TP-Link Talon AD7200 802.11ad router review: Blazing ahead at 60GHz

Wireless 802.11ad, a new era of Wi-Fi

Wireless 802.11ad is upon us, courtesy of the world’s first 802.11ad router from TP-Link, the Talon AD7200. But before we go on to talk about this router, it is necessary to first understand what 802.11ad technology is.

Wireless technology has come a long way. It was about 17 years ago that Wi-Fi took off thanks to the 802.11b wireless standard (and made famous by Intel Centrino Mobile Technology) which offered up to a maximum of 11Mbps of bandwidth. At this speed, a 1GB file would have taken over 12 minutes to download. Today, the fastest 802.11ac routers are capable of transmitting data at speeds of up to 2,167Mbps - or nearly 200 times faster than 802.11b. As a result, a 1GB file would take just less than 4 seconds to download. All of this is theoretically speaking, of course, we all know real world performance is often considerably lesser.

While 802.11ac is fast, it isn’t as fast as 802.11ad, the next step in wireless technology evolution. 802.11ad or WiGig is the newest wireless standard and it will operate in the stratospheric 60GHz frequency range. Broadcasting at this super high frequency gives it the ability to hit data transfer rates of up to 4,600Mbps, that’s twice as fast as the fastest 802.11ac routers and this is only for a start.

We are creating more content than ever, and the content that we are creating is more detailed than ever as well, which consequently means larger file sizes. Flagship phones can now record in stunning 4K resolution and cameras are capturing photos in greater detail than ever thanks to larger sensors with high megapixel counts. Now, we're pushing the edge with even 360 photos and videos creation. The more you create, the more you'll require to create backup copies, either within your home on a NAS or on a cloud service. In terms of consumption, don't forget the numerous music streaming services, and several video streaming options that entertain us for endless hours such as Viu and Netflix. Add all these creation and consumption requirements and multiply that with the number of users in your household and the number of connected devices, suddenly there's an explosion of data transferred within your home. There is therefore a need for a router that can keep up with all of this. Fortunately, 4,600Mbps is the equivalent of a whopping 575MB/s, and according to TP-Link, this is enough for users to download an entire feature-length 4K movie in just four minutes. It is also enough to transfer a thousand photos in just five seconds.

However, don't get too excited now. The high speed of 802.11ad comes with a crucial trade-off, and that’s range. The range of 802.11ad’s high frequency 60GHz networks could be as short as just 10 meters. And unlike 2.4GHz and 5GHz signals, 60GHz signals can be attenuated by as little as a thick sheet of paper. In other words, you’ll need a clear line of sight to be able to properly enjoy 802.11ad’s high-speed 60GHz networks.

So now that you have a better understanding of 802.11ad, let’s take a closer look at the TP-Link Talon AD7200 router itself.

The TP-Link Talon AD7200

If you have read our AC3200 router shootout and seen the TP-Link Archer C3200, then the sight of the new Talon AD7200 router will seem familiar to you.

The TP-Link Talon AD7200 has the same boxy design as the Archer C3200 router, but has a whopping 8 external antennas - the Archer C3200 has six. Fortunately, like the Archer C3200 router, the Talon AD7200’s external routers can be folded away into cutouts in the top panel to give it a more discreet look. The top panels also contain numerous vents to help keep the router cool.

On the front panel is a row of LED status indicators, these indicators let users quickly see if anything is going wrong with their router. One thing we would have liked is for the Talon AD7200 to have individual indicators for the Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports. There’s only a single indicator, which means that if it goes off, you’ll need to spend some time to find out which exact port is the one that’s having problems.

On the right side of the front panel are three handy buttons that let users turn the LED indicators on and off, turn the Wi-Fi on and off, and for WPS setup.

Turning the router around, we find the usual ports on the rear. There’s a single Gigabit Ethernet WAN port and four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports. There’s also two USB 3.0 ports which can be hooked up to external storage devices or printers for file or print-sharing.

Now let’s dive into performance, the Talon AD7200 is a 802.11ad-capable tri-band router. It broadcasts a single 2.4GHz network, a single 5GHz network and a single 60GHz network. The 60GHz network serves up a data transfer rate of 4,600Mbps, while the 5GHz network is good for 1733Mbps, and the 2.4GHz offers up to 800Mbps. Add them up and you get a combined data transfer rate of about 7200Mbps, hence the name Talon AD7200.

Because of the 60GHz network’s poor range and limited coverage, the 5GHz and 2.4GHz networks are necessary, and allows the Talon AD7200 to function like a regular router when outside of the 60GHz network’s range.

