Powerline is one of connecting methods using your existing home electricity wiring, and today this method is used to work with mesh wifi system. Thanks to TP-Link Deco PX50 and Asus PX50 that apply this powerline system to their products. How good they perform?
In this article:
- What this PX50 does
- Why Powerline backhaul
- Deco px50 vs deco p9
- Deco XP50 vs Asus Zenwifi XP4
- Spec comparison table
Deco PX50
When the structure of your house is built with many rooms and two or three floors with sturdy thick concrete walls, it is likely that your wifi network cannot penetrate all the rooms solidly. For that reason you may consider a mesh wifi system with powerline backhaul. Thanks to TP-Link Deco PX50 and similar model Asus XP4 that comes with powerline. We’ll discuss here how these deco px50 and asus XP4 perform.
See also deco x50-poe, mesh wifi with POE feature to reduce clutter of power and data cables.
Why powerline
Powerline networking uses your home’s electrical wiring to extend network connectivity, including WiFi, by transmitting data signals through the power cables in your walls. It’s especially useful in homes where WiFi signals struggle to reach certain areas due to thick walls, large distances, or interference.
How powerline work
The powerline adapter converts the Ethernet data into signals that can travel over electrical wiring. These signals move through the home’s power circuit to other areas where you need network access. A second powerline adapter is plugged into another electrical outlet in the area where you need internet.
Limitations
Electrical Wiring Quality Matters – Old, damaged, or complex wiring can reduce performance. Another thing that you need to take consideration is that powerline can work in a single circuit breaker system; it cannot work over different circuit breaker system.
Powerline backhaul
When it comes to mesh wifi system, communications between router node and satellite nodes use wifi as backhaul link between them, and wired Ethernet backhaul is an option.
Few models of mesh wifi products use share bandwidth @5ghz radio band for backhaul link and connected devices. There are few models use dedicated band as backhaul link and the other bands are for connected devices. Wifi backhaul is prone to signal interference with others, therefore most mesh wifi products offer optional wired backhaul using ethernet connection. Wired ethernet backhaul is more reliable connection between the nodes than wifi.
The drawback with wired ethernet backhaul is that you need to run UTP network cable between the nodes, and if the location of the router node and satellite nodes separated by thick wall you need to drill or run the cable onto the ceiling.
It is therefore deco px50 comes designed with powerline backhaul. Powerline backhaul uses existing electrical wiring in home as the backhaul connection between the nodes. One thing to note when you use powerline backhaul is that all the router node and satellite nodes must be in the same electrical circuit breaker.
Deco px50 is the latest model in addition of the previous one deco p9 which is still based on legacy wifi- 5. So what is the difference between these two deco powerline models?
Deco px50 vs deco p9
The apparent difference is indeed the difference of wifi generation applied to each of the model. Deco px50 comes designed with the 6th generation of wifi technology, while deco p9 comes with legacy wifi5.
Take a look at the following table 1 below that represents spec comparison table between deco px50 and deco p9. Similar product is Asus XP4 that we will compare to see which one is technically offer better performance.
Powerline backhaul
The powerline speed difference between deco px50 and deco p9 is around 50% faster. That makes sense since total bandwidth for p9 is only 40% that of deco px50, it means that px50 connect more devices than deco p9.
When you connect each of the nodes using ethernet ports, the system will use the best available link between wired ethernet and powerline. All the other two radio bands are used for connected devices, as well as the other ethernet ports.
Moreover, tplink adds one more gigabit ethernet port on px50 instead of only two on deco p9.
Table 1 TP-link Deco PX50 vs Deco P9
| TP-Link Mesh Powerline | Deco PX50 | Deco P9 |
| Wifi technology | Dual band ax3000 | Dual band ac1200 |
| Signal rates | 574 Mbps @2.4GHz; 2402 Mbps @5GHz | 300 Mbps @2.4GHz; 867 Mbps @ 5GHz |
| Powerline Speed | 1.5Gbps Powerline | 1,000 Mbps |
| Backhaul | Powerline backhaul 1.5Gbps; Ethernet backhaul option | Powerline backhaul 1.0 Gbps; Ethernet backhaul option |
| Ethernet Ports | 1x Gigabit auto sensing wan port; 2x Gigabit LAN ports | 1x Gigabit auto sensing wan port; 1x Gigabit LAN ports |
In a nutshell, tp-link deco px50 is like a tri-band mesh wifi6 ax4500 product with dedicated backhaul link @1,500mbps in the form of powerline link. Normally a tri-band ax4200 mesh wifi6 product comes with dedicated backhaul @5ghz and left the other two bands used for connected devices.
