TP-Link Ultra-Portable Wi-Fi 6 AX1500 Travel Router TL-WR1502X | Easy Public WiFi Sharing | Hotel/RV/Travel Approved | Phone WiFi Tether | USB C Powered | Multi-Mode | Tether App | Durable Design

I bought this to use while at a program with multiple "modes" of wifi available to me that I could test with. This little router is nice for the price, and as I have TP-Link's higher end routers at home with mesh wifi at my house, I figured this would be good since it would have a similar interface and features. It turns out that it has some interesting features but also some quirks. OOTB, the firmware needed an update which was painless. I don't like using the phone app for configuration, but it is handy. The web interface is functional and responsive, although I don't like how the pages load templates and then fill in the "settings" after the page loads. The "Internet" page in the web interface has a password field for networks with passwords, but it is plain text so passwords aren't hidden, even if you refresh the page for instance. Wifi tethering was the reason I bought this router. When you look at available networks, it doesn't just show available SSIDs, but lists explicitly the available SSIDs, network frequency, and MAC address. There is a lock feature, so networks with multiple APs can be explicitly connected to. In early wifi systems where the mesh standard wasn't implemented yet, this alleviates issues where some devices don't connect to APs properly. You can also specify a specific band to connect to. In the building I'm in, the wifi system has a problem on the 5GHz band, so I can lock the connection to a specific 2.4GHz AP with the right mac address and although the connection is a bit slow, it functions. There was no possible way for me to get wifi on a 3 year old laptop by changing the wifi hardware settings in the driver, which seems odd. A bit of a fluke for Windows? Anyway, there are other reasons to carry a travel router. The VPN function was a breeze to setup. I linked the router to my VPS and had Wireguard running easily. Turns out that unlike my home system, this router allows you to toggle specific devices to use the VPN. There is also a server option which could be handy if you have multiple routers and want to link networks without running a separate machine. I tested the guest network with some friends and it works great. Able to specify bands and have both guest and primary network on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously unlike my Orbic hotspot. The guest network does not allow access to the web interface for configuration. Number of devices appears to be significant... You can specify subnet mask and DHCP server settings. By default you get 254 devices, which should be enough. DNS can be overridden for wifi tethering, including using DoT and DoH encrypted DNS without requiring a separate forwarding agent for systems that don't support encrypted DNS. The only disadvantage to messing with DNS is that on some networks, you may run into issues connecting to networks if they use web based login pages that can't be accessed when DNS is overridden, so be careful with that. I was able to setup my router to connect to NextDNS with DoH but not DoT. DoT wouldn't work for some reason; the server was detected but NextDNS reported that it wasn't using a profile. This wasn't the case with DoH. One feature request I have would be the ability to have advanced DNS configuration settings by device or at least by network, so the guest network could use a different DNS configuration or perhaps the default DNS from the wifi. The last feature I like about the router is QoS. My Verizon Orbic has a very high speed connection before I use up my data when I have a decent signal, however sometimes QoS is a good feature to have to ensure you don't abuse your own data caps if you're going to be out a while and need to conserve data. It's also useful if you're sharing a hotspot through a travel router without QoS like the Orbic, and want to make sure nobody uses all the data. NAT can be disabled, which might be interesting to try with the VPN feature. The MAC address of the wifi tether connection is completely changeable, and with the web interface can autodetect the devices' MAC address you login from and clone it. This is useful for instance, if you pay for wifi access from another device but later want to tether that wifi through the router without paying again or signing in again. I haven't tested router mode, usb mode or any of the others. Router mode would actually be useful from the Verizon Orbic or a hotspot with an ethernet port on it with the IP passthrough mode enabled and a short ethernet cable to cut down on wifi interference. The biggest most major quirk the AX1502 has is the 12volt USB-C power. I bought a USB battery, but with the router connected while my laptop is, it slows down the laptop charge rate. Same with my wall adapter. Both of these are Anker chargers. The next model up of this travel router supports USB-C 5V, but it's 3A which is also not really great for standard adapters. Don't lose the stock power adapter, which ironically enough is a 12volt USB A plug! I hope it's safe. The router itself literally draws about 3 watts of power max, so it's probably fine to get another small battery for it if I need, but I'd rather not have to carry yet another thing in my bag of tricks. Wifi range is decent, but obviously don't expect miracles. There are no external antenna connectors or even antennas. Literally just plugin and go. Works best for short range applications, but the signal will go through a wall or two. Performance is decent, but not my main consideration with this router. Most hotspots are not fast or even reliable to begin with so when tethering it's not really a consideration. VPN performance was identical to running Wireguard software on my laptop, which is a plus. One quirk is, IPv6 is not supported for Wireguard clients on the router. Why this is the case makes sense, but I don't have faith that this travel router is really IPv6 compatible to begin with. Size is fine, just feels a bit plasticy and cheap. Hopefully the chassis won't break.