Inside, the Talon AD7200 is powered by a 1.4GHz dual-core Qualcomm IPQ8064 SoC. The four stream 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios are provided for by Qualcomm’s QCA9980 chipset, while the single stream 60GHz radio is by powered by Qualcomm’s QCA9500 chipset. MU-MIMO is supported on the 5GHz 802.11ac network, but not on the 60GHz 802.11ad network since it only broadcasts has a single stream.

On the software side of things, we are happy to report that TP-Link has improved the setup interface of the Talon AD7200. Users can still choose from two main menus - Basic and Advanced - but some of the sub-menus have been tweaked to make setup easier. 

For example, in our review of the Archer C3200, we remarked that setting up QoS was tedious as it required users to manually define the IP and port range of applications. In the Talon AD7200, the QoS rules can be defined on a device basis, meaning to say you simply specify which of the devices that are connected to the router should have priority over which. This is a much more practical and elegant implementation.

Owners of the Talon AD7200 will be happy to know that the router has all the other usual options like parental controls, port forwarding, dynamic DNS, VPN, and more. Overall, we found the Talon AD7200's setup interface to be fairly straight forward and powerful to use. It's not quite as polished as its rivals, but it gets the job done.

Finally, like most high-end routers today, the Talon AD7200 can also be remotely controlled and managed using TP-Link’s Tether app, which is available as a free download for iOS and Android devices. The app is a pretty basic one but it shows you a network map that lets you see devices connected to your router, also allows you to manage your Wi-Fi and guest networks settings, and also activate or deactivate your parental control settings.

Test setup

Our routine test setup includes a desktop PC, the reviewed router, and a laptop to simulate a wireless home network. The desktop system takes on the role of a host machine, while the router acts as a gateway. And lastly, an external Wireless 802.11ac adapter attached to the notebook is used to fulfill the role of a wireless remote client. The router is locked down in N-only mode for the 2.4GHz band, and 802.11ac for the 5GHz band, mainly to prevent the use of varying 802.11 standards. Typically, a channel bandwidth of 40MHz is selected where applicable, while 80MHz is used for the 5GHz AC band.

We'll be using Netgear's A6200 802.11ac USB adapter for our throughput tests to reduce the number of variables involved. The Netgear A6200 USB adapter supports up to two spatial streams for a maximum data transfer rate of 867Mbps - the maximum for USB adapters currently. Hence, if your system has a more advanced wireless chipset that supports three spatial streams, you can expect even higher speeds.

To evaluate the routers we will be using a mix of synthetic benchmarks and real-world testing. The synthetic benchmark we are using is called LAN Speed Test. As for real-world testing, we will be measuring the routers’ speeds in transferring a 1GB zip file. We will do multiple tests at different distances to simulate use around a typical home. For the 5GHz band, we also measured how performance is affected if two clients are connected and uploading and downloading data at the same time. Here are the test distances we used and what they represent.

• 2m - Right beside the router.
• 5m - In the adjacent room.
• 13m - In the room opposite.
• 17m - To simulate extreme distances.

An important thing to note is that we will be phasing out 2.4GHz testing from our benchmarks. For one, 802.11ac is now being widely supported by most if not all mobile devices. If your device supports 802.11ac, it makes absolutely no sense to connect to the router via the slower and more congested 2.4GHz band. Speaking of congestion, our test environment currently has no less than 19 different 2.4GHz networks being broadcasted. The amount of noise and interference makes it very difficult for us to properly evaluate 2.4GHz performance. As such, we'll only be presenting performance from the 5GHz band.

60GHz 802.11ad testing

To test the Talon AD7200’s speedy 60GHz network, we requested for a second unit to function in client mode. We will also measure the performance of the 60GHz network at our usual test ranges. It will be interesting to see if the 60GHz network works any farther than 2m. Remember, our 5m range is in fact in an adjacent room. We were told that the 60GHz will only work in the same room and have read that 60GHz signals are unable to pass through any obstacle that’s thicker than a stack of paper.

 

Performance Analysis

We begin our performance analysis with LAN Speed Test, and the results of the Talon AD7200 were encouraging and quite impressive. Uplink speeds at 2m, 5m and 13m were quite good and certainly comparable with other high-end routers like the Linksys EA9200 and ASUS RT-AC5300. However, like its sibling, the Archer C3200, the Talon AD7200’s uplink figures took a dramatic dip when we came to our maximum test range of 17m.

The Talon AD7200’s downlink speeds were pretty impressive. At 2m, it was the fastest with a speed of 185.24Mbps. And even though it wasn’t the quickest 5m, 13m and 17m, its performance at these ranges were more than decent and in keeping with what we would expect from a high-end router.

