ZyXEL PLA5405 1200 Mbps Powerline Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Reviewed

[SansB]

Looks like Zyxel beat others to the punch in the US. I noticed Newegg is now selling the AV2-1200 PLA5405 adapters for $139. It lists it as a Newegg exclusive for the time being too (just like the previous AV-1000 adapters they released last month).

As far as I know, these are the first AV2 MIMO adapters available in the US.

Link for those interested.

I'm really tempted to put some money down and upgrade, but since there are at least two other companies (TP-Link and TRENDNet) that said they would release new adapters soon as well, I feel like I should wait a little until I start seeing some comparisons.

 

[rjwozniak]

Finally!

ZyXEL PLA5405KIT HomePlug AV2 MIMO 1200 Mbps Powerline Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Kit

Newegg.com Exclusive as of today $139.99

Let the Homeplug AV2 MIMO floodgates open!!!

 

[azazel1024]

Finally!

ZyXEL PLA5405KIT HomePlug AV2 MIMO 1200 Mbps Powerline Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Kit

Newegg.com Exclusive as of today $139.99

Let the Homeplug AV2 MIMO floodgates open!!!

Just keep in mind for a typical setup, the performance difference is probably going to be minor. Only under ideal circumstances might you see a large boost in speed compared to something like an AV500/600 product. Wire is different than wireless, even if the technologies employeed are rather similar. Wires (for electrical distribution) are EXTREMELY noisy in comparison to a lot of wireless environments and the relatively low frequency employeed by powerline also means that a lot of techniques employeed to increase bandwidth (using wider frequency band) also means that the additional frequency employeed, suffers higher attenuations than the existing frequency (wireless you don't see much of that because moving from 40MHz to 80MHz in 5GHz is a VERY tiny nudge in terms of how much higher the frequency employeed is. When you move from something like 30-70MHz to 30-95MHz, the upper frequencies are quite a big higher frequency, and generally a doubling of frequency results in a doubling of attenuation per linear foot of wire.)

 

[urgru]

Just keep in mind for a typical setup, the performance difference is probably going to be minor. Only under ideal circumstances might you see a large boost in speed compared to something like an AV500/600 product. Wire is different than wireless, even if the technologies employeed are rather similar. Wires (for electrical distribution) are EXTREMELY noisy in comparison to a lot of wireless environments and the relatively low frequency employeed by powerline also means that a lot of techniques employeed to increase bandwidth (using wider frequency band) also means that the additional frequency employeed, suffers higher attenuations than the existing frequency (wireless you don't see much of that because moving from 40MHz to 80MHz in 5GHz is a VERY tiny nudge in terms of how much higher the frequency employeed is. When you move from something like 30-70MHz to 30-95MHz, the upper frequencies are quite a big higher frequency, and generally a doubling of frequency results in a doubling of attenuation per linear foot of wire.)

Reviews of the Devolo EU units suggest a 20-25% increase in throughput relative to AV2 500/600 in real world usage. That's enough to interest me, although the price premium for these "exclusive" units is a bit steep.

 

[JosephB]

Tim,

When do you expect to review the new - ZyXEL PLA5405KIT HomePlug AV2 MIMO 1200 Mbps Powerline Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Kit ?

 

[azazel1024]

Reviews of the Devolo EU units suggest a 20-25% increase in throughput relative to AV2 500/600 in real world usage. That's enough to interest me, although the price premium for these "exclusive" units is a bit steep.

Kind of my point. Any increase is any increase, especially when you aren't talking single digit percentages, but the increase may not exactly be as much as a lot of users may hope and the price premium is rather steep for what you get.

That said, if you need an extra 20-25%, by all means. I do "crazy things" sometimes just to eek 10 or 20% more performance out of something. Just wanted the word of warning that you should not expect double the performance of an AV500/600 product moving to an AV1000/1200 product. You probably shouldn't even hope for a 50% increase, maybe not even under ideal (but outside of a lab) use cases.

 

[rjwozniak]

ZyXEL PLA5405KIT HomePlug AV2 MIMO 1200 Mbps Powerline Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Kit

My first impression is very positive. Connected no problem with the simple "encrypt" button.
I am seeing a significant improvement in speed using the ZyXEL PLA5405KIT.

