my units hardwired and is the only way to go in my opinion. I tried using the 225 and 650 to send wifi signals to the other where one was wired and the other about 100 yards away and the drop in download speeds were very poor. I was hoping to boost the signal even farther across property but the signal loss to the hotspot 100 yards away was so bad it was useless to use and I acheived much better speeds from the wired one. You can assign devices to each unit or allow them to roam. If its a static device like a camera/TV/laptop that is not wired then I will assign it to the unit it's closest too or gets the best signal from. Most of the time the TPlink software does a pretty good job itself though.UPDATED INFO:Since my original review I now have 4 X50 outdoor units that are all in AP mode and a 5th that is 100 yards from another connected via wifi mesh. The 5th one has a clear line of sight with no obstructions and at same height as hard wired one. You loose a lot of bandwidth linking two X50 through wifi. Instead of seeing 1 gbps plus from the hardwired I only see around 100-150 mbps standing near the remote one. I wanted this one so I could send a signal down a long driveway to the gate entering the property. The driveway has thick tree cover on both sides so no line of sight from house to gate. The gate is around 150 -175 yards away and standing at it I can get around 40-70 mbps downloads. You may say that is unacceptable but for a remote camera or remote gate via wifi it is plenty. I can now open and close the gate remotely within a few seconds of activating it via the app for it. I placed a battery powered ring camera down at the gate and while it may have a slight lag I can open it and view it live so it works. The point is, don't expect these units to put out extremely fast speeds if connected wirelessly to each other.TECH SUPPORT and INSTALL: I found out like others, the instructions for setting up a mesh system with the DECO units aren't very clear and it took a lot of searching to get the answer I needed. I did chat with tech support who told me what I needed to know, which was different than most forum post. In summary, pick a DECO inside the home and set it as the 'main deco' and then set all you other decos to be in AP or Access Point mode. My home is prewired for networking and I have a central closet that houses patch panels and a 48-port TPLINK switch. I simply placed the 4 different XE70 pro Decos in different rooms across the house and plugged them into the network port on the wall and I get full downloads coming from each as advertised by my ISP. The outdoor units are all plugged into an 8 port POE switch, TP-Link TL-SG1210P instead of using the standalone POE power supply that comes with each X50 outdoor unit.COVERAGE OBSERVATIONS: I have a large home and yes I used to have one Netgear wifi router upstairs that gave me decent coverage throughout house and even into the yard say 100 yards from house. Certain areas weren't as good as others and yes the farther away you got the slower the speeds got. The purpose of the mesh system was to get strong speeds throughout the house and it works...but at the expense of buying more units. What I've realized is walls, concrete, furniture, ect. all affect the signals. Stick a wifi security camera up and you will find out if your coverage is great or you have a dead spot. I've played with all the app settings and found some work better being turned off. Also you will find some appliances or other items that have wifi controls simply have terrible onboard wifi built into them and that is not TPLINK's fault but that manufacturer.STABILITY: For the most part I haven't had any issues with disconnects on a regular basis. I have had on a few occasions where I had a red light on a Deco unit but was still getting wifi signal from it. Resarted it and it went back green. The other issue I have seen is if the main deco goes down or is restarted then the other Decos go red and stay red even after the main deco is back up. After choosing 'resart the network' option they all returned green. Not sure what causes it to go red but it does on occasion but still seems to be working. A few times since I have owned the units in the last 6 months did I actually loose wifi on one or two of them but a restart fixed it. The app also has an auto restart option for setting a schedule to restart them whenever you choose so maybe its to clear out the cache or like most computers, just helps to restart them on occasion.APP AND SETTINGS:With the amount of coverage I have around the house, and yes running the 'network optimization' option in the app I was having terrible access to some of my wifi cameras that were in clear line of sight of one of the outdoor units to the point I couldn't even view them live at all. I found that turning 'Beamforming' OFF, fixed the issue for almost all cameras but one. This was an immediate fix after I restarted the network for good measure after the setting change. I have the Smart DHCP setting off. Since my Xfinity Modem is still my main router (wifi turned off in it of which may require Xfinity support to update some modems to not keep turning it back on each day by itself) I allow it to assign the IP address for each item connected to the network. When it was enabled in the app I was noticing some items that would have two different IP addresses, one in the app for that item and one in the Deco app. Turning this off fixed that issue. I still have 'fast roaming' turned on and have n issues with my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra switching over to the stronger Deco. 