TP-Link Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 BE22000 tri-band mesh router – If you feel the need for massive, distributed speed (network review)

The TP-Link Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 BE22000 tri-band mesh router is very fast and, with additional satellites, could support over 200 devices and the largest Aussie homes. Of course, Wi-Fi 7 benefits only come partly to Wi-Fi 6E and 7 compatible devices. Still, the extra bandwidth, transmit power, reliability, speeds, lower lag, and the latest tech can significantly improve existing home networks.

Wi-Fi 7 routers/mesh are backwards compatible with previous Wi-Fi versions, so if you buy a new router, look seriously at Wi-Fi 7.

Wi-Fi 7 devices like the Google Pixel 8 Pro, Samsung Galaxy 23 Ultra or the fabulous OPPO N2 Fold are here, and several laptops will be available soon. By the end of 2024, most premium smartphones (Qualcomm SD8 Gen 2 or later) and computers (with an Intel BE200 adapter) will support it. These are all 2 x 2 streams and won’t use anywhere near the full capabilities of Wi-Fi 7.

Australia has lesser Wi-Fi 7 6GHz bandwidth – this is technical

We have written a preliminary guide Wi-Fi 7 BE – what it means to you that you should read first. The real issue is that a router/mesh advertised as BE22000 will only be BE15000 here due to ACMA regulations limiting the use of parts of 5 and 6GHz bands to prevent radio interference with other users.

Wi-Fi 7 is not yet certified – probably later in 2024. Some important features like Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC maximises the 6GHz signal strength and distance by up to 25%) may be added. Also missing is Thread and Matter support, which is apparently built-in and accessed via the Tapo app. TP-Link can enable that.

Consumer Advice: Don’t buy grey market – it likely won’t work here

Because Australia only has 500Mhz of the 1200MHz 6GHz Wi-Fi 7 band (42% and one 320Mhz band instead of three), its firmware and transmission strengths differ. You can quickly tell if the router/satellites have an R-NZ C-Tick on the external box and the sticker under it. Wikipedia has the approved bands (look at 6Ghz) for each country.

TP-Link can update Australian firmware if the ACMA releases more 6GHz bandwidth.

Why Mesh over a router?

Simply put, a router is like a single car engine – 5/6Ghz transmits about a 15/10-metre radius circle around it. Perfect for small homes, although gamers love them too, as game resources can be prioritised.

Mesh is like placing an engine on all wheels – distributed power. Each mesh node can bathe the home in another 300m2 in Wi-Fi or provide extra Ethernet-cabled ports to cover larger or longer homes, multiple floors, etc. Mesh preferably needs an Ethernet cable between each node (wired backhaul) or can backhaul over Wi-Fi (not as much bandwidth).

The BE85 is a little different from most meshes. First, each engine is as strong as the primary router, and second, if you use cabled backhaul, you get the total Wi-Fi bandwidth (many mesh don’t free up the Wi-Fi backhaul when not used),

Australian Review: TP-Link Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 BE22000 tri-band mesh router

Website	AU Website Product User Guide
RRP 11/01/24	1-Pack $1199 2-Pack $2299 3-Pack $2999 (seen for as low as $2499)
From	Harvey Norman, Joyce Mayne, Bing Lee, Officeworks, Good Guys, and specialist computer stores, including MWave, Scorptec, and Umart. Also, via store TP-Link Amazon store.
Warranty	3-year ACL if purchased from authorised resellers.
Made in	China
Company	TP-Link (Est 1996) is a privately owned Chinese company headquartered in Hong Kong, and its main factory is in Shenzhen. It does not use 3rd party ODM/OEMs, designing and manufacturing everything in-house. Its Indian factory will, by the end of 2024, make 100% of the products sold there and a substantial amount for export. Products include high-speed cable modems, wireless and mobile routers, range extenders, switches, IP cameras, powerline adapters, switches, print servers, media converters, wireless adapters, power banks, USB Hubs and SMART home technology devices. Brands include Archer routers, Deco mesh, Omada (business networking) and Tapo (Smart home). TP-Link USA is one of the largest home network suppliers from its California base. According to IDC, TP-Link has held the #1 home networking market share (about 20%) in over 170 countries by volume since 2010.
More	CyberShack TP-Link news and reviews

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.