Speed comparison to TP-Link TL-PA6010 AV600 Gigabit Powerline Adapter:

Location X TL-PA6010 PLA5405KIT
Location 1 15.4 mbps 51.9 mbps
Location 2 32.6 mbps 75.4 mbps
Location 3 55.8 mbps 83.2 mbps

My speed test was not very rigorous as I just used speedtest.net to test my internet speed.
Max speed of my Comcast internet is around 75-85Mbps during the time (5PM) I was doing this comparison, so I am not testing the max speed of the power line adapter.
A much better test would be a speed test between two computers. (Plug for Tim.)

 

[CaptainSTX]

You can easily run a more rigorous test by downloading a free utility such as Lan Speed Test and doing your own comparisons. All you need is a couple of PCs with Ethernet ports, some good Cat 5e jumpers and the Lan Speed test utility.

1. Connect both PCs to your router using Ethernet cables and run several tests writing and reading files from one PC to the other.

2. Rerun the test to each of your locations using one PC connected directly to the router using Ethernet and the other linked using your old adapters.

3. Repeat using the new adapters and compare.

Unless you have Gigabyte adapters on the two PCs and the router has Gigabyte ports you won't be able to test the maximum throughput of your new new Ethernet over powerline, but you will have a much better idea what your actual speeds are without introducing the variability of the Internet and speed tests.

 

[urgru]

ZyXEL PLA5405KIT HomePlug AV2 MIMO 1200 Mbps Powerline Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Kit

My first impression is very positive. Connected no problem with the simple "encrypt" button.
I am seeing a significant improvement in speed using the ZyXEL PLA5405KIT.

Speed comparison to TP-Link TL-PA6010 AV600 Gigabit Powerline Adapter:

Location X TL-PA6010 PLA5405KIT
Location 1 15.4 mbps 51.9 mbps
Location 2 32.6 mbps 75.4 mbps
Location 3 55.8 mbps 83.2 mbps

My speed test was not very rigorous as I just used speedtest.net to test my internet speed.
Max speed of my Comcast internet is around 75-85Mbps during the time (5PM) I was doing this comparison, so I am not testing the max speed of the power line adapter.
A much better test would be a speed test between two computers. (Plug for Tim.)

That's an impressive improvement.

As an aside -- Love that the first/only review on NewEgg complains that they don't reach anywhere near their rates "1200" speed. I suspect that'll be a common complaint about the 1000/1200/1800 units. The manufacturers have put themselves in a bad position. They need big numbers to keep up with the ever-increasing ratings on WiFi equipment and sound competitive, but real world performance can't keep up.

 

[urgru]

Thanks for the 5405 review. Really disappointing result. Wonder why the Devolo is testing reasonably well (relatively speaking) and the ZyXel shows no meaningful improvement over AV2/600 products. I'd been hoping for something that equaled Ethernet 100 going between a couple floors that are too thick for strong wifi.

 

[azazel1024]

A lot of that comes down to firmware. Heck, just look at wifi. There are a number of routers that share chipset, radios and even amplifiers (yes, I realize that isn't the ONLY thing in the radio chain), even similar antennas and the performance can vary a fair amount.

Same thing here.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for the 5405 review. Really disappointing result. Wonder why the Devolo is testing reasonably well (relatively speaking) and the ZyXel shows no meaningful improvement over AV2/600 products. I'd been hoping for something that equaled Ethernet 100 going between a couple floors that are too thick for strong wifi.

I think you have that with a few of the latest generation adapters. Look at the downlink and uplink bar charts in the review. You're seeing over 100 Mbps.

 

[Pit]

Tim, are you sure your electic circuit are ok?

Since AV2 MIMO is using additional circuit (ground?) there should be performance improvement in any locations. Some test/forums shows performance boost, yours not really. Maybe due to circuit (ground) problem?

After testing 500 AV2 and 500 solutions I see faster spec technology is faster in single room/single circuit. Distance and noise coming from TV/amplifier closes the gap from almost 2X perfomance difference to only 1,3 in worst case at my flat. Which is still OK for getting cheaper 500/600 AV2 technology.

