TRENDnet TEW-925DAP AX5400 Wi-Fi 6 PoE+ Access Point Review

TweakTown's Rating: 89%

The Bottom Line

Consumers not needing the latest in networking technology can look towards TRENDnet's TEW-925DAP for a reliable performer at a solid price.

Pros

• + 2.5Gbe Uplink
• + PoE+
• + 4x4 radio
• + Price

Cons

• - Wi-Fi 6 = No 6GHz

Should you buy it?

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Alongside the EnGenius ECW336, TRENDnet was another vendor that reached out and offered up one of their newer access points for review. Today, we have in the lab the TEW-925DAP, a cost-effective option from their Wi-Fi 6 portfolio.

The 925DAP is a more primitive AP option, running as a standalone unit without interacting with a cloud service. It offers a robust web GUI, which we will dive into shortly.

Specifications for this Access Point put this unit in the AX5400 Class; this allows for a dual-band radio configuration with 300 Mbps available on the 2.4GHz radio and 1733 Mbps on the 5GHz radio when used with 802.11AC clients. This ticks up quite a bit for those with 802.11AX clients, to 573 Mbps on the 2.4GHz radio and 4800 Mbps on the 5GHz with 4x4 clients.

The wired uplink includes a 2.5 Gbe connection that supports the 802.3at PoE+ specification. Pricing of the TRENDnet TEW-925DAP comes in at $199 and includes a three-year warranty.

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The 925DAP arrived in factory packaging, which includes an image of the AP and features listed at the bottom.

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The back goes into detail with features on the right pane and an example of where to set it up in the image.

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Included with the 925DAP are mounting hardware and plates alongside reading materials.

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The AP offers a rather small form factor and a low profile for those mounting it on the ceiling. We do have TRENDnet branding on the unit.

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I/O includes a DC barrel input for those without PoE+ access, followed by the 2.5Gbe PoE+ port and reset button on the far right.

Access Point Setup

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The setup uses the access point web GUI, which we can access after setting up the unit and connecting to the default SSID with the factory username and password.

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The Dashboard includes a solid overview of the AP, which provides system information at the top and wireless communication for 2.4GHz and 5GHz below.

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Digging into the 2.4GHz wireless network, the 925DAP allows up to eight SSIDs per radio with channel width and mode available at the top.

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More in-depth options for this AP include Transmit Power, RTS threshold, and WMM. You can also set a client limit at the bottom of this page.

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5GHz is identical. You can also create eight SSIDs for this radio, with the same width and channel options at the top.

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Further options include switching radios individually between AP and Repeater modes.

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In our last image above, the 925DAP does have a band steering option to help get your devices on the correct band.

1st Test System Wi-Fi

• System: Alienware M16 R2
• Wi-Fi: Intel Wireless Wi-Fi 7 BE200
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (buy from Amazon)

2nd Test System LAN

• System: ASUS ROG Strix Scar 17
• LAN: Marvell AQC113 10Gbe Thunderbolt Adapter
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (buy from Amazon)

Wi-Fi Testing and Final Thoughts

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We cleaned up our charts for this review. The 925DAP landed at 83 MBps downstream and 85 MBps upstream.

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5GHz offered up 649 MBps downstream and 668 upstream, slightly lower than our results with the 377 a few years back.

Most of us have moved our networks to WiFi6 by now. Still, for those who need to expand or have just gotten the itch to upgrade, the TRENDnet 925DAP is a solid unit offering extensive configuration and functionality within its web GUI. This unit operates as a standalone appliance exclusively, with no cloud management.

On the flip side, one downside of the 925DAP could extend to its standalone functionality. If you are looking for Cloud Managed solutions, TRENDnet does offer the 921DAP with Hive Cloud Management, although with much less available throughput.

On to testing, which went well with our systems outlined above. The 925DAP produced 85Mbps up and downstream on the 2.4GHz band. We could also push the 5GHz bar upwards of 660 Mbps up and downstream. Reliability was also quite good during our testing, as we ran this unit alongside the EnGenius ECW336 for the same three months to extend our coverage into our garage space and didn't notice any performance difference when our devices moved between the two.

Alongside the downside mentioned above, we could also go back and forth on pricing for the 925DAP. At $199, the market is very tight for Wi-Fi 6 APs, and TRENDnet has competition from the likes of Netgear, Aruba, EnGenius, and Ubiquiti, to name a few, most notably the U6+ and U6 Pro offer the stiffest competition within Ubiquiti's lineup.