3 min read

TP-Link TL-PA7010 AV1000 Powerline Adapter Mini-Review

Introduction

The TL-PA7010 is one of several offerings in TP-Link's portfolio of Powerline adapters. This particular model complies with the HomePlug AV2 standard and advertises a theoretical maximum speed of 1000 Mbps with gigabit Ethernet support. It can be found widely in the US with a street price around $50.

Unboxing

PA7010-1
PA7010-2

The TL-PA7010 package consists of a nicely branded and decorated outer box. Inside you'll find a Quick Installation Guide (not really necessary), the two adapters, and a pair of 3-ft Ethernet cables. Pretty barebones, but it gets the job done as long as the distance from your computer to where you'll be putting the Powerline adapter isn't too great.

Setup and Installation

PA7010-3

Under normal circumstances Powerline adapters are plug-and-play, and the TL-PA7010 kit is no exception. Plug one adapter into one outlet, and plug another adapter into another outlet (the standard advice is to plug Powerline adapters directly into the wall outlet and not into any power strips or surge protectors). The adapters are pre-paired so there's no need to pair them manually. If you see three green lights on the side of the adapter, you should be good to go.

The TL-PA7010 adapter is on the small side compared to higher-end AV1200 and AV2000 models. However, since it doesn't have an outlet for AC passthrough (you'll have to upgrade to the TL-PA7010P model), you do have to dedicate an outlet for the adapter.

Performance

To test the performance of the TL-PA7010, I installed the adapters in rooms on the same floor but opposite sides of a house. Unfortunately, my home network only supports 100Mbps Ethernet, so I was unable to fully utilize the gigabit Ethernet ports on the adapters. iperf3 3.1.3 was used to test throughput:

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Accepted connection from 192.168.2.25, port 51496
[  5] local 192.168.2.16 port 5201 connected to 192.168.2.25 port 51497
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  10.4 MBytes  87.1 Mbits/sec
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  11.0 MBytes  92.3 Mbits/sec
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  11.3 MBytes  94.6 Mbits/sec
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  11.2 MBytes  94.1 Mbits/sec
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  11.2 MBytes  93.5 Mbits/sec
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  11.0 MBytes  92.5 Mbits/sec
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  11.3 MBytes  94.6 Mbits/sec
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  11.1 MBytes  93.3 Mbits/sec
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  11.1 MBytes  93.5 Mbits/sec
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  11.1 MBytes  93.4 Mbits/sec
[  5]  10.00-10.07  sec   747 KBytes  94.1 Mbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth
[  5]   0.00-10.07  sec  0.00 Bytes  0.00 bits/sec                  sender
[  5]   0.00-10.07  sec   111 MBytes  92.9 Mbits/sec                  receiver
-----------------------------------------------------------

The TL-PA7010 certainly has no problem saturating a 100 Mbps Ethernet connection. In real-world use over the course of a week, I have not experienced any connection instability.

Conclusion

The TL-PA7010 AV1000 Powerline networking solution is a solid and cost-effective choice for any scenario in which the stability of a hardwired Ethernet connection is necessary but installing actual Ethernet cable is infeasible.

Rating: 5/5