Waterproof range for your garden – TP-Link Deco X50-Outdoor Quick Test

By admin On Aug 23, 2024

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If you have a good Wi-Fi network within the walls of your home, there is no guarantee that this will also be the case outside in the garden. Even if you place an access point right behind a window to get better coverage in the garden, the wireless network can sometimes reach less far than you would like due to the influence of insulation materials, insulated glass, and neighboring noise.

The best solution to circumvent these influences is to place an access point in the garden. For that specific purpose, TP-Link has the Deco X50-Outdoor in its range. It has recently been available for a promotional price of 79 euros. The X50-outdoor is primarily intended to extend an existing Deco mesh network. Still, it can function independently as an access point for your existing network without having other TP-Link equipment.

In this quick test, we examine the Deco X50-outdoor and rate it on the most critical points: build quality, installation and management options, throughput speed, and range.

Installation options

The X50-Outdoor has an IP65 rating, which means the device is resistant to rain and water jets. The design has, therefore, been significantly modified compared to the ‘normal’ X50. Looking at them side by side, you wouldn’t say they are from the same product line. The X50-Outdoor is a lot bigger. You can stand the access point on a surface, but a plate is included in the box to attach the access point to a pole with two tie wraps. The same plate also allows wall mounting. After mounting, the protrusion on the side of the X50-outdoor grabs onto this plate. The top is beveled, so no water remains after a rain shower.

The hardware

In addition to the housing, the technology is also different. An adapter powers the regular X50, while the Outdoor is equipped with an internal power supply. The included IEC C5 power cable, with Mickey Mouse plug, is 3 meters long, giving you room to maneuver about the power outlet. It is also possible to power the access point via Power-over-Ethernet+ (802.3at). You will then have to purchase a PoE injector, because it is not included.

The reset button, power, and two Ethernet ports are located on the bottom of the X50-Outdoor. The second network port allows you to daisy-chain a device such as a security camera or another access point.

The connections are covered waterproof by a lid in the bottom. This contains a feed-through rubber with three removable caps that waterproof the power and network cables. The lid is additionally locked with three screws after installation. In practice, getting everything together is quite a bit of fiddling, mainly if you use multiple UTP cables that are a bit stiffer and thicker. Therefore, it is advisable to use flexible Ethernet cables; this also helps the rubber keep the feed-through waterproof.

The components on the inside are mounted like a tower, with the PCB forming the frame. The outside slides around this and provides extra support by contacting the large heat sink in the middle of the access point. The contact surfaces are provided with foam pads, presumably to absorb shocks from outside so that they do not reverberate through the PCB. On top of the tower are four PCB antennas mounted in a plastic holder. The large heat sink and the white color of the housing help to keep the access point cool when it is in full sun.

The X50-Outdoor is based on a Qualcomm IPQ0518 SoC, which also provides a throughput of 574Mbit/s on the 2.4GHz network. For the 5GHz network, a Qualcomm QCN6102 is installed, which supports a throughput of 2400Mbit/s over four radio streams at a bandwidth of 160MHz.

The software

You can manage the access point with the Deco smartphone app. If you already have other Deco devices, you can add the access point in the app, and the device will automatically be imported into your network with all the correct settings. If you do not have any Deco devices yet, you will have to set up the device with the Deco app because the web interface offers only a few options and no wifi network settings. The app detects the X50-Outdoor, which you set to access point mode. Then, you enter the desired wifi data, and the network runs. In this case, you create a separate wifi network that does not work intelligently with your existing network because support for roaming only works in combination with other Deco devices.

A little naughty

Outdoor wifi access points are subject to more regulations to ensure they do not inadvertently interfere with equipment that uses the frequencies for other purposes. This mainly concerns the transmit power in the frequency range between 5150 and 5350MHz. The X50-Outdoor can adhere to these limits, but this is not enabled by default. Out of the box, the X50-Outdoor is configured for indoor use. To comply with the regulations, you will need to enable the restrictions yourself, but this will impact client performance and disable wireless backhaul, effectively stopping the access point from doing everything it advertises. The setting to make the access point suitable for outdoor use is ‘hidden’ in the advanced wireless network settings, which may not be accessible to users who are less proficient with wifi settings.

Test results

Range versus rate backhaul

The two devices’ 2.4GHz client performance is also very comparable. The normal variant offers slightly more throughput at the average range, but the differences are again small.

Range versus rate 5GHz

At 5GHz, there are bigger differences visible. We tested the X50 Outdoor in two modes because you have to enable channel limiting for the intended outdoor use. That clearly affects the throughput speed and ultimately makes the Outdoor variant slower than the X50 for indoor use.

The X50-Outdoor is less efficient than the other Deco devices we have examined so far. At a kWh price of 21 cents per kWh, the access point will cost more than 15 euros annually, compared to three euros more for the normal Deco X50.

Conclusion

The TP-Link X50-Outdoor is, especially at the moment with the promotional price, an interesting option to provide your garden with a good wifi network, although the device works better in combination with other Deco equipment. The mounting options are extensive. The snow-white color contrasts with the colors that you find in many gardens. This makes it more difficult to give the access point an inconspicuous place. The installation is easy with the app, although it would have been nice if the web interface had offered something more than pure basic functionality; in its current form, it is hardly useful. The performance is fine, and the range is good. It would be more honest if the device were advertised with realistic properties: in practice, the bandwidth must be limited by law, which means that the set is bound to a wired backhaul connection and the client performance drops. For the promotional price of around 80 euros, for which the X50-Outdoor is currently in the store, providing your garden with some extra range is attractive. Should the price rise back to normal levels, around 130 euros, the access point will be less interesting if you do not already have a Deco mesh set; the setting options are too meager for a separate access point.