Trendnet TPL-408E2K HomePlug adapter review: Being skinny didn't make this adapter any slower

15.01.2015
Trendnet's HomePlug AV2 kit (mysteriously labeled as delivering 500 Mbps when most AV2 products are rated at 600 Mbps) sports a midsized footprint (smaller than a deck of cards but larger than a matchbox) and a slimmer profile than other products in this roundup. It ships with two five-foot ethernet cables, but its features are otherwise similar to the rest of the field: LEDs show power, power-line network, and ethernet connections; and there's password and push-button security options and a gigabit ethernet port.

Performance was more or less on par with that of the other first-generation HomePlug AV2 products we tested (the D-Link DHP-601AV and the Linksys PLEK500), with TCP throughput in the high 60 Mbps range. The kit's list price fell between that of the D-Link and Netgear, but street prices were considerably lower; in fact, this was one of the lowest-priced power-line adapter kits in its performance tier that we saw on Amazon.

That makes the Trendnet kit a worthy option for people who want to keep their expansion options open without spending a lot of money: You should be able to add entry-level AV2 adapters from any vendor without worrying about performance issues due to incompatible proprietary enhancements.

(www.techhive.com)

Yardena Arar