TP-Link Ultra-Portable Wi-Fi 6 AX1500 Travel Router TL-WR1502X | Easy Public WiFi Sharing | Hotel/RV/Travel Approved | Phone WiFi Tether | USB C Powered | Multi-Mode | Tether App | Durable Design

I'm currently on a vacation trip and have been using this device nightly when I'm in my hotel rooms. I've been to five hotels in six days and I've had this router set up each night. While I was still at home I practiced both using the router in both tethering and router modes, but tethering is the preferred method I use in my hotels. This is also what I'd suggest users utilize if they are in public spaces such as a cafe/coffee shop, in school, or a public library.Tethering runs the local Wi-Fi signal through the router, but the user connects devices like computers and tablets to the router's SSID, not the available public Wi-Fi signal. An app on my iPhone (there is also an android app) guided me through the setup steps. Each new local Wi-Fi network is scanned by the router, the local password is entered, and the router then allows me to connect to that signal through the router SSID.The router uses both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and given the proximity of all of my devices to the routers, I've been able to use either band with similar results. The router rarely drops the signal and thus far I've not had any issues. I'm logged into the 5 GHz band as I type this review.TP Link has a winner with this product. It is simple to setup, easy to use, reliable, and affordable. I believe I paid $39.99 USD for my device, though it may go on sale during various Amazon sales events throughout the year. I purchased my router just a couple of weeks prior to my trip, so I didn't have the luxury of watching price fluctuations.The router is lightweight. I don't have the exact weight, but it's just a few ounces. It easily fits into my computer bag, and takes of very little room. It has a USB A slot on the back which can be used to access USB flash drives, but I mostly use that port as a passthrough charging station for my tablet. I had used a competitor's travel router for a few years prior to purchasing this device, and I found that other router more difficult to use and less user-friendly. Maybe I'm biased towards TP Link as I've used other networking devices made by them and am partial to the TP Link brand.In days when hackers can be anywhere, having a travel router is a simple step to keeping private data private; TP Link offers a safe, reliable, and affordable option for basic computer users to protect themselves while using public or unsecured networks.

Easier than it looks. Great for travel. Take a picture of the instructions to always have them handy. Plug power in. Connect phone following instructions. Do a one time setup to have it broadcast your home SSID and accept your home password. At a hotel, follow the instructions to access the same login page you would normally use to connect your phone directly. But now every device you own works just like at home.No configuring every phone, iPad, and laptop for the whole family. No getting charged extra for multiple devices by certain hotels. If the hotel has a daily re-login requirement, do it once with this, not again for every device.Only once did I have trouble accessing that hotel’s portal on day two - but a quick google search explained how to make it work. Convenience outweighs the occasional problem.Also worked great for connecting a PS5 to an iPad as a monitor for a hospital stay. The hospital network was just fast enough to authenticate digital purchases but far too slow for the video streaming. This enabled local streaming at great speeds, without slowing anyone else down. That use alone was worth the price.

At the end of last year, I’d picked up my first dual-band router—WiFi5/AX1500 (not one of the top three brands, but a good one nonetheless). Whether I wanted them to or not, my provider (Spectrum) increased internet speeds and upgraded my modem, and that router wasn’t keeping up with things. I’d kept my eyes open for a quicker, more current router, and this one was on sale for about $55.I have used TP-Link routers before and find them very reliable. Since the modem is 1GB, I wanted something more compatible and, also, I pay for 4K on one of my premium streaming services, and my speed and bandwidth with the AX1500 wasn’t offering me that quality.Because I’ve used TP-Link (and was currently using a TP-Link extender), I already had the Tether app on my phone and tablet. That made it very easy to set up this router. Note that this Archer AX-10 dual-band router can either use Smart Connect to choose between 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands or you can set them up separately. I prefer separate, especially since I have something like six smart outlets and eight smart lightbulbs configured, and the outlets and bulbs were pretty finicky with my older router.I have to say that the range on this is very good. My home is about 2400 sf; 1800 upstairs and a large studio room downstairs. I’ve learned to keep my router high up on a piece of furniture, and so the signal makes it through the house pretty well. (Signal strength decreases in the farthest room. And, as you probably know, 2.4 travels farther than 5 Ghz.) But the range, speed, strength, and stability of this router exceeds my previous one. When watching certain streaming channels, they would lag or freeze using 2.4 in more distant rooms, but I haven’t found that to be the case with this. The signal is very solid.That said, I am a little disappointed in the speeds, but maybe this is what they’re supposed to be as the router is handling many devices. And I haven’t taken the time yet to call Spectrum to find out what the story is. This is at least twice as fast as my previous router. While the Tether app was very useful for the initial setup, more advanced settings are available on their website, which Tether leads you to. That, for instance, gave me the option to update the router’s firmware, which, on my setup, did increase speeds a bit. While my A1500 was giving me only 13 Mbps on my farthest 2.4 Ghz Roku, this has increased that to 31 Mbps but also given that stream much more stability. My 5 Ghz speeds went from 91 to ~220–240 Mbps on a Roku and my 4K Smart Fire TV, which are about six feet away from the router. (I learned that the Fire-TV's ethernet port is limited to about 100 Mbps.) Speed tests for my laptop and desktop Macs show about 450 download (more than four times AX1500 WiFi5 modem) and 22 Mbps upload (which, I assume, my provider is limiting).I had questions about the direct-connect speed with the smart tv, and posted a query in the manufacturer's user forum, and they answered and solved the problem within a few hours.I thought I was very clever naming both 5 and 2.4 bands the same as the previous modem with the same passwords, but yet, I had to relink everything—every smart bulb, every smart outlet, every device (the devices and computers needed me to enter passwords again). That took a while.I’ve read this is not the latest update of WiFi 6. It’s a little beyond my technical expertise but reviews say it doesn’t support 160MHz channel width or WPA3 encryption, and it lacks USB ports. I don’t need USB ports and the other “deficiencies” (such that they are) don’t bother me. For the price I purchased this at, it’s certainly improved my internet speeds and stability. I do need to call my provider and see exactly what speeds I should be expecting, but this router seems fast, reliable, and strong.

I really like this TP-Link travel router. It works great when we stay in hotels with the family and all our devices. I just connect it to the hotel Wi-Fi then all the other devices use this router’s SSID so I don’t have to type the password in each one. I also love that I can add a VPN directly to the router so all our devices are secure when on a hotel network. Setup was mostly simple. It took a little bit of time to understand the different modes, but once I got it working it stayed easy. It is very small and lightweight so it fits perfectly in a travel bag.