First Impression – Pass+

The TP-Link Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 is a white vase-like cylinder design 128mm (round) x 236mm (H) with the stylised 7 highlights. It is attractive and will fit into most décor. It is designed to sit on a benchtop or bookshelf. The router and satellites are all the same – the first one you set up becomes the router. The others are equally powerful. They have a single indicator LED under the front cylinder lip that can be disabled during set times (sleep).

TP-Link has not skimped on this. It has

• Qualcomm Networking Pro 1220 Wi-Fi chip.
• A quad-core 2.2GHz processor.
• 1GB of RAM and 512MB of flash storage for its firmware and settings.
• Two fans
• Eight amplified antennas inside
• 12 independent data streams
• AI to continually optimise and streamline the data path from the router to the satellite and vice versa.
• If using Ethernet backhaul, you can allocate the 6GHz band to Wi-Fi clients.

The only thing to remember is that you need to attach a power cable (from a transformer brick) and at least one Ethernet Cat 6e cable to connect to the Internet. Using a wired backhaul between the router and a satellite, you will use another Ethernet LAN to WAN port.

While this review is about the BE85, there is a lower-cost BE65 (BE11000) and a BE65-5G (BE9300) coming soon.

And if your budget does not extend to Wi-Fi 7, TP-Link has some excellent Wi-Fi 6E (also tri-band) XE200/AXE11000, XE75 Pro.AXE5400 and XE75/AXE5400.

Setup – The App makes it easy – Pass+

Download the Deco app for iOS and Android. It does require an account, and that has the usual Privacy implications. From our reading, they are relatively benign, with two issues. First, it is subject to the laws of the United Kingdom (we presume this is a typo – but at least it is not China), and there is no mention of where Australian data is stored.

We won’t go through setup as the app guides you; it is straightforward. Plug the router into power and an Ethernet cable to the Internet gateway. Once set up, plug-in power to the satellites, and they will join the Mesh. You can name them to make it easy to see.

Hint: If you are replacing a router/mesh, use the same SSID name and password (turn the old router off first), and everything will reconnect – at worst, you may need to power the clients off and on.

How to configure Wi-Fi on TP-Link Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 BE22000 – a tri-band router

It has three bands totalling approx. 15000Mbps (not 22000 as in the US).

• 2.4GHz, 1376Mbps, 20/40MHz – effective transmission distance is about 30m or a 700m2 circle (up to 100m line-of-sight). Mainly used for IoT devices and between 150-600Mbps connection speed.
• 5GHz, 8640Mbps, 20/40/160/240MHz – effective transmission distance is about 10-15m or a 300m2 circle. Mainly used by Wi-Fi 5 and 6 devices like computers, TVs, etc., that connect between 866/1730Mbps. The 240MHz aggregation is not available in Australia.
• 6GHz, 11520Mbps, 20/40/160/320MHz (in the US – 4800Mbps here) – effective transmission distance is 7-10m or a 150m2 circle. It can be used by Wi-Fi 6E and 7 and connect at <2500Mbps.

These distances are effectively halved each time the signals penetrate walls, floors, cupboards, or windows. In any case, a 3-pack will effectively cover approx. an area 30 x 30m = 900m2

The Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 BE22000 has a slightly different band set-up

By default, it binds the 2.4Ghz and 5GHz (160Hz) WPA2 security network into one SSID. I had no issues with the 36+ IoT devices connecting when I renamed it the same as the Orbi 960 2.4GHz SSID. If you have issues, select 2.4GHz or 5Ghz only or create a 2.4Ghz IOT network (effectively another Guest network).

It has a separate 6GHz WPA3 network for the exclusive use of Wi-Fi 6E and 7 devices. I named this XXXX_6GHz as it is only seen by those devices.

Finally, the MLO (multi-link operation) network – 2.4+5+6GHz WPA3, which I renamed XXXX_5G (same as my Orbi 960) because any device can see and use it. You can also set this for 5 and 6GHz (no 2.4Ghz), which may be useful if you enable the IoT network. Older 2.4 and 5GHz devices can connect to the MLO if they support WPA3.

The test Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Google Pixel 8 Pro join MLO at the maximum of 2400Mbps (2 x 2 x 160MHz) on the 6GHz network. If I connect to the 6GHz network, I get up to 2882Mbps.

It also supports a 2.5/5GHz and 6GHz Guest network isolated from the main network. You can also limit this bandwidth.

