Trendnet makes some very good routers; the TEW-652BRP isn't one of them.
Trendnet’s TEW-652BRP looked promising in our first benchmark test, with the client in the kitchen and closest to the router. Achieving TCP throughput of 68.4Mb/s put it in third place behind Belkin’s N Wireless and D-Link’s DIR-615. Performance went downhill from there, with the TEW-652BRP placing fifth, fourth, and last in our patio, bedroom, and media room locations, respectively. It couldn’t maintain a connection to the client at all in our most distant outdoor tests.
Feature-wise, the TEW-652BRP is about as basic as they come. You can establish routing rules for special applications, such as games, but QoS features are limited to the minimum required to achieve Wi-Fi Alliance certification.
This model boasted the lowest street price, $35, of all the routers we tested, but it’s no bargain. In fact, if you don’t need wireless routing, Asus’s pathetically slow RT-N13U is the better value, thanks to its support for printer sharing and USB storage. In reality, though, we’ve never met someone who bought a wireless router and didn’t use its wireless networking capabilities. The real bottom line is that you could spend just a few extra clams and step up to the D-Link DIR-615, which delivers exponentially better performance and a much stronger feature set.
Good TCP throughput from 20 feet; low price.
Weak feature set; poor connectivity and overall performance.
| Trendnet TEW-652BRP | Trendnet TEW-639GR | |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen, 20 feet (Mb/s) | 68.4 | 106.0 |
| Enclosed Patio, 38 feet (Mb/s) | 15.1 | 57.1 |
| Bedroom, 60 feet (Mb/s) | 12.1 | 51.3 |
| Media Room, 35 feet (Mb/s) | 3.5 | 11.1 |
| Outdoors 1, 90 feet (Mb/s) | N/C | 4.8 |
| Outdoors 2, 85 feet (Mb/s) | N/C | 9.0 |
TCP throughput measured using IPerf. N/C indicates no connection at that location. Best scores are bolded.
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/mrmick
[2] http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u90693/Trendnet-TEW-652BRP-full.jpg
[3] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/reining_router_rabble
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/asus_rtn13u
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/lenovo_thinkpad_x200s
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/belkin_n_wireless_f5d82364
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/dlink_dir615_rev_b2
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/linksys_wrt120n
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/netgear_wnr2000
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/files/verdict-images/Trendnet-TEW-652BRP-verdict.jpg
[11] http://trendnet.com
[12] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews/hardware
[13] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/hardware
[14] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/networking
[15] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/reviews
[16] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/routers
[17] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/trendnet
[18] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine/2010/february_2010
[19] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine/2010
[20] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews
[21] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/reviews/hardware/networking
[22] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/magazine
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