Amped Wireless TAP-R2 Touch Screen Wireless Router Review
Amped Wireless TAP-R2: Speed Tests
Understanding that the Amped Wireless TAP-R2 is only an AC750 device, comparing against our other Wireless-AC suite of routers might seem a bit unfair. We still would like to get a measure of how well the TAP-R2 performance is when connected to a very fast 802.11ac device.
We connected the Amped TAP-R2 to our desktop PC running Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit and configured the router using Automatic settings for our 5Ghz band and called it LEGIT. We then took our Alienware M17XR4 laptop to use as a client and connected it to a Netgear R7000 Router. Next, we configured the Netgear R7000 in Bridge Mode and paired it with each of our 802.11ac routers, including the Amped Wireless TAP-R2. The R7000 is one of the latest wireless-AC routers on the market and works as an excellent bridge.
We took our Alienware M17XR4/R7000 Bridge and didnt tell the client anything more than the SSID name for each router tested and let it automatically choose the cleanest channel to connect to. For the fastest possible data throughput, the routers were set to Unsecure Mode and with WMM turned ON. After connecting, we ran the application LAN Speed Test (LST) to measure file transfer and network speeds. LST builds a file in memory and then transfers the packet without the effects of windows file caching. It then reports the time and calculates the network speed.
We repeated the test 2 more times rotating the router 90 degrees after each test to make sure that the routers speed was affected adversely by its orientation. We took speed measurements at three different locations of the Legit Bunker: In the Same Room at exactly 5.5 feet away from the test router; in a 2nd Room about 20 feet away from the router through a wooden door; and in a Far Room, one level below (wood framed floor) where the client router/bridge sat. Doing this should really give us a nice taste of how our routers perform in the real-world.
Benchmark Results: Looking at the 1MB data in the same room should give us an indication of the maximum throughput our routers can achieve. With an Average Read Speed of 91.7 Mbps and Average Write Speed of 93.40 Mbps, the Amped Wireless TAP-R2 is clearly out matched by our suite of routers using multiple antennas over the 5GHz band.
Benchmark Results: We look at 100 MB sized data packets because it is a good indicator of what multimedia streaming performance should be. The throughput test results for the Amped Wireless TAP-R2 is consistent with what we saw at 1MB. Average Write Speeds are around 92 Mbps while Average Read Speeds drop slightly to around 80 Mbps.