TP-Link Launches the Wi-Fi 6 Router Archer AX50 Powered by Intel Technology

[btarunr]

TP-Link, a leading global provider of consumer and business networking products, today announced its revolutionary AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 router—Archer AX50. Targeted at the mainstream and equipped with the Intel Home Wi-Fi Chipset, Archer AX50 will deliver a premium Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ experience to more families at an affordable price point. Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is expected to be the most significant leap in Wi-Fi technology, developed in response to the ever growing demands on home Wi-Fi. With Intel's Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) technology, Archer AX50 is capable of delivering a huge boost in speed and total capacity by utilizing a cutting-edge Wi-Fi 6 foundation.

Mainstream adoption of Wi-Fi 6 is growing with the introduction of more and more AX clients. Archer AX50 is estimated to be a major router product to hit the mass market. "Intel was the first to introduce Wi-Fi 6 for the PC and multiple PCs are now being introduced with the technology worldwide. Embedded with Intel's Wi-Fi 6 technology, TP-Link Archer AX50 can deliver Gig+ speeds to new PCs with Intel Wi-Fi 6 Gig+," said Pingji Li, VP & GM of TP-Link Networking BU. "Intel is devoted to bringing Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ to more people for a better experience. The close collaboration with Intel helps TP-Link as we continuously strive for better connectivity, anywhere, at any time, for more people to deliver better experiences."



"Wi-Fi has seen its greatest advancement in the last decade with the introduction of Wi-Fi 6," said Doron Tal, general manager of Intel's Wireless Infrastructure Group. "With Wi-Fi 6 Gig+, Intel is delivering premium Wi-Fi 6 connectivity with best-in-class performance. New Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ devices like TP-Link Archer AX50 make it possible for a broader set of consumers to start experiencing the full potential of Wi-Fi 6."

TP-Link has been steadily taking a large share of the Wi-Fi product market for several years. With leading technology from Intel that is Gig+ capable, they can start bringing a new level of Wi-Fi 6 to the masses. This is made possible with HT160 technology that uses 160 MHz channel bandwidth. HT160 takes 5 GHz channels and broadens the width to 160 MHz—2× that of standard HT80 often used with 802.11ac. Utilizing HT160, Archer AX50 achieves blazing Gig+ speeds up to 3 Gbps—2,402 Mbps on the 5 GHz band plus 574 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band. That's fast enough to download an 8 GB HD movie less than two minutes and more than capable of providing smoother gaming and 4K UHD video streaming for your whole family.

But faster speed isn't the only benefit. In addition, features like OFDMA enable faster response times even as more devices connect. Reductions in latency of up to 75% are possible, for ultra-responsive real-time gaming and high-quality video conferencing. As TP-Link really cares about your home network security, HomeCare is provided to keep your family safe and sound from cyber threats and viruses.

TP-Link has been serving billions of users globally for more than 20 years, continually striving to bring a better networking experience to more people. To realize their vision of making a superior digital life available to all, they're combining Intel technology and know-how into a product ideal for multi-device usage scenarios.

Archer AX50 Key Features:

• Next-Gen Gig+ Wi-Fi 6 Speed—Speeds of 2,402 Mbps on a 5 GHz band and 574 Mbps on a 2.4 GHz band ensure smoother streaming and faster downloads.
• Connect More Devices—OFDMA technology will further increase capacity, enabling simultaneous transmission to more devices.
• Ultra-Low Latency—Up to 75% reduction in latency makes gaming and video chatting more responsive.
• Expanded Wi-Fi Coverage—Four high-gain external antennas and Beamforming technology combine to provide strong, reliable Wi-Fi throughout your home.
• Enhanced Security—Enjoy more secure and trusted Wi-Fi with TP-Link HomeCare.
• Reliable Connections—An Intel Home Wi-Fi Chipset greatly increases processing speed to deliver superior Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ performance.
• Improved Client Battery Life—Target Wake Time helps your devices to communicate more while consuming less power.
• Compatible with Alexa—Control your router via voice commands and make your life smarter and easier with Amazon Alexa.

For more information, visit the product page.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Readlight]

Include some filtering for adversiments, tracking for home network.

 

[bonehead123]

And the price is.........

1 arm
both legs
a kidney
your 1st born child

OR... just bring your Banker's Gold card AND the deed to your house, hahahaha

 

[TheLostSwede]

And the price is.........

1 arm
both legs
a kidney
your 1st born child

OR... just bring your Banker's Gold card AND the deed to your house, hahahaha

This should be "affordable" as it's using an old GRX350 SoC, same SoC as Asus use in their Blue Hole router, which is not that great...

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/TP-LINK_Archer_AX50

This is also, only a 2x2 router and considering Netgear charges $200 for their equivalent product, this should be less.
It seems to be going for around the equivalent of $140 in Hong Kong.

