With home broadband getting more affordable and internet speed plans hitting the 1Gbps barrier, we will be needing better WiFi routers to accommodate the higher bandwidth and also cater to specific needs, such as gaming.
One such router that is trying to address this issue on both fronts is the TP-Link Archer GE800. This tri-band WiFi 7 gaming router not only promises a combined network speed of 19Gbps but also packs some hardware that will future-proof your home network.
Table of Contents
Device and Hardware
The TP-Link Archer GE800 is a huge router, and when we say it’s huge, it’s actually so massive that we find it hard to pick a spot for it in my desk or workstation. The dark ominous device has that familiar Star Wars shuttle look, something like a docked Upsilon-class command shuttle, with those large folded wing-like protrusion which encloses a total of 8 optimally positioned antennas.
When you power the router, there’s an RBG strip light that runs vertically across the exterior wing and then a glowing RBG light that radiates from the base of the device. Along with the four (4) lighted buttons at the front (WPS, WiFi, Acceleration and LED), all these lighting effects give it a gamer vibe.
Don’t be fooled by the size, though, it’s not as heavy (2.21 kg to be exact) as it look since the body is mostly made up of mostly polycarbonate material.
Once you find an appropriate location for the router, with a volume of around 1 cu. ft. (11.5″ × 8.1″ × 8.8″), rest assured that it will sit tightly in place. There’s enough elevation from the base to allow ample air circulation thru the vents hidden between the “wings”.
At the back side of the device, you have the power plug, reset button, power button, a single USB 3.0 port, six (6) multi-gig LAN ports and a 10G SPF+ port which we will talk more later.
Powering the device is a Qualcomm Network Pro 1220 Platform with a 2.2GHz ARM Cortex-A73 quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM.
Because of the bulky profile of the router, you will find it almost impossible to wall-mount, so better find enough space to position this device. The over-all design and special features of the GE800 screams gaming router so we’ll look more into that in this review.
Besides, while you tend to hide ugly routers away from plain sight, the Archer GE800 is something you’d want to show off.
Interface and Features
The first time you unbox the device, there’s a little bit of apprehension how to setup the router because this behemoth looks pretty intimidating at first.
Fortunately, you can set up the router via the web browser or optionally download and install the Tether app.
When you first connect to the router via LAN port or WiFi, you can simply open the the browser and go to http://tplinkwifi.net or http://192.168.0.1. This starts the setup process of the router and it may also prompt to update the firmware of the router to the latest version.
In some occasion, we also recommend doing this steps while the new TP-Link router is not connected to your broadband modem or another existing internet router in your network. This allows the fresh router to properly use the correct local IP address for the setup process.
Alternatively, you can also download the Tether app from the app store and install it on your mobile phone and manage the setup from there over WiFi.
While the Tether app is optional, we find it as the best and most convenient way to initialize the new router and adjust the settings to your needs. Once you bind your Tether app to a TP-Link account, you can now access and manage your routers remotely from just about anywhere.
The device can be configured in two Modes — as a Wireless Router (by default) or Access Point Mode. Once that initial stage has been made, you can now go through several other options.
These includes:
- Gaming – Set gaming acceleration functions that help boost your gaming needs. Shows real-time game statistics of applications, games and mobile devices.
-
Security (HomeShield) – Provides web protection by securing the network and blocking malicious links while safeguarding your personal information. It can also identify devices that are compromised and isolate or disable them.
-
WiFi Settings – This is where you change the default WiFi name and passwords. You can also configure other options, such as: Channel Width, Channel, Smart Connection, Wireless Radio, and Hidden SSID.
-
Guest Network – Guest network allows visitors to use the internet (2.4GHz and 5GHz) without connecting to your main network. This keeps your main network secure and private. You can also set different access options for guest network users, such as scheduling when they can access the internet.
-
IoT Network – Activate the IoT network that all your smart devices (IoTs) can connect so you can be sure that your devices can effectively communicate with each other to provide the best connections possible. This will also create additional bandwidth on your main wireless network that your streaming devices and phones can now take advantage of.
-
Operation Mode – Switch between WiFi Router Mode and connect it directly to your broadband modem OR change to Access Point Mode and extend the range of your existing wired and wireless network.
