Devolo dLAN 500 AV Plus Review

A record breaking product?

by Greg Hook
Tech Review

10

Recommended
Devolo dLAN 500 AV Plus Review
MSRP: £99.99

Introduction

In today's modern home trying to get network connectivity to all areas can sometimes be a struggle. Whether that is getting wireless access to a distant corner of the house or making sure the TV, Blu-ray player, Apple TV and PCs all have a decent quality connection. Before the days of the Powerline Adaptor you would most likely have cables everywhere or end up turning your walls into Swiss cheese, just to make sure the Blu-ray player could get that all important on-line content! Thankfully, such problems are a thing of the past.

The Powerline Adaptor has, to a degree, removed all of the home networking issues from which we used to suffer. There is a huge wealth of different product types available to suit every need including basic Powerline Adaptors offering wired access, ones with Wireless access points and even all singing and dancing kits with AC passthrough, wireless access and Gigabit Ethernet ports to maximise the connection speeds where possible. We've reviewed many of these devices of late from manufacturers such as Netgear and TP-LINK and all of them have performed very well. The model we have for review here is another product from the well regarded German manufacturer, Devolo. Our first review of a Devolo powerline adaptor kit in October 2013 was rather disappointing due to a few performance issues but we're hoping the dLAN 500AV Plus Powerline Kit will perform as Devolo's reputation would suggest.

Styling and Design

The Devolo dLAN 500 AV Plus starter kit contains two identical power line adaptors that don't really deviate from the standard design and feel of all power line adaptors - a hard white plastic shell with air vents to either side. Devolo's come with a very useful AC passthrough which means you won't have to sacrifice a power outlet but because of this it does mean they are much larger than the basic Powerline Adaptors. It's not normally recommended to use power line adapters in a four-way extension lead (although in our experience it has made no difference) but the larger size does mean they won't fit without obscuring adjacent sockets. This wider size seems unique to Devolo, whereas the TP-LINK and Netgear Powerline adaptors will fit easily amongst other plugs on a four-way extension for example. To the bottom of each adaptor we find a single Gigabit Ethernet port and the security button.
Devolo dLAN 500 AV Plus
A simple colour coded system will show the connection speeds you are likely to receive.

To the front of each adaptor you will find the AC passthrough socket and a row of three LEDs. The first is the Power LED which will illuminate steady green when ready for use and flash when in power saving mode. The second LED is for the dLAN. This follows a similar system to Netgear's Pick-a-Plug feature, whereby you get an instant indication of the level of speeds you are likely to receive from your chosen socket. Here the LED will show a steady Green to indicate the connection is suitable for HD video streaming, Orange for SD streaming and online gaming and finally Red for simple data transfer and internet access. This LED will also flash when data is being transmitted. The final LED is for the Ethernet and will show a steady Green when a connection to the Ethernet network exists and flash when data is being transmitted.

Setup

As we have come to expect now the installation and setup of these Powerline adaptors from Devolo is amongst the simplest of any device we have experienced. Although they aren't alone in this as Netgear and TP-LINK's adaptors were also a breeze to setup. Literally within 30 seconds to 1 minute the adapters were all installed and our powerline network was fully enabled and secured.

Plug and Play at its finest.

You simply plug one adaptor near to your router and connect to it with the Ethernet cable, then plug the second adaptor into a socket in a room of your choice. Press the security button on the first adaptor for 1 second, then within two minutes press it on the second adaptor and hey presto your new powerline network will be fully secure and operational. It really is that simple. These adaptors are fully Homeplug compliant so adding additional ones will present no problems and the kit comes with two 2m Ethernet cables, quick setup guide and a product CD.

Performance and Testing

We are again presented with the same issues surrounding the speed claims with Powerline adaptors. The pair from Devolo here are rated at up to 500Mbps, but that is a speed you will never see. The devices themselves may well be capable of 500Mbps in theory, although this includes both the uplink and downlink speed anyway so immediately halve that to 250Mbps, plus the majority we have reviewed to date have only had Fast Ethernet ports (max of 100Mbps) meaning that speed claim of 500Mbps is again instantly reduced to 100Mbps. As with the recent review of TP-LINK's TL-PA6010KIT reviewed here, this Devolo comes with Gigabit Ethernet ports meaning we should be able to squeeze a little bit more speed out of them. Even so forget ever getting anywhere near the speeds quoted by any of the Powerline Adaptor manufacturers. As reviewers we can moan about this until the cows come home but it won't ever change. It's now a marketing issue because if one manufacturer puts the genuine and best attainable speed of 100Mbps on their product, which sits on a shelf next to a similarly priced product claiming 500Mbps, which one do you think the consumer will choose?

