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Tom's Guide
7 days ago
- Tom's Guide
Linksys RE7350 review: a simple yet slow, app-free Wi-Fi extender
Wi-Fi Spec: AX1800Number of Antennas/Removable: 2/NoPorts: NonePeak 802.11ax performance: 203.7 Mbps (10 feet from extender)Range: 110 feetSize: 5.2 x 3.9 x 1.8 inchesEstimated Annual Electricity Cost: $8.80 While its speeds couldn't match the best in the business, the Linksys RE7350 is an inexpensive way to extend a wireless network to fill in Wi-Fi blank areas. It goes the extra Wi-Fi mile with excellent range and more customization choices than many of the best Wi-Fi extenders but lacks access to the 6 GHz band as it only supports Wi-Fi 6. Rather than a convenient app, the RE7350 requires using a connected browser to set it up and make changes. Still, it could be an effective way to cover your entire house with Wi-Fi on a budget. See how it matches up with the best. With a list price of $130, the Linksys RE7350 can be had for as little as $70 at a variety of online stores, like Amazon. That's about one-third the price of some of its competitors. It's been designed to add coverage for 2,000 square feet to a network. The monolithic Linksys RE7350 is a dead ringer for the previous RE7310 model, although it's been significantly upgraded. At 5.2 x 3.9 x 1.8 inches, it's shorter and thicker than the TP-Link RE655BE and is available only in white. The back's two-prong AC plug goes right into a wall outlet and the unit leaves room for an additional plug. Alternatively, it can sit on its own with power coming from an extension cord. There isn't an on/off switch but the RE7350 has buttons on the side for resetting the device and starting up the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) procedure for a quickie installation. On the bottom is a gigabit per second Ethernet port for connecting a computer, printer, storage device or other networked appliance. It's a lot slower than the RE655BE's 2.5 Gbps port and the extender does without a USB port for a connected storage drive. The RE7350's front is dominated by an LED bar that shows its status and connections. Using Linksys Spot Finder technology, the light glows blue when it's connected and working fine. If it turns orange, it means that the extender is offline. There's no way to turn the light off though. Using our real world testing protocol and the Keysight IxChariot networking benchmark set up to simulate 10 data-hungry users, the RE7350 proved to be a reliable way to extend a Wi-Fi 6 network in my 3,500 square foot home. It was able to push a connection from the Netgear Nighthawk RS600 router into previously uncovered areas of the house. That said, the RE7350's overall performance lagged behind the others I tested although it had excellent range. With the Nighthawk RS600 router 40 feet from the RE7350 and the Acer Swift Edge 16 Wi-Fi 7 notebook next to it, the extender yielded a throughput of 203.5 Mbps, about half what other Wi-Fi 6 extenders deliver. At the more reasonable distance of 10 feet, the throughput rose slightly to 203.7 Mbps. Good, but well below competitors like the Wi-Fi 7 RE655BE's 719.5 Mbps result or the Wi-Fi 6 RP-AX58's 490.2 Mbps. When the repeater was set up at 40 feet from the router, the extender only exchanged 80.6 Mbps, well at the back of the pack. It had a 110 foot range that was only beaten by the RP-AX58 extender. Asus RP-AX58 Linksys RE7350 Netgear EAX17 TP-Link RE655BE 10 feet 490.2 Mbps 203.7 Mbps 383.1 Mbps 719.5 Mbps 40 feet 201.1 Mbps 80.6 Mbps 197.9 Mbps 376.7 Mbps The RE7350 was able to send emails, stream 4K videos and play music on connected devices but it lacks power-conservation settings to cut its 6.3 watt power draw. This translates into an annual power bill of roughly $8.80 if it's left on 24/7 and you pay the national average of 16 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity. Over two weeks of daily use, its passive cooling worked well, with the RE7350 never getting over 96.3 degrees Fahrenheit. The hot spot was at the top. Rated to handle Wi-Fi 6 transmissions, the dual-band extender uses 2x2 streams to move data over the 2.4 and 5 GHz data bands. It carries an AX1800 throughput rating, although it lacks the ability to tap into 6 GHz networks or 320MHz data channels. The RE7350 can work as an access point or extender and takes advantage of the Wi-Fi 6 to the fullest. In addition to using beamforming, the extender works with 1024 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and MU-MIMO. It can connect up to 20 clients at a time. Unlike other networking gear, the RE7350 does without a setup and configuration app. Instead, there's the choice between the WPS button on its side and tapping into the RE7350's internal user interface, which was anything but quick and easy. I started by connecting to the extender's default Wi-Fi network ('Linksys Extender Setup – 393') and typing ' into Chrome's address bar. The opening page has the Linksys license terms and auto firmware update prechecked. I set it for wireless range extender instead of access point and picked the 2.4 and 5.0 GHz LANs