Following its success of its debut in mesh wifi 6 products, deco x30 and deco x60, TP-Link introduces new lines of entry level wifi 7 products: Deco BE23, and Deco BE25. Its counterpart Asus does the same with Asus BD4 and Asus BD5. These affordable products will kill the legacy wifi 6 products.
In this article
- Affordable mesh wifi 7 products
- Entry level wifi 7 products
- Deco BE23 vs Asus BD4
- Deco BE25 vs Asus BD5
Affordable Mesh wifi 7 products
TP-Link was the pioneer in introducing the wifi 7 products on the market with its Deco BE95 and Deco BE85. Those two products are mesh wifi 7 lineups in addition of Archer BE900, BE800 wifi 7 routers. Those wifi 7 lineups are costly, and for people with low budget will think twice to purchase those costly products. The first Netgear wifi 7 with its Orbi RBE973 is also tagged with the price more than $1,000, still costly.
Entry level wifi7
How can you taste the wifi 7 product without breaking your bank, since those high end lineups are still costly? For small to medium sized homes, spending those costly products is too dear.
It is therefore, TP-Link introduces entry level products, the Deco BE23 and BE25, in additions of middle class network Deco BE63. Its counterpart Asus also does the same with its Zenwifi lineups, Asus BD4 and BD5, in additions of Asus BT6, BT10 and Asus RT-BE96U wifi 7 routers.
Deco Lineups
Deco x60 was very popular at the first time it was released to the market, together with its counterpart Orbi and Asus. it was when wifi 6 was emerged and today when wifi 7 is emerging, deco x60 will be obsolete products and soon you will need to choose the next generation of entry level of wifi7, deco BE23 and deco BE25. And its counterpart, Asus introduced Zenwifi BD4 and BD5.
Let’s see how deco x60 sits among deco be23 and deco be25, you can use table 1 below. All the three deco series are dual band products; it looks unusual that the wifi7 products don’t come with 6GHz radio band which is the prominent feature of wifi7.
Deco x60 vs be23 vs be25
In terms Ethernet ports embedded on each of the board, both BE23 and BE25 come equipped with twin 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports, as opposed to its predecessor deco x60 which comes with 1.0Gbps. all of those ports feature autosensing, you can use either to work as WAN or LAN port.
Both BE23 and BE25 are ready for the next generation of multi-gig Internet plan. The premium wifi7 products mostly come equipped with 10 Gbps ports either for WAN or LAN ports.
Both wifi7 lineups feature MLO (multi link operations), the aggregated multi bands operation as the main feature of wifi 7 which is absent for deco x60. These MLO and Multi-RU (multi-resource units) are wifi7 features that are not available in legacy wifi 5/6.
Table 1 Deco Lineups
| Deco Lineups | Deco BE25 | Deco BE23 | Deco X60 |
| Wifi Technology | Dual band BE5000 Ai-driven mesh | Dual band BE3600 Ai-driven mesh | Dual band AX3000 |
| Signal speeds | 4,324 Mbps @5GHz 688 Mbps @2.4GHz | 2882 Mbps @5GHz 688 Mbps @2.4GHz | 867 Mbps @5GHz 400Mbps @2.4GHz |
| Ethernet Ports | 2x 2.5Gbps | 2x 2.5Gbps | 2x 1.0Gbps |
| MLO (Multi-link operations) | Yes | Yes | N/A |
| Channel | 320 MHz | 160 MHz | 80 MHz |
| Multi-RUs (Multi Resource Units) | Yes | Yes | N/A |
| Price | $249.99 | $239.99 | $174.99 |
Another TP-Link product with wifi6 which becomes hot item on the market to date is Deco X50-POE, the Deco AX3000 that comes equipped with Ethernet POE port. This POE port is ideal in reducing clutter of the wires.
In addition of Deco X60, TP-Link adds the richer features of this lineup with its Deco X55 which comes equipped with three Ethernet ports.
Deco x60 vs Deco x55
Both deco x60 and deco x55 are designed with the same ax3000 network segment. There are few differences between these two deco ax3000 series, which can be presented in the following spec comparison table below.