See also Orbi rbk852 and Asus XT8, previous models of wifi6 products which the prices drop significantly today amid the emerging of wifi 7.
Deco PX50 vs Asus Zenwifi XP4
Currently Asus introduces similar product, asus zenwifi xp4 with powerline backhaul. How this product perform when it compare with deco px50?
The apparent difference between these two products is technically different in network segment, the deco px50 with ax3000 segment versus asus zenwifi xp4 with ax1800 network segment. When you combine total aggregated bandwidth, you will find px50 is around 4,500 Mbps (3,000 + 1,500 powerline). On the other hand, asus xp4 is around 3,100 Mbps (1,800 + 1,300 powerline).
Ports
Both deco px50 and asus xp4 give you the same number of Gigabit ethernet ports, one for wan port connecting to the modem when it work as the router node, while at the same time when the other nodes work as the satellite node, this port #1 works as lan port for total of three gigabit lan ports. Unlike Orbi mesh wifi series which distinguishes router node and satellite, both asus zenwifi series and deco can work either as router node or satellite, moreover the number of ethernet port is also the same. Port #1 can either be used as wan or lan port with auto sensing feature.
The other difference is that asus xp4 comes with one usb port you can use as disk storage when you connect a usb hard disk to share across the network, but deco px50 doesn’t. The inclusion of this usb port is one of features that make this asus xp4 tagged with higher price than deco.
Network protection
Most recent asus products come with built-in asus aiprotection network protection software either classic version or pro one. You don’t need to subscribe in yearly basis or monthly, it’s free lifetime service. Another security feature app when it comes to require secure vpn connection into the public internet, asus provides you peace of mind with its asus instant guard you can download free.
On the other hand deco px50 comes with Homeshield kit you can opt to get the free version or the paid version with its Homeshield Pro.
Spec comparison table
Take a look at the following spec comparison table between deco px50 ax3000 and asus xp4 powerline hybrid ax1800.
Table 2 TP-link Deco PX50 vs Asus XP4
| Powerline model | TP-Link Deco PX50 | Asus Zenwifi XP4 |
| Wifi segment | Dual band ax3000 with AI-driven mesh | Dual band ax1800 mesh wifi 6 with AiMesh technology |
| Signal rates | 574 Mbps @2.4GHz; 2402 Mbps @5GHz | 1201Mbps @5GHz; 574Mbps @2.4GHz |
| Antennas | 2x dual band internal antennas | 4x internal antennas |
| Powerline Speed | 1.5Gbps Powerline | AV2 MIMO @1300 Mbps |
| Backhaul | Powerline backhaul 1.5Gbps; Ethernet backhaul option | WiFi; Powerline, and Ethernet |
| Coverage | Up to 6,500 sq ft / 3-pack | Up to 5,500 sq ft / 2-pack – each unit adds up to 2,750 sq ft |
| Ethernet Ports | 1x Gigabit auto sensing wan port; 2x Gigabit LAN ports | 1x Gigabit WAN port; 2x Gigabit LAN ports |
| USB Port | N/A | USB 3.2 Gen 1 x 1 |
| Processor | Unspecified | 1.2 GHz quad-core 64bit processor Memory: 256 MB Flash & 512 MB RAM |
| Security Protection | Homeshield network protection and parental control | Asus instant guard ; Free lifetime commercial grade security AiProtection Pro and advanced parental control |
| Price | $199.99 / 3-pack | $159.99 / 2-pack |
Which one is suitable to your business?
Wifi 7 products have been around in the market, and so far both TP-Link and Asus do not introduce mesh powerline products that come with wifi 7. Today, the prices of Deco PX50 and Asus XP4 drop significantly; you can select either px50 or Asus XP4 that is suitable to meet your home network.
Click the product’s link below to learn more details each of the product on Amazon, and see the current price.
- Click here to SHOP Asus XP4 On Amazon (#Ad)
- Or you may like to SHOP Deco PX50 on Amazon (#Ad)
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