Our file transfer test measures the average speed that the router achieved while transferring a 1GB large file, and in this respect, the Talon AD7200 router did reasonably well. Its performance at 2m was good, but dipped quite considerably when we went to 5m and 13m. But even at this range, its numbers were still comparable to other high-end routers like the Linksys EA8500 and EA9200.

In our performance load test where we downloaded data simultaneously using two notebooks from our host computer, the Talon AD7200’s performance was on a par with other dual-band routers like the Linksys EA8500 and ASUS RT-AC87U. The tri-band routers were unassailably quicker because they could dedicate each one of their 5GHz networks to a single device.

60GHz Performance Analysis

Let’s address the issue of range first. In our tests, we found that the 60GHz network requires both routers to be in the same room. At 5 meters - or more specifically in our test environment - in the adjacent room, we could not receive a signal.

In terms of speed, the 60GHz network proved to be blisteringly fast. Running LAN Speed Test and comparing the performance of the 60GHz connection against an Ethernet connection, the 60GHz network was about was only 18% slower in terms of uplink speeds and 12% slower in terms of downlink speeds. It was, however, significantly quicker than a 5GHz connection. Uplink speeds were over 300% faster while downlink speeds were about 40% faster.

In our file transfer tests, we found that transferring a 1GB file over the 60GHz network was just about as fast as doing it over a wired connection. Over Ethernet, we timed the transfer at 9.53 seconds which means a transfer speed of 839Mbps. Over the 60GHz network, we timed the transfer at just 10.02 seconds, only half a second slower, which in turns gives us a transfer speed of a very impressive 798Mbps. This is over 330% faster than transferring over the 5GHz network, which took us 34 seconds, giving us a transfer rate of 235Mbps.

Conclusion (and some musings on 802.11ad)

802.11ad is here and boy does it deliver. In our experience with the TP-Link Talon AD7200, we found that the 60GHz network delivers bucket loads of speed - over three times more performance as compared to most typical 5GHz connections (AC1200 being the most common as most 802.11ac client devices only support up to two spatial streams).

The high speed offered by the 60GHz network will allow users to take greater advantage of their fast fiber connection plans. Other benefits of this speedy 60GHz network include: improving video streaming performance; reduce the time taken for wireless backups; boost the overall performance of your NAS system; and generally enhance the wireless performance of your home network.

That said, there’s one big issue with 802.11ad now and that’s the lack of compatible clients. It’s early days yet and there’s no telling if manufacturers will jump on the 802.11ad bandwagon. Even today, there’s still a distinct lack of support for 802.11ac devices that support three spatial streams (1300Mbps) - most 802.11ac compatible client devices only support two spatial streams (867Mbps).

In other words, if you want to get the best out of the Talon AD7200 router, you’ll need two of them. One to function as a primary router and the other configured to work as a client device. You will then need to connect your devices to the Talon AD7200 that’s in client mode via Ethernet. It’s not ideal, but that’s the workaround for now since there are no compatible client devices or adapters that you can purchase. At this point it’s perhaps also worth mentioning that trying to set the Talon AD7200 to work as a client device can be a little tricky because it’s not clearly stated in the setup menu.

With a retail price of S$499, the Talon AD7200 is presently one of the most expensive routers around. The question of value will be highly dependent on your intended usage. As our results show, the Talon AD7200 can provide blistering wireless performance over its 60GHz network, but getting it to work will require two things: a) another Talon AD7200 router acting as a client and b) both routers need to be in the same room with as little obstruction between them as possible. If these two requirements don’t put you off and you have a usage scenario that can benefit from the high speeds of the Talon AD7200, then this router comes highly recommended, because its 60GHz network is super fast.

Furthermore, the Talon AD7200’s performance over its 802.11ac 5GHz network was respectable too. Though it wasn’t quite as fast as our reigning speed champ, the ASUS RT-AC5300, it was more than a match for other AC2400-class routers like the Linksys EA8500 and ASUS RT-AC87U. We were also pleased to find that they have made tweaks to the Talon AD7200’s setup interface to make it more easier to use.

On a final note, the Talon AD7200 provides an interesting glimpse into what’s possible with the new wireless 802.11ad standard. Though range is somewhat disappointing, the speeds that 802.11ad can attain are breathtaking. Bear in mind also that the current iteration of 802.11ad in the Talon AD7200 only uses a single spatial stream and it’ll be interesting to see how support for additional spatial streams in future will bump up 802.11ad speeds.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.