TP-Link Archer GE800 gaming router review

If you’re an avid gamer, like me, you know that slapping ‘gaming’ in front of any sort of device—keyboard, mice, headset or networking gear—basically equates to having to dig deeper into your pocket. Case in point, gaming routers. Their high-end hardware and software features make them great all-round networking devices, more so if you’re trying to eke every competitive advantage out of your gear. While I’ve reviewed many pricey gaming routers in the past, the TP-Link Archer GE800 is the most expensive one I’ve ever taken for a spin.

There’s no getting past the RRP. At $1,199, the TP-Link Archer GE800 presents its biggest con early doors. In fairness, Netgear and Asus have similarly priced routers, but it’s still a steep price to futureproof your home networking. Price-wise, the GE800 really is for a very specific type of home: namely, a gaming-focused Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) or Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) abode with an NBN 1000 plan and the latest devices that’s counting down the days until NBN 2000 plans are officially released.

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When a router is this expensive, you expect a premium treatment from the outset. While setup is a breeze, the first hurdle is more practical: the TP-Link Archer GE800 is a monster of a router, not just in heft but in the space it takes up. I’m used to easily placing the various networking gear I review in a dedicated spot, but I had to shift things around just to make the GE800 comfortably fit.

As for setup, it’s an incredibly straightforward process, made easier by a separate sticker—instead of just one paradoxically beneath the router—for the default network SSIDs, with space for you to write in your own details, plus a convenient QR code and a recommendation to use the Tether companion app. Admittedly, it’s a bit odd that TP-Link has two networking companion apps: Tether and Aginet. Still, Tether does a great job for setup and tweaking, with a logical layout for basic settings and deeper options a few taps away, some of which are typically relegated to browser web portals.

While the main wireless attraction is brand-new WiFi 7, as an Ethernet-loving user, there’s a lot to love about TP-Link’s futureproofing focus on the rear ports. There are four 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports, one of which is a dedicated gaming port for hardware-level Quality of Service (QoS) bandwidth prioritisation. Very cool. There are also two 10Gbps Ethernet ports, one of which I used as a WAN port connected to my FTTC modem, but there’s also an SFP+ WAN port. That’s a nice addition, but not particularly relevant to Australian internet (at least not without an RJ45 Ethernet converter). There’s also a USB 3.0 port if you fancy a router-level FTP or media server.

The TP-Link Archer GE800 enables band steering by default (TP-Link calls it “Smart Connect”), which unifies the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks. As a WiFi 7 router, there’s also a separate 6GHz network for devices that support at least WiFi 6. If they don’t, that network won’t appear on older wireless devices.

All of my router internet speed tests are conducted with an Exetel NBN 100/20 FTTC apartment connection, using Ethernet for the first test then a Google Pixel 7 Pro for the WiFi tests (via WiFi 6). These particular GE800 tests were done in the morning. Lower numbers are best for latency (measured in milliseconds), while larger numbers are better for download and upload speeds (both measured in megabits-per-second). Use the top line of results in the tables as an idea of best-case speeds at that time of day, then every line below as comparative.

Note that all of these tests were done on the combined 2.4GHz and 5GHz network rather than the 6GHz alternative. For comparison, I start my speed tests with the Synology RT6600ax router that I use when I’m not reviewing networking gear.

Once those tests wrapped up, I set up the GE800 and did my tests for the results below.

The GE800 scored impressively inside my apartment and on the balcony. Outside of some negligible changes to latency, download speeds and upload speeds, the results are impressively consistent regardless of the distance and signal interference for the WiFi tests. Those garage speeds, while low, are a sign of the GE800’s WiFi penetration, something which the RT6600ax was unable to achieve.

But then things get less impressive for the GE800 in comparison to the RT6600ax the farther away the test is. Those bottom two rows—the fence and across-the-road results—are there to test range and a band-steering router’s ability to appropriately swap between faster-but-shorter-range 5GHz and slower-but-longer-range 2.4GHz. With an NBN 100 plans, 2.4GHz should offer basically identical results, but those slower download and upload speeds for the GE800 are telling me the TP-Link router is trying to hang onto the 5GHz connection instead of swapping to 2.4GHz to preserve speeds over distance. That or the 5GHz range isn’t as impressive as the RT6600ax or other routers I’ve reviewed.

I love to tinker with my networking gear. In fact, one of my first tests with any router, modem-router or mesh WiFi system is how easily I can change the default IP address. I swap it partially for security reasons but mainly because I have key gear (including a Synology DS920+ NAS) with dedicated IP addresses. Not only was swapping IP addresses a breeze with the GE800, I was able to do it via the companion app (it’s typically a web portal-only affair in my experience). As a bonus, the TP-Link router intuitively updated the DHCP server to automatically assign IPs on my new IP address range, which isn’t always the case with networking equipment.

Testing across multiple PCs and wireless devices, it was tricky to fault the consistency of the GE800 for everyday networking. I did have a brief WiFi dropout at the opposite side of the apartment—assumedly when it was switching between 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks—but my partner had a terrible experience on her Google Pixel 8 Pro with frequent WiFi dropouts. My internet sleuthing suggests that’s a very specific problem for the Pixel 8 Pro and modern networking gear, like the WiFi 7-powered GE800.

The GE800’s web portal offers a more comprehensive view of in-depth features—like port forwarding, which was a cinch—with the only downside being it was a visual mess on a Razer Blade 14 laptop, but I suspect that was a resolution fail because I didn’t have that issue on my main PC. File transfers were zippy but ultimately bottlenecked by my devices rather than the router. And that’s the real disclaimer with such a futureproofed device.

To get the most out of the GE800, you really want WiFi 7 (or at least 6E) devices at close range on the 6GHz channel or wired devices with at least 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports. That latter wired disclaimer is apparently trickier to address than the prevalence of WiFi 6+ devices these days, especially given I’m using a speed-throttling gigabit network switch and a lot of devices that only have 1Gbps-capable Ethernet ports, which is still frustratingly standard.

Gaming was, as you’d hope with this kind of router, a seamless delight. I tested online gaming primarily on my wired (2.5Gbps Ethernet) main PC and had zero issues with latency-sensitive games, plus no issues with VoIP dropouts (unlike the ZTE H1600). There are some extended GE800 features hidden behind a paywall, but there are so many baked-in features that are easily accessible in the companion app that there’s plenty of user control on offer already.

The TP-Link Archer GE800 is the Uber Premier of routers: while ‘slumming it’ in the UberX of everyday routers will get you where you want to go online, the GE800 will get you there in luxury. But therein lies the rub because a lot of what the GE800 has to offer isn’t practically accessible for the average home. If you have 2.5Gbps or 10Gbps wired gadgets and WiFi 7 devices—the latter of which lets you tap into blisteringly fast 19,000Mbps of shared wireless speeds—you’re in for a speedy time, but primarily when it comes to faster file transfers.

On the all-important internet front, the GE800 is overkill for today’s current internet needs in Australia. But if you, like me, are a fan of ‘spare no expense’ gear that inherently pledges to keep you up to speed well into the future, the GE800 is worth considering. Even then, I’d recommend waiting for a price drop.