TRENDnet Powerline 500AV2 TPL-408E2K Network Adapter Kit Review

TweakTown's Rating: 85%

The Bottom Line

TRENDnet's TPL408E2EK Powerline Kit is a great and very capable solution for extending your home network utilizing existing infrastructure of your home or office. It's worth checking out if this is something you need for your network.

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Powerline networking has been around for quite a while now and in that time span has matured. Powerline networking is governed by the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and by its latest estimates, we now have nearly 45 million of these adapters deployed across the world.

The TRENDnet TPL-408E2K is an AV2 solution providing up to 600Mbps of throughput over existing copper power lines inside your home or office. The solution we are looking at today has each unit housing a gigabit Ethernet port for the best in-home connectivity, along with pre-encrypted security. In addition, the 500 AV2 features a power save mode that can reduce energy consumption by 80%.

MSRP of the TRENDnet TPL-408E2K is set at $104.99 with a three-year warranty.

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The back of the packaging compares the 200 AV to the latest 500 AV2 adapter.

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Scope of delivery includes both adapter, two Ethernet cables, along with reading materials.

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The front of the adapter houses three activity LEDs to denote everything from Ethernet connectivity to the power line link and power source.

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The bottom side of the unit house the gigabit Ethernet port next to the sync button.

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The plug side of the adapter carries firmware and hardware revision on the sticker, along with model identification.

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Our baseline for testing is our gigabit Ethernet connection. From there, we split that same test line via the power line adapters and measure performance lost. As you can see, the TRENDnet solution came in at 215 Mbps, while our D-Link solution topped in at 172 Mbps.

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Up next, we have our web-based traces. As you can see, the TRENDnet device lost very little performance with tasks such as web browsing and email, but it did lose some throughput with large download applications.

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Next up we have our gaming traces, where once again we find the power line adapter causing no issues with the trace. The TRENDnet, D-Link and gigabit connection performed the same with RTS gaming, while FPS gaming had very little loss.

The TRENDnet TPL-408E2K is probably one of the better solutions I have seen come through the lab over the last two years. Build quality seems to be top notch, and at the same time, it carries one of the smaller footprints, when compared to units like the DHP-600AV from D-Link.

Performance of the TRENDnet solution was quite good and actually topped our charts with our limited sample size, and while these units will auto connect upon plugging them in, it's nice to have the sync button if it's ever needed.

In using these exact units in my own home network, I can say that streaming HD video from a NAS to the TV works without issue, and even allows me to extend the range of my wired IP cameras by plugging in adapters where they are needed. As far as gaming goes, it can be done over powerline networking, but if you get a lot of tasks going on your PC, such as downloading and VoIP that are using tons bandwidth, don't expect these units to keep up as well as with less going on.

PRICING: You can find the TRENDnet Powerline AV600 Adapter Kit with Gigabit Port, TPL-408E2K for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The TRENDnet Powerline AV600 Adapter Kit with Gigabit Port, TPL-408E2K retails for $57.53 at Amazon.

Canada: The TRENDnet Powerline AV600 Adapter Kit with Gigabit Port, TPL-408E2K retails for CDN$79.99 at Amazon Canada.

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