TP-LINK Launches the Archer AX10 Wi-Fi 6 Router for Under €100

[Raevenlord]

TP-LINK has made available through retailers a budget Wi-Fi router that promises to slightly democratize the ax protocol for the masses. The new Archer AX10 seems to be no slouch in terms of bang for the buck: it's a Wi-Fi 6-enabled router that packs most technologies you'd be looking for from a standard user point of view. There's support for beamforming technology so that the signal is focused towards the devices that are actually connected to the router (which are balanced via OFDMA tech, meaning the router can better handle simultaneous connections), improving signal strength and reducing interference. Thanks to that and the pure speeds of the ax protocol, the AX10 can provide signal speeds of up to 1201 Mb/s on the 5 GHz band. A quad antenna design serves to ensure ample coverage and signal integrity.

The AX10 has a triple core ARM processor operating at 1.5 GHz, aided by 256 MB of RAM and 16 MB of flash memory for the firmware. 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports and 1x WAN connection that also delivers a maximum speed of 1 Gigabit should enable most of the wired connections you need. And best of all: the router will be available for less than €100.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[FreedomEclipse]

thats great - Now is overheating a bonus feature?

 

[BakerMan1971]

thats great - Now is overheating a bonus feature?

To be fair, most plastic routers generate a good amount of heat under prolonged use.
While TP Link devices get warm they have yet to shut down on me as a result of the heat, even when enclosed in a slightly ventilated cupboard.

 

[silentbogo]

That's good news. The only AX router that made it to my parts of the world is that monstrous octopede from ASUS for $600.
This is potentially the best option for my next router upgrade (I'm already kinda dissapointed in my RT-AC1200).

thats great - Now is overheating a bonus feature?

I don't think that was an issue since 941N and such.

 

[dinmaster]

hopefully the ports are gigabit.... heat should not be an issue, if it is its a bad design. at least put some vents in the plastic, you will save on resin cost

 

[bonehead123]

Hummm.... if the current trend continues, our routers will have as much or more computing power as the systems that are connected to it.... and for what ? to route signals to & from your wired/wireless devices so they can connect to the internet......and maybe run a basic firewall to protect it all from snoopers/hackers/scumbags....

Sad thing is that regardless of how "fast" or powerful your router may be or what protocols it works on, your connection will only ever be as fast as the slowest component in the chain, which currently is what ever connection speed your ISP gives you..... which in most normal, consumer-level services, is limited to 1 Gigabyte......

 

[TheLostSwede]

This seems to be a different name for the AX1500 that was announced a week or so ago.

thats great - Now is overheating a bonus feature?

Triple-core Cortex-A7, so that's highly unlikely as far as the SoC goes.

BCM6750

The BCM6750 is 2x2 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 Tri-Core ARM SoC

www.broadcom.com

That's good news. The only AX router that made it to my parts of the world is that monstrous octopede from ASUS for $600.
This is potentially the best option for my next router upgrade (I'm already kinda dissapointed in my RT-AC1200).


I don't think that was an issue since 941N and such.

You know TP-Link is one of the worst when it comes to not supporting their devices with software updates, right?
It's also unlikely we'll see open source support for these things for quite some time.

hopefully the ports are gigabit.... heat should not be an issue, if it is its a bad design. at least put some vents in the plastic, you will save on resin cost

Interface	1 × 1000/100/10 Mbps WAN Port 4 × 1000/100/10 Mbps LAN Ports

Some nice internal pics here.

AX10 AX1500 Wi-Fi 6 Router Teardown Internal Photos ATTACHMENT TP-Link Technologies

AX1500 Wi-Fi 6 Router 10. Internal Photos details for FCC ID TE7AX10 made by TP-Link Technologies Co., Ltd.. Document Includes Internal Photos ATTACHMENT

fccid.io

 

[silentbogo]

Hummm.... if the current trend continues, our routers will have as much or more computing power as the systems that are connected to it.... and for what ? to route signals to & from your wired/wireless devices so they can connect to the internet......and maybe run a basic firewall to protect it all from snoopers/hackers/scumbags....

It's a bit more than that. Most modern routers also have various extra features, like DDoS protection, various tunneling protocols, content filter, extra peripheral support etc. Plus, larger pps throughput never hurt anyone.
Just look at small-business solutions - some have upwards of 4GB RAM installed even for small 20-client networks, and its all used when AV and content filter is enabled. The software solution we previously used at work became so heavy, that it required at least a dual-core modern CPU w/ AVX support, and no less than 8GB RAM. A triple-core ARMv7 is nothing. My $20 chinese mini-PC has nearly double the compute power and 8 times more RAM (considering it's almost 4 years old). If anything, I'll probably be mad that it has so little compute resources...

You know TP-Link is one of the worst when it comes to not supporting their devices with software updates, right?
It's also unlikely we'll see open source support for these things for quite some time.

So do many others, but from the consumer standpoint they are a lot more user-friendly and ready to go out-of-the-box. And, most importantly, one of the cheapest.
I think in my region you'll be more likely to see something like TP-Link, Xiaomi or Netis in someone's house, rather than overpriced ASUS (which may have a good software support, but has many hardware flaws on the low-end). If anything, normal people are scared of updates on their magic boxes, so they'll never touch it anyways. As for me, I'll definitely flash something more interesting on it.

