Here's a home Wi-Fi router that doubles as a conversation piece. The TP-Link Archer AXE200 Omni, launched today at CES 2022, has four rounded antennas that will move automatically to get the best possible connection to your devices — even changing position as you move around a large room.
That connection could be pretty fast, too, because the Archer AXE200 Omni is one of a few routers to use the brand-new Wi-Fi 6e technology, which adds another band of wireless spectrum to the existing 2.4- and 5-GHz bands. The new band covers a huge amount of underused spectrum from 6 to 7 GHz, resulting in very little interference.
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TP-Link says that the Archer AXE200 Omni can deliver a wireless throughput of more than 10 Gbps, provided that all four antennas and three bands are directed toward the same device, which itself has to be capable of using Wi-Fi 6e — such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra smartphone.
Wired speed is very fast as well, because the Archer AXE200 Omni has a 10-Gbps Ethernet port to go along with its 2.5-Gpbs port and four 1-Gbps ports. TP-Link says the fast Ethernet will be most useful with 8K video streaming and augmented/virtual reality devices.
The Archer AXE200 Omni comes with the free tier of TP-Link's HomeShield security software and parental controls; the paid tier gives you more features and costs $6 per month or $55 per year. It's also compatible with TP-Link's mesh routers, so you can add it to your existing setup.
The TP-Link Archer AXE200 Omni will be available later this year — we've heard the second quarter, but don't hold us to that — at a price yet to be determined.