More Ports
All previous wifi 6 deco series ranging from tplink deco m5, deco m9 plus, deco x20, deco x25 (new series of deco ax1800), deco x60, and also deco x90 all come with only two Ethernet ports. The tplink deco x55 comes equipped with three Ethernet ports, adding one more port compared to deco x60 series which only has two ports.
With three Ethernet ports, the deco x55 provides a wired backhaul option using a star wired backhaul topology for a three-node package, without adding a switch. Meanwhile, with the deco x60 which only has two ports, to use the wired backhaul option, the daisy chain topology can be used without adding a switch. To deploy using star you need separate switch.
Now, with Deco BE23 and BE25, the backhaul can work aggregately that combine wired and wireless backhaul in terms of its MLO feature. This will create stronger and more flexible, easier to deploy as opposed to legacy wifi 6 products such as deco x60, deco x55.
The x60 uses 4x internal antennas, while the x55 only uses two internal dual band antennas with AI-driven technology as adopted in the deco x90 by giving a unique touch to each of your home wifi networks.
Spec comparison table deco x60 vs x55
See more details on the following comparison table below.
Table 1. tplink deco x60 vs deco x55
| Deco ax3000 | Tplink deco x60 | Tplink deco x55 |
| Simultaneous dual band ax3000 (867Mbps + 400Mbps) | Yes | Yes |
| Internal antennas | 4x internal antennas with beamforming | 2x internal antennas with beamforming and AI-driven mesh |
| Number of data streams | 6 streams | 4 streams |
| Ethernet Ports | 2x Gigabit WAN/ LAN ports | 3x Gigabit WAN/ LAN ports |
| Network security: Malicious Site Checker Port Intrusion Prevention Infected Device Isolation | Yes: Antivirus with the addition of notification and log | Yes, HomeShield security with real-time IoT protection; DDoS attack prevention; Home network scanner. |
| Guest network each radio band | Yes | Yes |
| Quality of services | QoS by Device and Application | QoS by device |
| Router mode or AP mode | Yes | Yes |
| 1GHz dual core CPU | Yes | Yes |
| Dimension: 4.33 × 4.33 × 4.99 in / (110 × 110 × 114 mm) | Yes | Yes |
Either tplink deco x60 or x55 are designed to work at ax3000 network segment, few features are different and the number of Ethernet ports is also different.
Both deco be23 and be25 come embedded with dual Multi-gig Ethernet ports, investing the latest entry level of Deco wifi7 lineups is more advantages than deco x60 or deco x55 which will soon to be obsolete products.
So what about its counterpart products that Asus offers?
Asus BD4 and BD5
In additions of middle range wifi 7 network segment including Asus Zenwifi BT6 and BT10, Asus introduces entry level dual band wifi7 mesh system products, the Asus BD4 and BD5. These two alternative products instead of previous models including Asus Zenwifi XD4 and XD5 come with wifi 6 standards. Wifi 6 products will soon become obsolete.
Both BD4 and BD5 come with similar features as its counterparts Deco BE23 and BE25, two 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports, MLO, Multi-RUs, and the same processors on the board.
Table 2 below shows main differences between Asus BD4 and BD5, see that only the aggregated bandwidth difference between the two.
Table 2. Asus BD4 vs BD5
| Asus BD4 | Asus BD5 | |
| Wifi Standards | Dual band BE3600AiMesh | Dual band BE5000 AiMesh |
| Signal rates | 688Mbps @2.4GHz 2×2 2882 Mbps @5GHz 2×2 | 688 Mbps @2.4GHz 2×2 4323 Mbps @5GHz 2×2 |
| Ethernet Ports | 2x 2.5Gbps | 2x 2.5Gbps |
| Price | $299.99 | $319.99 |
Instead of purchasing the previous wifi 6 models including Asus XD4 and XD5; considering the entry level of wifi7 BD4 and BD5 is more advantages knowing that the legacy models will soon become obsolete.
Deco vs Asus Entry Level Wifi 7
Like its wifi 6 products that sit on entry level network segments, the demand of entry level wifi 7 products are likely high, the market share will be huge enough. No wonder that each vendor is racing to introduce few models of entry level wifi7 series with price point under $300. As we know that the ultimate models of wifi7 products are still costly. For small-sized homes, investing expensive top notch wifi7 products would be too much.