to extend separately. I entered the passcode for each. The extender had trouble connecting over the 5 GHz band although it worked on the third try. I finished up by adding an administrative password and reminder hint. The process took 13 minutes – double what it should. All that time and effort actually pays off with good customization options. The main page is for basic settings showing network names, passwords and connection status. Under each network is an advanced section for channel width details. Unfortunately, the extender is limited to a maximum of 80Mhz data channels, which limits the extender's throughput. In addition to QOS, there's a unique Spot Finder. Here, the extender visually tells you if you're too far, too close or just right for a prime connection. Finally, its statistics page provides excellent networking data, although in tabular and not graphic form. There are places for things like data packet count. There's no place to turn the LED off. Like most extenders, the RE7350 comes with a one-year warranty and lifetime support. That's not as good as TP-Link's two years of coverage but better than Netgear's standard 90 days of support, unless you pay to upgrade. The text-only support pages for the Linskys RE7350 may not be as pretty as its competitors, but it has what's needed to help get the extender online and working. The FAQ section is very deep and the extender has a basic manual but the site lacks helpful setup videos. A reliable way to fill a house with Wi-Fi, the Linskys RE7350 extender comes up short compared to the competition in terms of speed but had excellent range. Based on Wi-Fi 6, it can't use the 6 GHz high performance data band or 320MHz data channels and its 1 Gbps Ethernet port can't compare to the 2.5 Gbps ports that are starting to show up on extenders. Plus, unlike the others, it lacks an app for setting up and configuring the extender. That said, the RE7350 offers a good combination of price at $70, reliable operation and an excellent assortment of setup choices available. In fact, it's for those who care less about raw speed and more about tweaking and configuring the network.
Tom's Guide
06-05-2025
- Tom's Guide
TP-Link RE655BE review: Finally a Wi-Fi extender with Wi-Fi 7 support
TP-Link RE655BE: Specs Wi-Fi Spec: BE11000 Number of Antennas/Removable: 4/No Ports: 2.5 Gbps LAN Peak 802.11ax performance: 719.5 Mbps (15-feet from extender) Range: 90 feet Size: 6.3 x 4.2 x 1.5 inches Estimated Annual Electricity Cost: $11.10 By tapping into the 6 GHz data band, TP-Link takes wireless extenders into the Wi-Fi 7 era with its tri-band RE655BE. With everything from 320Mhz data transmissions to Multi-Link Operations, it has a slew of configuration options the others lack along with a 2.5 Gbps wired networking port. It can also join a TP-Link EasyMesh LAN. Sure, it's in the upper echelon of the best Wi-Fi extenders but it's priced equivalent to two or three more pedestrian extenders and about what a good router goes for. See if it's worth the scratch to fill your home with data. About the most expensive extender available, the TP-Link RE655BE is available at Best Buy for $230 and an identical RE653BE model will be available at Amazon. It can add 2,800 square feet to a wireless network, according to TP-Link engineers. You may like Slim but wide and long, the RE655BE appears to have it all. As a result, it is one of the largest extenders around at 6.3 x 4.2 x 1.5 inches with its four rotatable antennas stowed. When fully extended, the RE655BE becomes 13.4 inches long but if they're arranged perpendicular to the device, it looks like a robotic dog. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) Happily, its two prong plug is old house friendly and plugs right into any outlet but it might hog an adjacent outlet though. The RE655BE's vents all around are only partially successful at cooling it. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) Designed for the Wi-Fi 7 era of wireless networking, the extender has side buttons for starting the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) connection process and resetting the system. There isn't an on/off key. Its five LEDs show power, its connection and status of the 2.4-, 5.0- and 6.0 GHz Wi-Fi bands; all light up blue unless something bad happens, then they glow red. However, they can be turned off in TP-Link's Tether app. Able to deliver extra Wi-Fi throughput, the TP-Link RE655BE is the first Wi-Fi 7 extender and the top performer available. With the extender 40-feet from the Netgear Nighthawk RS600 router and the IxChariot networking benchmark configured to mimic 10 home users, the Sharp Swift Edge 16 test notebook recorded data flow of 663.5 Mbps up close. This is easily the fastest extender around compared to the 201.7 Mbps to 449.6 Mbps range for the Wi-Fi 6 entrants. With a more reasonable 10 feet separating the router and extender, the throughput jumped to 719.5 Mbps. That's about roughly a third more data than the Asus RP-AX58's 490.2 Mbps and triple that of the Linksys RE7350. Swipe to scroll horizontally Row 0 - Cell 0 Asus RP-AX58 Linksys RE7350 