EDIT - Stopped working on my third ever field shoot. Less than 8 hours of total lifetime use. Takes 2-3 plug/unplug cycles on average to boot up ,then will sometimes boot up, run for five minutes, and crash. Multiple bricks and cables did not help. It's possibly just a fluke, but if this is indicative of its reliability, I can't recommend it. ------- This works great for my use case - I got this to add to my photography kit for setting up mobile photobooths - I can pre-pair my cameras, laptop, printers etc. to a known private network ahead of time, and not need to deal with the often unreliable wifi provided by the venue. Unlike some devices I've tried, it will happily allow you to set up a network that's not connected to the Internet in any way, even during initial setup (Netgear devices, in particular, have a really hard time with this). The web UI is basic but functional, and gets the job done without any distracting "easy setup" wizards that invariably always make things harder. The default SSID and unique-per-device password are written on the bottom, and also encoded on a scannable QR code there. The default admin password is the same randomized string as the WPA password, and it clearly says so, so it's easy to connect to without needing to google anything. My biggest annoyance is that there's no "remember me" for the admin website login, so you'll have to log in to the web UI every time you access the page...even if you're simply refreshing it. I had some trouble getting through the FTUE with the iPhone app, and found it easier to set up the first time with the web UI, but after that hiccup the app seemed to work fine. There are some nags for some typical "cloud account" nonsense, but it mercifully provides a "don't show again" button which it seems to actually honor. Powered by USB-C! This is incredibly useful for a travel device, but do be aware it requires a power brick (such as the included one) that can provide at least 9V via the USB-PD standard. Simple "dumb" 5V USB-C ports, including most laptop ports or USB-A adapters, won't work. The three-position physical mode switch on the side is a neat touch, and might be useful if you want to use this as a home router that you carry with you when you travel. Broadly speaking, "Router mode" is for creating a wireless network and optionally connecting it to a wired WAN (including a USB modem or USB phone tether), "Hotspot mode" is for creating a wireless network and routing it to an existing wireless network (like hotel wifi or a wireless phone tether), and "AP mode" is for connecting to a wireless network and routing it to a wired one (the LAN port). Changing the switch position reboots the device. Boot time, by the way, is glacially slow - almost two entire minutes (1:51 in my tests). This is particularly unfortunate for what's supposed to be a travel device, but once it's running, the performance seems fine. Pros: * Can be completely administrated using only a web browser, only an app, or both. * No mandatory cloud administration stuff (though it does have that it you want it). * WPS can be completely turned off. * 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz networks can use the same SSID (separate by default) * USB-C Power Cons: * Slow startup time * Requires full-blown USB-PD to power

Very efficient device

I have a requirement that i need to connect multiple devices to a network, where there is only one device can connect with a otp login. I purchased this . Now i cannect this device to the network with the otp login and made Hotspot from this device and i can connect multiple devices to the network. Really wort this item

Definitely great value! I have tried the Ethernet connection...super fast, as well as 2.4 and 5 frequencies... also super fast. I did purchase a cat 8 cable for the Ethernet connection because I wanted a longer cable than the older, slower, shorter cable provided. Max speed possible and this little unit does the job. It's a small and portable unit and definitely doesn't get hot..warm but not hot. I ran it as a hot spot...great results. Make sure that you change the factory default SSID and password for better security. Be careful of the sticker on the bottom with the factory reset password. It rubs off very easily and should be under plastic..it's not and I lost the factory codes but easily recoverable via a Ethernet cable reset. Overall this is the value unit that you need for a portable router. Update: Still positive about this router, I used it on a trip with the hotel Wi-Fi... perfect results and without and problems. Consider it for your next trip. I use it daily at home as a hotspot.. just plug it in and it's already configured.

I was thinking of buying a WiFi extender then I saw this little router which can act as a WiFi extender Setup is so easy performance is great build is sturdy, everything look and feel solid adapter and USB cable feel good quality very satisfied with this purchase, no regret.

Great features, easy setup!