 

[AsRock]

I wounder if it works better than the Puma 6 chipset, i hope so as that was pretty much a fail.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I wounder if it works better than the Puma 6 chipset, i hope so as that was pretty much a fail.

Well, it's not x86 to start with, it's an old Lantiq chip, which is MIPS based, so it shouldn't have any of the Puma 6 issues.
I mean, it's dual core at 800MHz or so, similar to the MTK7621.

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Lantiq#GRX_350.2F550.2F750

 

[IceShroom]

With how many security holes???

 

[Tom.699]

I wish someone would release nice router with at least 2 10 Gbit wired ports. Until then I don't see a reason for change.

 

[AsRock]

Well, it's not x86 to start with, it's an old Lantiq chip, which is MIPS based, so it shouldn't have any of the Puma 6 issues.
I mean, it's dual core at 800MHz or so, similar to the MTK7621.

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Lantiq#GRX_350.2F550.2F750

So it's just INTEL branded ?.

 

[TheLostSwede]

So it's just INTEL branded ?.

No, Intel bought out Lantiq a few years ago, but it's obviously no Intel tech in the SoC, even though they're sold as Intel parts these days. That said, the Wi-Fi parts are most likely Intel made tech.

With how many security holes???

Well, it's TP-Link, so about the same as all their products?

 

[Deleted member 158293]

Eager to see different firmwares for it.

 

[bonehead123]

With how many security holes???

Well, apparently you missed that memo.....those holes are now called "features" hahaha, and just think, they're not even charging you extra for them initially, that will come later with a paid, mandatory-can't-downgrade firmware upgrade

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

I wish someone would release nice router with at least 2 10 Gbit wired ports. Until then I don't see a reason for change.

Why? For what would you (specifically you) need 2x 10gbe ports on a wireless router? If you have a NAS/home server with enough horsepower and storage speed to handle a 2x 10gbe aggregated link (20gbps), then presumably you'd have the means to buy a managed 10gbe switch to properly implement that setup. As most already know, to saturate that 20Gbps link, you'd have to have NVMe drives at both ends of the connection and while that's pretty common in computers and even laptops, that's not so much the case in even higher end desktop NAS units.

There are a few wifi routers with a single 10gbe port on them, though they're all SFP+ ports as opposed to RJ45 (10GBase-T) which is a major bummer IMO. There's:

• Netgear XR700
• Netgear Nighthawk R900 X10

No matter what some people my try to convince you of, going the SFP+ route for a home 10gbe network is not easier/cheaper in the long run. First, you can't (well, technically you can, but...) run cable through the walls and wire your whole house with DAC cables. An 8x pack of 10ft twin axial DACs can run $800+ and the cheapest I've seen for a long run cable was 20m for $100. Hell, even 0.5m twin axial DACs go for $20 at the cheapest. If you go with fiber, it's cheaper, but there are special tools needed, the keystone Jack's cost more, and then you're dumping money into transceivers. Me on the other hand, I wired the entire home (22 runs in all) with Cat7 for $250.


I have a 10GBase-T network in my home, and currently have a 2x 10gbit aggregated link to my server (via a netgear XS728T 28 port 10GBase-T w/4x SFP+/RJ45 combo and an Intel X550-T2 NIC in the server) though I'm adding aN NVMe top storage tier and installing an Intel X710-Tr4, a 4x Rj45 10gbase-t NIC to the server so I can do a 4x aggregated link for 40Gbps) and even on an enterprise class switch like THE XS728T, it gets cooking when a lot of data is being pulled and pushed in both directions by multiple users over that 2x aggregated link. I would imagine then, that a typicle (or even top of the line, "halo" one) consumer wireless router wouldn't have the thermal ability to handle such traffic considering the fact that even current top of the line wifi routers get really hot, and even start tweaking out due to it. I'm not an expert on the inner hardware workings of routers of switches, but I would guess that the CPU in a consumer router would have trouble moving and processing such high bandwidth traffic with the currently implemented cpus.

 

[mystik1]

Why? For what would you (specifically you) need 2x 10gbe ports on a wireless router? If you have a NAS/home server with enough horsepower and storage speed to handle a 2x 10gbe aggregated link (20gbps), then presumably you'd have the means to buy a managed 10gbe switch to properly implement that setup. As most already know, to saturate that 20Gbps link, you'd have to have NVMe drives at both ends of the connection and while that's pretty common in computers and even laptops, that's not so much the case in even higher end desktop NAS units.

I can't speak for the other person, but I will speak for myself. I don't need 10 Gbps, but I need more than 1 Gbps going from my PC to the router AND from the NAS to the router. That's why I would like two 10 GbE ports. I know I can get a switch, but that adds another component. I already have too many components! I wish I didn't need another one for that. Seems like the router should be able to provide two ports. But, it looks like that's what I will need to do.