[section_title title=Conclusion]

Conclusion

Performance and Design

The performance of this based on benchmarks is actually seriously impressive! When we compared to our existing router it showed slightly better signal DBM which is always good when selecting products for your home. The actual speed was on par with a router, so nothing to complain about. The scary thing about this product is simply the staggering range of the device given how big it is, so amazing work from TP-LINK.

The design of the product is spot on, super simple, no fuss. On the back of the device is the RJ45 adapter (although you can simply run the router in repeater mode) depending on what you are doing with the product. Other than that on the rear of the device is the mini USB power jack, which enables charging and given the slim line nature of some cables / adapters you can literally fit everything you require in your pocket.

Value

I found the TP-LINK TL-WR802N for roughly £30 which given its size is justified, usually the manufacturing process for smaller technology can often increase the price. But when you consider how much a fully-fledged router can cost, and even full-size hotspot adapters, I think the pricing is spot on. But I feel one thing I wanted to see with this product even at its size was perhaps a small internal 1000mAh battery, however that is me being very picky. Other than that I’d rather pay £30 for a TP-LINK product than £30 for some of the alternatives.

Features

Now the TP-LINK nano router does not pull any punches in this department, in fact it was simply mind blowing the amount of features that they managed to squeeze into such a small device making this a piece of networking gear I actually want to buy. Very often products are branded for a specific use, but the Nano router goes above and beyond to provide a variety of solutions to your home network. Whether you want to create a mini network, or perhaps extend an existing network even bridging two networks, the possibilities really are endless.

I was also quite surprised to see that TP-Link had built a completely accessible web page to control these various features. It’s very rare that in such a cheap product we can see such high-end functionality, and some of the settings would appease most networking addicts. Overall, I could talk all day about the features the bottom line is it should do everything you need to extend your home network and remove those dead spots.

However I think the main selling point of this product has to be the small form factor nature of the product, it is so small it can fit in your pocket. In fact you can run this little product on almost anything, probably even a portable battery. So if you want something to connect all your devices together in say a hotel and want faster speeds than a laptop hotspot can offer, this might be the product for you. And I must admit I tested using a tethered phone to extend the existing hotspot and it worked flawlessly, and was so simple to setup it could even be done on a phone.

Would we recommend?

Now the problem with this product is that its actually quite hard to give it a negative review. Its packed with interesting features and at the price of this product most people should be really happy with it. And during performance tests this little router utterly decimated what I considered decent WiFi in a small form factor to be like. I was expecting a small hotspot but this little router kept on working and holding a signal even when far away from the product.

I think that they shine for the portability factor, but because they’re so small you can easily buy a few and extend your home network without any particular trouble. And they worked flawlessly in terms of performance which makes them amazing for the price, and I can’t recommend them enough. TP-Link have shown a good pedigree for well performing, properly designed products and I can’t see this changing in the future.

This product is something that actually innovates and moves forward the networking world redefining what we consider connectivity in a small package. Thanks TP-Link for sending me this product, I’ve really enjoyed reviewing it, and testing it in all the scenarios I imagine someone would use this product. Whilst I consider this the product you would use to create a wireless hotspot on the go, its a well performing product in every situation which is what makes it shine.

Bottom line – Don’t let size deceive you, this is one incredible little router.