Now that with wave 2 the perfection of the 802.11ac standard is in sight and its successor 802.11ax is in the pipeline, we can give a good picture of the limits of current technology. Today we look at the TP-Link Archer C5400 router, the current top-of-the-line model from the Chinese network manufacturer.

TP-Link's formula for the router market is well known: offering a lot of hardware at the lowest possible price. This concept has been proven several times, with the Deco M5 set and the Archer C3150 as recent examples. These were certainly not products of mediocre performance, and they kept the competition on their toes. It is high time we look at the execution of TP-Link's formula for their top model - in anticipation of the gaming version to be released later, the Archer C5400X. To what extent is this model a lot of bang for your buck? How does the device hold up to specifications of similar devices from competitors, and what are the differences with models that have a more modest price and/or hardware configuration? These are questions that we are going to answer.