TP-LINK Deco M5 Unit Overview
As I said our system us made up of three separate Deco units. Three seems to be what all of these whole-home systems come with, and should provide proper coverage for most homes. Doing some research we found that these units are based on a Qualcomm platform making use of the IPQ4019 CPU, which is a quad-core part. These are AC1300 units so you have 400 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 867 Mbps on the 5 GHz band and each unit has Bluetooth 4.2 and well as MU-MIMO.
I was actually surprised at how small the Deco units are, they are basically a 120 mm circle, and 1-inch thick. This is surprisingly smaller than other whole-home systems we’ve seen. The units are quite attractive, being all white with a small TP-LINK logo on the top as well as a small indication LED in the center. These could easily sit on a shelf and look good, especially since there are no antenna’s coming out of them!
On one side of each unit you’ll find a small power connection for the power adapter and two gigabit Ethernet ports. One of these ports you’ll use for a WAN connection (from your modem or normal router) and the other can be used for a LAN connection. This is great if you have a PC or console close to any of your units.
On the bottom of each unit you’ll find a hard reset button, ventilation holes, four small feet, and of course all of your serial numbers etc.
