When you’re at home and you need to connect to the internet, you normally just plug in your wireless router to the house’s phone line, and draw the wonder of the World Wide Web from your ISP. Well, you can… but there is another way, and all you’ll need is the SIM card from your 4G enabled smartphone. Connecting in a slightly different way, we review the TP-Link Archer MR200 4G Router.
Seriously, this is so easy to use as there is no sign in and set up required like with a wired router. Just pop in the SIM card like you would into your phone, switch on the MR200, and within seconds you can connect to the new network. This makes it tremendously useful when you need a WiFi network (one more powerful than your WiFi Hotspot phone can project, at least) in a place where you have no standard internet connection. As long as the signal from your mobile internet operator is strong enough, this will work great.
In terms of the technicals, the TP-Link Archer MR200 4G Router creates simultaneous dual band WiFi networks capable of speeds of up to 300Mbps with 2.4GHz, and 433Mbps with 5GHz. In network coverage we found that it couldn’t complete with our normal home WiFi router, but we weren’t expecting it to project over a huge range to be honest. The WiFi footprint might be smaller, but this is the kind of thing that would be set up somewhere specifically for short-term usage (especially if you don’t have an unlimited data contract!).
Thankfully the TP-Link Archer MR200 4G Router can also be used like a conventional router thanks to the LAN/WAN port on the back. This allows you to connect with a good old fashioned wire, for cable, fiber and DSL goodness. So although not the biggest footprint, and all of this depends on how fast and how easily available your mobile data connection is, for short-term, emergency internet whenever you have signal, this performs extremely well.
- Two antennas
- A 12V 1A power supply
- A 1m Cat5 ethernet cable
- A couple SIM adapters and accompanying stickers