 

[TheLostSwede]

So do many others, but from the consumer standpoint they are a lot more user-friendly and ready to go out-of-the-box. And, most importantly, one of the cheapest.
I think in my region you'll be more likely to see something like TP-Link, Xiaomi or Netis in someone's house, rather than overpriced ASUS (which may have a good software support, but has many hardware flaws on the low-end). If anything, normal people are scared of updates on their magic boxes, so they'll never touch it anyways. As for me, I'll definitely flash something more interesting on it.

And those others got take to court by the FCC...
Look at D-Link and Asus...

I admit I have some TP-Link gear, but none of it is facing the internet.

The manufacturers are starting to add automagic updates to their devices, which I hope most people will use for routers.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Triple-core Cortex-A7, so that's highly unlikely as far as the SoC goes.

BCM6750

The BCM6750 is 2x2 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 Tri-Core ARM SoC

www.broadcom.com

My Nighthawk R7000 has a broadcom BCM4709A0 Dual Core and that overheats like an MF. When its hot like ambient 30-33'c it cuts out if theres too much going on. at 27-30'c theres a 50/50 chances its gonna overheat and cut out. I had a fan blowing in air through the vents and that helped a lot but it still died because 33'c ambient is still 33'c ambient.

 

[TheLostSwede]

My Nighthawk R7000 has a broadcom BCM4709A0 Dual Core and that overheats like an MF. When its hot like ambient 30-33'c it cuts out if theres too much going on. at 27-30'c theres a 50/50 chances its gonna overheat and cut out. I had a fan blowing in air through the vents and that helped a lot but it still died because 33'c ambient is still 33'c ambient.

That's based on the Cortex-A9 though, which is a much hotter running core. It's also a 28nm chip, which isn't exactly a good combination with the Cortex-A9, even though most if not all Cortex-A9's were made at 28nm. The Cortex-A7 is much cooler running and dual cores barely get warm to the touch unless you load them at 100% for hours.
I think you just got a crap router, as in a badly made one.
I got an R7800 with a Qualcomm IPQ8065 which is a dual core 1.7GHz chip and it has no issues whatsoever.
Considering that the BCM4709XX is in something like 50% of mid to high-end 802.11ac routers, it can't be having too many issues.
Looking at the design of that router though, it seems like Netgear put the heatsink on the bottom of the router, which is a bit weird, I guess that doesn't really help with heat dissipation.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

That's based on the Cortex-A9 though, which is a much hotter running core. It's also a 28nm chip, which isn't exactly a good combination with the Cortex-A9, even though most if not all Cortex-A9's were made at 28nm. The Cortex-A7 is much cooler running and dual cores barely get warm to the touch unless you load them at 100% for hours.
I think you just got a crap router, as in a badly made one.
I got an R7800 with a Qualcomm IPQ8065 which is a dual core 1.7GHz chip and it has no issues whatsoever.
Considering that the BCM4709XX is in something like 50% of mid to high-end 802.11ac routers, it can't be having too many issues.

Its a well known issue with Netgear Nighthawk routers. Maybe not the super tier ones but these are still worth about $130 a pop give or take. R7000 are still supposed to be high end for that kind of money.
The only real saving grace here is i paid about $70 for it

 

[TheLostSwede]

Its a well known issue with Netgear Nighthawk routers. Maybe not the super tier ones but these are still worth about $130 a pop give or take. R7000 are still supposed to be high end for that kind of money.
The only real saving grace here is i paid about $70 for it

My R7800 has been the most stable and by far the best router I've ever owned.
But as I pointed out, different cooling design, different hardware, so not a fair comparison.

 

[agatong55]

Wonder what the range on these things are, there is no info not even on the website about recommended square foot.

 

[Kinestron]

To be fair, most plastic routers generate a good amount of heat under prolonged use.
While TP Link devices get warm they have yet to shut down on me as a result of the heat, even when enclosed in a slightly ventilated cupboard.

Same here. I will have had my AC1900 for 4 years this January and while warm, it has never shut down.

 

[Metroid]

To be fair, most plastic routers generate a good amount of heat under prolonged use.
While TP Link devices get warm they have yet to shut down on me as a result of the heat, even when enclosed in a slightly ventilated cupboard.

Need to be left in an air conditioner environment if ambient temperature exceeds 30 degree celsius.

 

[eidairaman1]

I Like Netgear, Trendnet and TP-Link.

I lost interest in Linksys after the WRT54GS I had was a potato.

But yeah, never an issue from tp-Link

 

[silkstone]

My Nighthawk R7000 has a broadcom BCM4709A0 Dual Core and that overheats like an MF. When its hot like ambient 30-33'c it cuts out if theres too much going on. at 27-30'c theres a 50/50 chances its gonna overheat and cut out. I had a fan blowing in air through the vents and that helped a lot but it still died because 33'c ambient is still 33'c ambient.

I have the R6700 Modded to a R7000. No overheating issues and ambient temps here are often over 30 C.
I have a house FULL of smart devices, but I do offload some of the work that the WiFi AP has to do by having a second AP at the other end of the house.

I'm running DD-WRT on my R7000, so that might be why I don't get overheating.

I'm looking forward to faster consumer wi-fi, but in general, I try to go wired for any b/w heavy devices.

I've used tp-link before for switches and APs. I've never had a problem with them and the APs I have can be loaded with DD-WRT. The only reason I took them out of my network is because I upgraded.

 

[kapone32]

As I currently only buy Asus routers I hope we get a competing line with the same pricing from them. It might be wishful thinking though.