When it comes to choose entry level series between Deco and Asus, which one is suitable to meet your home business network? The following tables represent spec comparisons between deco be23, be25, asus bd4, and asus bd5.
Deco be23 vs Asus BD4
Table 3 below shows spec comparison between TP-Link Deco be23 and Asus Zenwifi bd4. Both series sit at the same BE3600 network segment. Technically both feature the same including signal rates, multi-gig 2.5Gbps, channel bandwidth, etc.
TP-Link doesn’t specify what kind of processor embedded on the board, but asus does with quad core processor and memory.
Table 3 Spec comparison Deco BE23 vs Asus BD4
| Entry level model | TP-Link Deco BE23 | Asus Zenwifi BD4 |
| Wifi Technology | Dual band BE3600 Ai-driven mesh | Dual band BE3600AiMesh |
| Signal speeds | 2882 Mbps @5GHz 2×2 688 Mbps @2.4GHz 2×2 | 688Mbps @2.4GHz 2×2 2882 Mbps @5GHz 2×2 |
| Ethernet Ports | 2x 2.5Gbps | 2x 2.5Gbps |
| MLO (Multi-link operations) | Yes | Yes |
| Channel | 160 MHz | 160MHz |
| Multi-RUs (Multi Resource Units) | Yes | Yes |
| Processor | Unspecified | 1.5GHz Quad core processor with 512MB RAM; 128MB Flash |
| Channel bandwidth | 160 MHz | 160MHz |
| Dimensions | 150 mm x 150 mm x 62 mm | 140 mm x 70 mm x 140 mm |
| Price | $239.99 | $299.99 |
Asus offers around $50 more expensive than deco be23, these prices are at the time they are released to the market. their prices will drop gradually over time.
Deco BE25 vs Asus BD5
The higher level bandwidth models introduced by the two vendors are Deco be25 and Asus BD5 which sit at the same BE5000 network segment. All features are almost the same including signal rates, twon 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports, but the channel bandwidth is not the same.
BE25 offers more channel bandwidth @5GHz band, 240MHz instead of 160MHz on Asus BD5. With more bandwidth the more data can be transmitted at once and directly affects network speed and performance.
This will affect the backhaul communication link between the nodes, knowing that the two models offer the same multi-link aggregated combined wired and wireless backhaul. With higher bandwidth channel the faster link can deliver. However, in the same normal operation when the network tasks are not overloaded, the performance would be the same. But in overload network traffic, the higher channel bandwidth the faster data can be transmitted.
Spec comparison table be25 vs bd5
Table 4 Spec comparison Deco BE25 vs Asus BD5
| Entry level model | TP-Link Deco BE25 | Asus Zenwifi BD5 |
| Wifi Technology | Dual band BE5000 Ai-driven mesh | Dual band BE5000 AiMesh |
| Signal speeds | 4,324 Mbps @5GHz 688 Mbps @2.4GHz | 688 Mbps @2.4GHz 2×2 4323 Mbps @5GHz 2×2 |
| Ethernet Ports | 2x 2.5Gbps | 2x 2.5Gbps |
| MLO (Multi-link operations) | Yes | Yes |
| Channel | 240 MHz (5GHz only) | 160 MHz |
| Multi-RUs (Multi Resource Units) | Yes | Yes |
| Processor | Unspecified | 1.5GHz Quad core processor with 512MB RAM; 128MB Flash |
| Dimension | 150 mm x 150 mm x 62 mm | 140 mm x 70 mm x 140 mm |
| Price | $249.99 | $319.99 |
Which one to choose
Now, with almost the same technical spec and feature, except that Deco be25 offers higher channel bandwidth and cheaper price, this be25 looks like more value than asus bd5.
Click the product’s link below to see more detail manufacturer’s description and see the current price and availability on Amazon (#Ads).
- Click here to shop TP-Link Deco BE25 on Amazon (#Ad)
- Or you prefer Asus, click here for Asus BD5 on Amazon (#Ad)
Related products
Previous wifi 6e models are still worth of considering, knowing that the prices are getting dropped over time. You may consider premium models Asus ET12 and Orbi RBKE963 wifi 6e models and see which one is more value.