The Deco App

The App, unusually, has far greater functionality than the web interface. But it has far less granular customisability than, say, the Netgear App. Let’s just say that power users may be frustrated if they need more control.

For example, you cannot change channels within bands, but you can run the optimiser that will do it for you. We tested this several times over four weeks, and each time, it selected different 2.4 and 6GHz channels. But the reason is that AI automatically adjusts bands, so you don’t need to think about it.

The web interface is extremely limited.

Double NAT (network address translation) router or Access Point?

With HFC or FTTN, you plug this directly into an RJ45 plug. The primary Deco is the router, so you don’t need a gateway.

If you have FTTN ADSL2+, you will have an existing Wi-Fi router (gateway) and plug this into an RJ45 Ethernet LAN socket. You may have read that you should set the primary Deco up as an Access Point to avoid Double NAT – don’t. Deco loses its NAT, DHCP server, Parental Controls, QoS, Device Isolation, and Connection Alerts if you do.

A Double NAT is fine as long as the Gateway router and the Deco have different LAN IP addresses and preferably disable the gateway Wi-Fi to stop interference.

Ports – Exceed

• A 10 Gbps SFP (fibre optic) to RJ45 transceiver is required. This can accept an SPF Fibre 10Gbps cable used for 2-10Gbps NBN.
• 2 x 10Gbps Cat 6e RJ-45 LAN or WAN (only one available if using the SPF adapter)
• 2 x 2.5Gbps Cat 6e RJ-45 LAN or WAN
• USB-A 3.0 for storage and file access (up to 3 online for three nodes). While this is a 5Gbps full-duplex port, the maximum speeds will depend on the attached flash drive or external SSD. You can expect approx. 100/100MBps sequential read/write.

Practically 10Gb and 2.5Gb ports support from 10Mbps or more, and their speed will depend on the Ethernet cable-rated speed and any switches you use to connect the router, satellite/s, Ethernet-connected TV/set-top boxes/Blu-ray and speakers.

Most will only have up to 100/20 Mbps NBN, the maximum internet speed you can get over FTTN. If your speed is below 2500Mbps (2.5Gb), use that port for an Internet connection. That leaves 2 x 10GBps ports that you could use for dedicated Ethernet backhaul to two satellites using Cat 6E cable. Our tests with Cat 6e cable showed approximately 5Gbps full duplex.

If you have a 2.5Gbps switch (we use a terrific D-Link DMS-106XT 2.5Gbps gaming and media 6-port unmanaged switch), you may run a 2.5GB NBN cable to the router and 2.5Gb cable to the switch, then 2.5Gb cables to the satellites. Our tests with a 2.5Gb switch showed 1.3Gbps full-duplex.

Or if you have Cat 5e cabling or an older Gigabit 1000Mpbs switch, the maximum speed you will get is 500Mbps full-duplex between the switch, router and satellites.

Backhaul – Exceed

Backhaul is how the router and satellites communicate. The faster the backhaul, the more data it can move and the more devices it can handle.

The Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 BE22000 can use:

• Ethernet backhaul up to 10Gb
• Wi-Fi 6Ghz backhaul to 4.8Gb (Australian limit) is no longer available to Wi-Fi 6E and 7 clients. Don’t forget that this has a much shorter range.
• Ethernet and Wi-Fi 6GHz. There is confusion that this aggregation uses 2.4/5/6Ghz MLO, but if the MLO channel is enabled for general use (and it should be), only 6GHz is used. Ditto to clients.

Let’s be clear – if you don’t use Ethernet backhaul (preferably 2.5 or 10Gb) and use Wi-Fi 6, the fastest speeds we recorded between a satellite and router at 10m line-of-site was <1Gbps. Even moving to 5m only marginally improved the performance to 1.3Gbps.

And that brings up the main issue of mesh.

The router transmits a signal – both front haul to clients and backhaul to the satellite. The satellite happily retransmits what it receives – it cannot amplify it. So, while you may get terrific device-to-satellite ‘speeds’, the actual throughput to the router is a fraction of that. You probably won’t notice, as your SpeedTest will likely be on 100Mbps or slower NBN.

Speed and coverage tests – Exceed

There are many ways to measure router/satellite speeds.