 

[thiggins]

Tim, are you sure your electic circuit are ok?

Since AV2 MIMO is using additional circuit (ground?) there should be performance improvement in any locations. Some test/forums shows performance boost, yours not really. Maybe due to circuit (ground) problem?

My wiring is fine. Home is only 10 years old.

Do you have data to back your claim of "performance improvement in any locations"?

 

[Entropy]

Tim, are you sure your electic circuit are ok?

Since AV2 MIMO is using additional circuit (ground?) there should be performance improvement in any locations. Some test/forums shows performance boost, yours not really. Maybe due to circuit (ground) problem?

After testing 500 AV2 and 500 solutions I see faster spec technology is faster in single room/single circuit. Distance and noise coming from TV/amplifier closes the gap from almost 2X perfomance difference to only 1,3 in worst case at my flat. Which is still OK for getting cheaper 500/600 AV2 technology.

It is an inherent problem with testing these devices that the result is extremely dependent on the specific environment the test is being performed in. LAN over power wiring is an example of where you cannot turn to any one review to get a definitive answer, you need to sample quite a few to get better statistics over many different environments. And that average still doesn't necessarily translate to your particular use case.

I was also a bit surprised by the results - I've read 4 (5) European reviews of the Devolo 1200 which uses the same chipset, and there hasn't been a single instance under any conditions, where MIMO, using the extra wiring, hasn't produced better results than not having that extra signal.

It will be interesting to see how other AV2 MIMO devices behave under the same conditions. Is this what we can expect under Tims testing parameters? Or were the results specific to the Zyxel PLA5405 since after all, all the other data points were collected with Devolos offering? Only further tests will answer that one.

 

[thiggins]

It is an inherent problem with testing these devices that the result is extremely dependent on the specific environment the test is being performed in. LAN over power wiring is an example of where you cannot turn to any one review to get a definitive answer, you need to sample quite a few to get better statistics over many different environments. And that average still doesn't necessarily translate to your particular use case.

Our tests are best when viewed as comparative (among devices tested with the same process) and not absolute performance.

Can you provide links to the European reviews of the Devolo 1200? I would like to look at the test methods and results.

 

[Pit]

Can you provide links to the European reviews of the Devolo 1200? I would like to look at the test methods and results.

Those two reviews compare Devolo 1200+ (MIMO) with competing 500 AV2:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/network-wifi/3581669/devolo-dlan-1200-powerline-adapter-review/
Very good results of MIMO technology shown here...

(I read via translator)
http://blog.reflex-photo.eu/cpl-devolo-dlan-1200-fin-cables-photographes/
Results vary depending on the sockets used. Coclusion: try it in your environment before buying.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks, Pit.

The French article mixes slower and faster adapters, so can't really be compared.

In the PC Advisor UK review, there were two test results:

In our fastest-possible test, where the two adapters are placed next to each other – hardly a real-world situation but a theoretical test on straight-line speed – the 1200+ reached 357Mbps.



In our real-world tests the second adapter is placed in a room two floors down from the base unit and modem/router – in a Victorian terraced house. We think this will mimic an average UK home to give you a fair comparison.
The 1200+ again romped home, scoring an average speed of 126Mbps.

The second test represents a 65% throughput reduction.

Comparing my Downlink Loc A test and worst case Loc E tests, I get a 68% throughput reduction (333 Mbps to 107 Mbps).

Of course you can't compare the results directly. But both tests show a big drop in throughput once you get some distance between the adapters. That is the key takeaway, which is very typical of powerline technology and also similar to WiFi, i.e. you get the "big number on the box" only in same-room conditions.

 

[urgru]

Substantial reduction, but they also saw some measurable MIMO benefit. ~40Mbps faster than an AV2 5/600 adapter

 

[brimur]

When it comes to powerline devices Im always curious to know how companies are allowed to market devices as being 1200Mb when they are not even theoretically able to get to that. Where I am from consumer laws do not allow false advertising and can open companies up to being sued. If I advertised a bottle of Coke as being 1ltr and only half filled it so there was only 500ml in the bottle Im sure a lot of people would be suing me