TP-Link TL-WR641G WINS EDITOR´S CHOICE AWARD OF PC MAGAZINE

Editor´s Comments:
Advantage：Outstanding performance, cost-effectiveness
Disadvantage：Plain appearance
Score：86.76 

TL-WR641G is an enhanced 802.11g wireless router. It is not so conspicuous at the first sight. From the view of home users, its plastic housing and comparable pale color make it difficult to give users a very deep impression. However, in testing, its connecting speed is so fast and steady , no matter by using Centrino wireless adapter or its corresponding network adapter, that tells users it is the product which is released by TP-Link and Atheros based on Super G technology. As we mentioned Atheros before. It is one of the two big companies that represent Super G technology, and is the leading pioneer of Super G technology.

TL-WR641G has a splendid usability. On the label at the bottom panel, users can quickly find its MAC address, together with user´s name and password. Its Chinese operation interface gives users a feeling of friendliness. In addition, there are quite a lot of heat-exhaust holes on the top panel of the housing. It can give out heat much more quickly than other products whose heat-exhaust holes are at the bottom panel.

Comparing with other wireless routers, the quotation of TL-WR641G is considerably low. Furthermore, if users buy a corresponding network adapter, they can still enjoy certain discount. What a bargain it is.

About the products that win Editor´s Choice of PC Magazine

Among 108M wireless router groups, there are two types. One uses technologies like Frame Burst and Channel Binding to enhance transmission performance. The other adopts MIMO technology, whose transmission rate reaches 125 Mbps.

High transmission rate provides solid support to file-transfer in LAN. However, with regard to present application environment, users of Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) use the internet mostly for their work, and they often exploit 512Kbps or 1Mbps broadband access. Under such circumstance, it is not the transmission rate of wireless router that mainly accounts for use-effectiveness, because transmission rate provided by wired network is far less than that by wireless router. For data transfer within LAN, routers complied with the IEEE802,11g are good enough to fill the need. Therefore, function options and operability provided by wireless router are what clients concern most.

We tested 7 enhanced 802.11g wireless routers, and took into account of their performance, function, as well as usability comprehensively. Finally, two models stood out, and became the products of our Editor´s Choice. Of which, TL-WR641G from TP-Link gained a very high score, and won Editor´s Choice ultimately.