-
RGB Effects – Allows you to change the lighting effects [Fire, Ripple, Comet, Spectrum] of the router that best suits suit your taste, especially when gaming.
-
System – Maintenance, update and troubleshooting of the router.
Connectivity and Speed
The router has four 2.5Gbps LAN ports, one of which is a dedicated Gaming port (#1), dual 10Gbps LAN ports and a 10Gbps SFP+/RJ45 Combo WAN port.
Any device connected to dedicated gaming port (PC, laptop or console) gets traffic priority so you will not feel any lags or slow-downs when other users in the network are demanding more traffic (like downloading large files).
For wireless connectivity, the Archer GE800 has a combined bandwidth capacity of 19Gbps. These is comprised of a 2.4GHz band at 1,376Mbps, 5GHz at 5,760Mbps and 6GHz band at 11,520Mbps. Since this router is WiFi-7 capable, it also comes additional technologies such as a wider 320MHz channel bandwidth, 4K QAM, direct-to-client beamforming, MU-MIMO data streaming, Multi-Link Operation (MLO), and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) transmissions.
Since the GE800 is also EasyMesh compatible, we can eventually add other Archer routers (like the BE900 we reviewed here) in the network to create one big mesh network.
To test all these capability, we plugged our old NAS to LAN ports #2 and #3 while port #1 was connected to our gaming desktop PC with Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred recently installed.
If you don’t have a NAS, you can use the USB 3.0 port by attaching a drive that will serve as network storage (supports NTFS, exFAT, HFS+, FAT32. We’re using this setup so we can do some testing for network speed and performance.
With our old TP-Link Mesh network (Deco M5), whenever we stream full HD movies from the NAS directly to any one of the 4 TVs at home, we would immediately experience a lag (higher ping times) in our mobile game, Mobile Legends.
When this happens our Mobile Legends game goes anywhere from 1ms – 20ms to 65ms – 200ms, which is almost unplayable already. The same happens when playing Diablo IV but it is still playable.
Another scenario is when I are moving large files within the network while streaming a movie from the NAS. The movie would always freeze in 1 or 2 minute intervals.
Both of these scenarios no longer happens when we switched to the Archer GE800.
On another note, I also observed that file transfer rates over WiFi have significantly increased from around 10-20MB/s to a high of 40MB/s to 50MB/s. This is a significant improvement when you heavily use a NAS in your network.
Our home fiber internet plan is capped at 450Mbps (grandfathered from an old PLDT Fiber Plan 2399) and using the GE800, we managed to hit that top speed over WiFi very easily.
Conclusion
The TP-Link Archer GE800 is such a powerful and dynamic router. What makes it even interesting are the gaming features that offer better experience for users — game acceleration, dedicated gaming port, RGB lights, etc.
It comes with a lot of features that caters to gamers, whether it’s for casual games like ML or hardcore PC and console gamers alike.
With the companion Tether app, monitoring and managing the Archer GE800 is quick and easy, plus you can even do it remotely. The Archer GE800 has some very specific uses that might seem overkill for general users but for those who are serious about their gaming experience, the GE800 can deliver that promise.
The TP-Link Archer GE800 has a suggested retail price of Php 39,590 in stores nationwide and also available in online stores.
What we liked about this device:
* Blazingly fast
* Fast and easy to set up
* WiFi 7 support
* Nice, cool design
What we did not like:
* Massive, big footprint
* Some overkill features
* Can put a serious dent in your wallet
TP-Link Archer GE800 | BE19000 specs:
6 GHz: 11520 Mbps (802.11be)
5 GHz: 5760 Mbps (802.11be)
2.4 GHz: 1376 Mbps (802.11be)
Router Mode
Access Point Mode
320 MHz Channel
4K-QAM
EasyMesh-Compatible
Works with Alexa and Google Assistant
IoT Network
1× 6 GHz Guest Network
1× 5 GHz Guest Network
1× 2.4 GHz Guest Network
WPA, WPA2, WPA3, WPA/WPA2-Enterprise (802.1x)
1× 10 Gbps SFP+/RJ45 Combo WAN port
1× 10 Gbps WAN/LAN port
4× 2.5 Gbps LAN port
1× USB 3.0 (NTFS, exFAT, HFS+, FAT32)