'Smart antennas' option is set to Auto. I haven't played around with the vertical only or horizontal only options as Auto seems to be working fine. This leads me to the app.APP THOUGHTS UPDATES: The app is basic but will work for most people. I haven't had any experience with it regarding if my main deco was also my router so I can't comment on that aspect. I will say reading a bunch of reviews and articles...I'm not sure why TPLINK doesn't have one of their main routers such that it can be part of the DECO mesh system. In other words if you go buy a top of the line $500 TPLINK wifi router to replace your XFINITY modem/router it will not mesh with the DECO system and you will have two different Wifi Networks. My understanding is the DECO router option is lacking in a lot of options a good router can do or even what the XFINITY router can do once you log into it. As far as the DECO app with a total of 9 deco units in my system, it works for a majority of people and even a lot of those users won't use it's full potential. I use it fully and wish it had a little more options. The big plus I like is being able to assign different items to a certain deco unit and not allowing it to roam to another. In other words if I have a camera in direct line of sight of one deco and much closer than any other deco then I assign it to that deco and no more issues with it switching between that one and another that may provide a weaker signal. Appliances or other fixed in place items, I do the same thing with. You can name each item in the app so it is obvous what is is since the manufacturer of that item may give it some wierd name that makes you scratch your head trying to figure out what is connected to your network. Friends or family come over...name the device that connected for future reference. You can block devices all together so this is where the naming comes in handy, especially if you live in a big neighborhood with lots of close neighbors.WIFI BANDS: I turned off my 6ghz band in the app as I found that unless you are very close to a deco and your phone connects to it, I see no benefit from it. Even in the same room, my phone is over 1 gbps on 5 ghz. So, I turned if off to eliminate any extra uneccessary wifi signals. None of my Decos are wifi 7 so no comments on that.NETWORK OPTIMIZATION: I do question how well the network optimaization works and at what point is a DECO unit too close to another. I can run this and it tell me everything is perfect or may find one channel that needed optimizing so not sure about this too much. I ran an app called 'WIFI Analyzer' that shows the different channels and overlapping bands...as well as hidden SSID's that do not show up in the deco app. Looking at this tool, it makes me question how well the Decos are working together. Wifi speeds and coverage are really good, especially once the outdoor units were added. The hidden SSID's make me question them for security reasons and wish TPLINK's app had a little more refining. This starts getting out of my area of knowledge but figured I would mention it for someone reading this that may have knowledge in analyzing networks with better tools and knowledge...kmowing that the app may limit their ability to refine the network fully.OVERALL THOUGHTS: TPLINK mesh is working great. Do I wonder how a Netgear Nighthawk mesh would work if they were able to be put into AP mode...could I use less of them for same coverage? Yes, but at at least 5x the cost, I'm not going to find out unless someone wants to donate them to me. I did read an article the week of 5/27/25 that stated TPLINK is under investigation for their cheap prices in an attempt to push out the competition which may explain the cheaper prices but honestly, everything is so overpriced, like the Netgear nighthawk units, that I think they are just making it more competitive as it should be. Yes they are also under investigation security wise since they are not US based so keep that in mind. There are numerous articles over the years about their units as well as vulnerabilities they faced before updates were done. One reviewer mentioned the EULA you are agreeing to when you install these. All in all, I'm happy at the moment.Hope this helps as there wasn't much info on comparisons between these units.