Now onto the actual testing, the full speed of our internet connection was achieved without issue and with a streaming service such as Netflix HD we saw speeds peak around 35Mbps during the initial few seconds and then drop to about the 3-8Mbps range during playback. No freezes or any buffering issues were encountered during this test. These 500Mbps powerline adaptors from Devolo should easily manage this low level test and thankfully they do.
Devolo dLAN 500 AV Plus
For the file transfer testing across the network we had high hopes of far exceeding the Fast Ethernet port 100Mbps restriction of previous Powerline Adaptor reviews and also competing with the TP-LINK set reviewed recently which had Gigabit Ethernet ports. Our results were very favourable indeed, giving the fastest results we have seen to date on these devices. Sadly nowhere near the theoretical maximum but that was never likely to happen anyway. For the download test we achieved highs of just under 186Mbps and for the upload an even better high of just under 189Mbps, a current record here at AVForums. With the simultaneous file transfer test we managed peaks of around 80Mbps. These results are excellent and delivers a speed that is more than capable of providing a network for the fast transfer of files or streaming HD content to a media centre for example.

Devolo dLAN 500 AV Plus
Devolo dLAN 500 AV Plus

Devolo dLAN 500 AV Plus
The fastest speeds we have seen to date for Powerline Adaptors with peaks of 189Mbps.

dLAN Cockpit Software

Devolo dLAN 500 AV Plus
One last item to mention with these Powerline Adaptors from Devolo is a very useful piece of free software called the dLAN Cockpit. This gives you a visual display of your powerline network and the link rates currently being achieved. It also allows you to easily change the security options and provides a very simple route to update the adaptor's firmware.

Conclusion

Pros

  • Instant setup
  • Very easy to use
  • Very fast connection speeds
  • AC Passthrough

Cons

  • You won't see 500Mbps, ever

Devolo dLAN 500 AV Plus Review

It's difficult to find many negatives with Powerline Adaptors these days. They are one of the easiest products to setup and install and provide a simple method of supplying the whole house with a robust network connection. Our first review of a Powerline Adaptor from German manufacturer Devolo here, was rather underwhelming thanks in part to poor wireless performance and of course a restriction placed on the connection speeds by the use of just Fast Ethernet ports (max 100Mbps). Thankfully with this Devolo set, the Gigabit Ethernet ports have helped push the connection speeds to levels previously unseen here at AVForums.

The dLAN 500 AV Plus comes with a pair of 500Mbps adaptors, two Ethernet cables and minimal installation instructions, but really they are so easy to setup and use there is no need for any installation instructions at all. You simply plug them in, press the security button on each device and that's your job done. You now have a fully operational and secure powerline network . You can of course install the useful Devolo dLAN Cockpit software to configure the security options and other settings, but most likely once installed you can just forget they're there and just start using your new network.

During our speed tests we saw levels peak for download at 186Mbps and a slightly higher 189Mbps for upload. With the simultaneous file transfer test giving between 80-83Mbps each way. Whilst these results are nowhere near the 500Mbps claims on the packaging, they are still the fastest of any Powerline Adaptors we have reviewed to date at AVForums. Testing with a service such as Netflix HD also presented no issues as the adaptors easily coped with our 40Mbps internet connection. We can't escape the 500Mbps claims though, technically they are correct as the chips used in them are rated at 500Mbps but in real world use you won't ever see even half that speed.

The price tag is slightly higher than we would like to see, but Devolo target the premium end of the Powerline Adaptor market and the test results easily beat the 600Mbps TP-LINK set reviewed recently available for about £20-£30 less than the Devolo set. So perhaps the price tag is fair. We have no qualms in awarding the dLAN 500 AV Plus starter kit from Devolo our AVForums Recommended Award as we found a product that has great build quality, is a breeze to setup and which gives us the best results of any powerline adaptor we have reviewed to date.

Scores

Build Quality

.
9

Connectivity

.
.
8

Ease of Use

10

Connection Speed

.
9

Value for Money

.
.
.
7

Verdict

.
.
8
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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