Netgear EAX17 TP-Link RE655BE 10 feet 490.2 Mbps 203.7 Mbps 383.1 Mbps 719.5 Mbps 40 feet 201.1 Mbps 80.6 Mbps 197.9 Mbps 376.7 Mbps At 40 feet, the RE655BE continued to lead at 376.7 Mbps, nearly double what the RP-AX58 (201.1 Mbps) and EAX17 (197.7 Mbps) delivered. It was 4 times as fast as the RE7350's 80.6 Mbps. The RE655BE had a 105 foot range but ran on the warm side at 114 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 20 degrees warmer than the other extenders I tested. While streaming data, it consumed 7.9 watts of power. If it runs 24/7 that equals an annual power bill of $11.10 if you pay the national average of 16 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity. It worked well with everything from 4K videos and online gaming to playing music and swapping emails. Able to cover all three Wi-Fi 7 bands, the RE655BE is a unique extender with the power to push high-speed data to a home's extremes using 320MHz data channels, Multi-Link Operations (MLO) and 4K Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). Able to move up to 5.7 Gbps over the 6 GHz band as well as 4.3 Gbps and 688 Mbps using the 5.0 and 2.4 GHz bands, its 10.8 Gbps theoretical peak throughput blows other extenders away. The RE655BE uses the company's Smart Roaming technology to scan the area and select the most efficient way for the data to travel back and forth. The RE655BE can be a node in a TP-Link EasyMesh network, a traditional repeater or a wired access point. Finally, the RE655BE's 2.5 Gbps networking port worked with a computer, but would be just as good for a printer, a wired storage device or any other wired device for that matter. It outdoes the 1 Gbps LAN ports on other extenders but lacks a USB port. Getting the RE655BE online can be accomplished using the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), a connected browser or the TP-Link Tether app; there're versions for iOS and Android. After installing the app on my Samsung Galaxy S24 phone, I plugged the RE655BE into an outlet next to the router as outlined in the Installation Guide. I accepted TP-Link's license but declined their kind offer to share my connection data. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) I created a TP-Link ID, responded to a verification email and set the phone's network connection to the RE655BE's 'TP-Link_Extend'. After I added an administrator password, I chose the type of equipment I was installing. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) It found the extender and I chose the network to extend, with a configuration summary showing up. Everything looked good, so I moved the RE655BE to its final location 40 feet from the router and the notebook connected on the first try. It all took a longish 10 minutes and 45 seconds. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) The Tether app's Network page shows it's online, connected clients and the status of the main and extended networks. It's easy to add another extender with the '+' symbol. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) The tabs below include Security, with a vulnerability scan that has a password strength appraisal and whether two factor authentication is activated. There are items for real time protection and access to TP-Link's VPN but both require a $110 a year On the Go Antivirus protection plan; the first year is $40. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) Its More tab is intriguing with a place to redo the setup, connect to a TP-Link EasyMesh network or block devices. After I turned off the LEDs, I scheduled on/off times for the extender, a feature none of the others provide. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) Switching to the connected browser interface reveals an excellent Status page with everything at a glance, including network topology, connection condition and how many clients are online. The network's name is shown but no passcode is identified. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) There's even a way to tailor the signal strength to keep your networking from spilling over into the neighbors. There are three choices. (Image credit: Tom's Guide) The RE655BE extender includes a two year warranty and unlimited lifetime support. That's much better than Netgear's 1-year warranty and a meagre 90 days of support unless you pay extra for it. Should you need any help, TP-Link's support site is chock full of videos, downloads and helpful advice. The FAQs are very deep and require some digging to get past the generic items. Still, it's one of the best. The first Wi-Fi 7 extender, the TP-Link RE655BE certainly won't be the last. Able to push a Wi-Fi network to the extremes, the triband extender has everything from 6 GHz transmissions and 320MHz data channels to a 2.5 Gbps wired Ethernet port and the ability to work with a TP-Link EasyMesh network. Other things being equal, it's among the most expensive range extenders on the planet, but other things aren't equal with the top throughput for an extender of any kind. In other words, it's the current top dog extender and able to enliven Wi-Fi dead zones with data.
