Top pick
This is a good extender for anyone who wants to boost a network, add an Ethernet jack to another room wirelessly, or install an access point in a prewired home.
TP-Link’s RE315 isn’t the fastest Wi-Fi extender on paper, but in our tests it improved performance and connection quality immensely compared with the Asus RT-AXE7800 router alone. It is also compact, plugs directly into a power outlet, and has a 100 Mbps wired Ethernet port for connecting nearby devices.
It’s inexpensive. The TP-Link RE315 has been our extender pick for over a year and a half, and in that time the price has hovered between $30 and $40. That’s significantly less than the price of most of the Wi-Fi extenders we’ve tested in the past two years; those can cost as much as $200.
It improves Wi-Fi connections in a localized area. The RE315 was able to restore a speedy, lag-free connection to a room that had neither speed nor reliability. Transfer speed went from 11 megabits per second (Mbps) to almost 160 Mbps. That’s the difference between having an iffy time streaming a single 4K video versus it being no big deal to download large files or stream multiple videos simultaneously.
The extender sped up responsiveness. In addition to better transfer speed, the Wi-Fi’s responsiveness (latency) improved from 10,799 milliseconds (ms) to 765 ms. In other words, that’s a shift from an interminable wait while staring at a spinning pinwheel on your phone to instantly changing channels while watching YouTube TV.
Speed improvement with extender
It improved a spotty connection into a solid, speedy one. And it wasn’t just connection quality that improved: Compared with the router alone, the RE315 improved speed by 1,350% on downloads for the laptop in the dead zone. While that might not make a difference if you’re simply streaming music, it will be noticeable if you’re in a Zoom meeting or trying to get the latest game updates.
You can plug it in. The RE315’s 100 Mbps Ethernet port is convenient. Where possible, it’s a good idea to plug devices like media streamers or game consoles into an extender’s Ethernet port, rather than putting them on Wi-Fi. When you take a bandwidth-hogging device—such as a streaming box or gaming PC—off of the wireless network, you free up more Wi-Fi signal for the other devices in your home.
The RE315 is mesh-compatible with TP-Link routers. If you’re already using a compatible TP-Link router, such as the TP-Link Archer AX3000 Pro, enabling OneMesh on the RE315 improves connectivity even further. Unlike the normal extender mode, which usually rebroadcasts your Wi-Fi network on a second network name, OneMesh integrates the two devices like a mesh-networking system does. All you have to do is enter the common network name (the SSID) on your phone or device, and your phone or device will automatically connect to the extender or the router based on whichever connection is more efficient as you roam around your home. Plus, you can manage the settings and firmware updates for both devices using the same interface on the Archer AX3000 Pro.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Although your connection may perform faster and feel more responsive with an extender, using the TP-Link RE315 isn’t a substitute for plugging an Ethernet cable directly into your router, using powerline networking, a MoCA wired bridge, or a mesh Wi-Fi system.
The RE315’s sole Ethernet port is capable of only 100 Mbps. That’s sufficient for a single 4K streaming box, but it may be less than your internet connection can produce overall.
If you plan to hook up more than one PC or multiple devices to the extender, you may be better off with an extender that has multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports, like the Netgear EAX20.
The RE315’s two antennas, which swing up from their parked position, are a bit of an eyesore. But compared with the antenna-less RE230 we tested in a previous version of this guide, in our tests the RE315 antennas helped the extender maintain a solid connection back to the base router.
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