Highly recommended upgrade for those looking to increase their wireless speeds with several connected devices. I thought it wouldn't be much of an improvement over my DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem/router + Wifi extender, which appeared to be significantly throttling my bandwidth, but mesh Wifi is in fact different and more effective at extending range and providing speed consistency throughout the home.Why I purchased:I decided to try a mesh network as we were having some issues with streaming video quality, such as blurry/pixilated picture on our streaming TV, or buffering/loading on tablets or other devices playing video. A couple suspected reasons for these bandwidth issues were ethernet connected computer(s), use of a Wifi extender, and/or a Wifi security camera at the extent of the Wifi signal range that were reducing the connection quality of the other devices mentioned.Improvements after installing:One main issue I was seeing was an outdoor security camera that had a weak signal was having trouble staying connected. On my smartphone, I also had trouble staying connected to my Wifi when standing next to the camera outside. After installing this system, I have a strong signal throughout the house and near this camera, and speed tests indicate a much faster connection speed than before. There was a +50 Mbps jump in the upstairs far corner of the house. The security camera also remained connected much more reliably. I thought that it wouldn't be possible to still get a great signal across the house, figuring there was no way connecting through a satellite would provide any kind of decent speed, but it does! My understanding is that the software for this system is able to appropriately manage consistency of connections (through all connection points), so there is in fact an advanced capability over older routers to keep speeds high regardless of distance from the main router.Setup:Installing this system took less than 10 minutes to be fully up and running - very easy plug-and-play. May take 20 or 30 minutes for someone not as savvy.. but between the app and the automatic connections between the routers, it couldn't have been easier, and very difficult to mess up. Simply connect an ethernet cable from your modem to the main router (each of the 3 units is the same), connect the power cable, then download the app on your smartphone. In the app, after some brief setup steps (includes creating an account), the main step is to connect to the router through the on-screen prompts. From there, you can name your wireless network and password.Connecting the other 2 satellite routers:Place them within a reasonable distance from the main router (~20-30 feet/1-2 rooms away), then plug in to power. Wait ~2 minutes and done! The whole system was live and wirelessly connected through the main router. I couldn't believe it. In my relatively square-shaped house with the main router on one far side, I was able to place the 3 routers in a triangular pattern, where both satellites are about equal distance from the main router in the middle of the house (about 20 feet each). If your router is in the middle of your home, you may want to place the satellites at either end. I believe a daisy chain (main router at one end like I have, then 2 satellites in a line across the house) is also an option for larger, more expansive homes to maximize the range. I didn't test the daisy chain, but I'd expect diminishing speed at the far end (although one may be surprised based on my observations so far with the management of the traffic at farther distances). While at the far end of my house and running a speed test, I can't tell that I'm not connected to my main router as the speed is still very good. The daisy chain may slightly differ, but can't say for sure.2.4 GHz vs. 5 GHz networks:Wait, you don't need to set up 2 different networks?? The app basically eliminates all complexity over traditional router setup apps, making the setup choices totally accessible for anyone of any networking skill level. In the app, there is an option to broadcast 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz, 2.4 GHz only, or 5 GHz only. I remained on the first option as I needed support for 2.4 GHz-only devices. Otherwise, 5 GHz would be fine and preferred for everything (supports faster speeds). Apparently, the single network name/password automatically creates a dual band setup, if choosing both. Devices that connect apparently are favored to the optimal band - frankly, I don't know the details there, but would assume 5 GHz connects first over 2.4, unless only compatible with 2.4.Refurbished vs. New:No difference here. If you want to save a little money, refurbished is a good option for you. The box came with everything in it including an ethernet cable as if it were new. As far as condition, there were a few scuffs on the units, but nothing terrible. I could almost rub off any blemishes. I'm not looking at them anyway.Overall, highly recommended for those looking to make the leap to a mesh network, or debating whether mesh is just all hype (it's not with this system).

Overall very happy with the system. Speeds are very good and a significant upgrade over my previous system which was several years old. That being said, I wish there was a better web managment interface in addition to the phone app. The phone app is fine and easy for the non-technical people, however, for someone who has worked in IT for 30 years, I would like to be able to manage advanced features via a web interface. It's also lacking a hardware based firewall. Good value for the cost and it works well.Update - still overall happy with it. Speed is good, biggest complaint is that it seems like connection to my work laptop seems to vary in strength even though the laptop never moves.