• The ‘apparent’ speed between the Wi-Fi device and the router or satellite. That is a rubbish measurement, as you know that each transmits the same speeds and has the same band distances (using a cabled backhaul).
• Internet access download/upload/ping speeds, but as most of Australia has <100Mbps download (10% of the slowest Gigabit backhaul), you will get whatever the router/gateway is connected to.
• Speeds affected by loads. Fire up multiple 4K streams (3 x 4K TVs playing UHD from Netflix or Prime Video – (two Ethernet and one Wi-Fi 6) again, no impact on speed. We added a whole of home Sonos (10 speakers), all belting out at decent volumes – no impact.
• Coverage – how much area can the three (or two or one) pack cover? The antenna design radiates in a 360° circle at about a 90° angle, covering a typical home’s floor-to-ceiling. This leads to a rule – don’t use too many satellites as they can interfere with auto-roaming. Each cover 6GHz/150m2 (12 x 12m), 5Hz/ 300m2 (17 x 17m) to 2.4GHz/ 700m2 (26 x 26m).
• Auto-roaming – exceed. Handoff was fast.

Heat/Noise – Pass

At worst, the unit reached 50dB at 50cm away. External heat was generally below 30°.

Power – Pass

15-18W with occasional peaks when multiple 4K streaming per unit. It will cost approx. 20 cents per day per node.

Parental control and KidShield – not tested

Parents can set app blocking, web filtering, YouTube restrictions, SafeSearch, and online time limits to keep kids safe while having fun online.

KidShield protects children away from home, even if they are not connected to your home Wi-Fi.

Some advanced features require a subscription.

Network protection – not tested

HomeShield 3.0 examines your network by scanning and identifying potential risks, stopping them before they harm your network. Some features require a subscription.

CyberShack’s view – TP-Link Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 BE22000 tri-band mesh router for distributed speed

Most mesh systems have a dedicated router and different satellites with reduced functionality, like fewer Ethernet ports, less bandwidth, etc. Not so with the BE85 – all three are routers with full functionality acting as one very powerful mesh.

If you use 2.4/5Gb or 10Gb Ethernet backhaul (even 1Gbps is satisfactory as it is full-duplex), the entire 2.4/5/6GHz spectrum is available to Wi-Fi devices. If you have to use Wi-Fi backhaul, you dedicate the 6GHz bandwidth to that, which is not recommended if you have Wi-Fi 6E or 7 devices.

Then you have those extra Ethernet ports on each – perfect for connecting a TV, set-top box, Blu-ray, network-attached storage or a PC/Mac.

But what impressed me most was the new network speed and reach when replacing one of 2022’s most powerful mesh systems, Netgear ORBI RBKE963 Wi-Fi 6E AXE Quad-band Wi-Fi mesh. Load times on streaming services were seconds quicker; digital TV channels came up as fast as Free-to-Air, and lag was gone.

I was also impressed that I could place an Eufy E340 Spotlight Dual Cam over 40 metres away at the end of a long driveway from a Wi-Fi-connected satellite in the garage and behind a metal roller door. The Orbi 6E ran out of puff at <20m. Orbi’s new Wi-Fi 7 mesh may be just as good.

But the ‘impressed’ does not stop there. While the BE85 has been available for a few months overseas, this AU version is flawless.

Ratings 90/100

We now have enough benchmarks from this, and the Netgear RS700S Wi-Fi 7 BE19000 tri-band router is fast, very fast to rate both. But remember, this is a mesh, and Netgear is a router.

• Features: 90 – Pretty much idiot-proof setup using the App. Power users will feel limited in customisation areas.
• Value: 90 – It is expensive at $2999 for a 3-pack, but remember, these are all fully-featured routers in their own right. The cheaper mesh will have lesser-featured satellites. A 3-pack Orbi 970 BE 27000 mesh is US$2,299.99 (about AU $4,000 here).
• Performance: 90 – I feel so plebian only having NBN 100/20Mbps, but that is as fast as 70% of Aussies can get. It exceeded test results in every area compared to Wi-Fi 6E mesh.
• Ease of Use: 90 – straightforward app.
• Design: 90 – Attractive vase-like design.

Would I buy the TP-Link Deco BE85 Wi-Fi 7 BE22000?

In a heartbeat (but I am a speed freak geek). I was sold once I saw what benefits it brought to my existing Wi-Fi 6E network.

The Quad-band Orbi Wi-Fi 7 mesh has an extra 5Ghz 8,647Mbps dedicated backhaul channel, but some say that won’t work here due to 4x4x240Mhz aggregation not being available. Still, you can and should use Ethernet backhaul.