Home networking is something that everyone knows a little about. Often times what they know is not accurate (to put it nicely). I have heard some of the most bizarre “facts” about home networks, wireless networking and pretty much everything under the sun. We here at DecryptedTech are officially kicking off our networking section with a review of the TRENDNet TEW-687GA; this is a 450Mbps wireless adapter (sort of). We first saw this back at CES when we had our meeting with Zak from TRENDNet. It is a rather large adapter that boasts the full Duplex speed of 450Mbps at a price of $94.99. Let’s take a look at this product and talk a little about wireless networking in general.
Value -Value is another very subjective topic. What is expensive to some might be a deal to others. You can look at this topic in multiple ways. One is raw price and the other is what you get for the money. Each is accurate and both are correct ways to look at price/value. We tend to look at features, performance and real-property when we discuss value. However, we also take into account the raw cash cost of the item.As we mentioned before the TEW-687GA will set you back around $95. This is pretty high for a wireless adapter, even one that offers a connection speed of 225Mbps. However, if you think about this there is more to the 687GA than just a simple adapter for your computer. You can configure this and then attach it to any gaming console, or any media player (like a PBO Core or O!Play). This does add a little more value to the TEW-687GA. I am not sure if it fills in the whole $95 but it does come close. Conclusion -The TRENDNet TEW-687GA is a nice product. It is designed with gamers in mind (the GA stands for Gaming Adapter) but not just PC gamers. As we mentioned the use of an RJ-45 port allows you to connect this to almost anything. You could even connect this to an internet enabled TV and have some excellent speed. The setup and configuration is a little less than ideal, but it is not so complicated that it cannot be done. We did hit another snag, well not a snag but something that we can see being confusing to the consumer. The 450Mbps label and the fact that to get this speed you have to have a 450Mbps router or access point. The first is easy to get over, you just have to remember to cut the number in half to get the actual speed (and even that is not the actual speed). For the other with the current level of consumer awareness, and the misinformation in your average box store, I am not sure how to get around that. This is not a TRENDNet problem though; it is more of a market issue so we won’t fault anyone for this one (yet). Getting back to the TEW-687GA; if you have the money and the space to drop one of these in and are thinking of getting a 450Mbps router then it is a great product to have on hand.
