Netgear XAVB1301 Mini Powerline Adaptor Review

It's another of Netgear's bargain Powerline adaptor sets

by Greg Hook
Tech Review

5

Recommended
Netgear XAVB1301 Mini Powerline Adaptor Review
MSRP: £45.00

Introduction

Ever since our initial review of a pair of Powerline Adaptors last year, we have become increasingly impressed by the versatility and ease of use of these devices. Not to mention the level of performance and speeds we have received. With such a wide range of manufacturers now in the market and some such as TP-LINK hitting very good price points, they are very quickly becoming a must-have product for anyone with a house that has any sort of networking requirements at all. With the range including wireless extenders, it now makes it extremely simple to extend network access to any part of the house which would have been previously impossible without having unsightly cables or butchering a few walls.

The Netgear Powerline adaptors come in a range of prices with the current generation '500Mbps' sets with wireless extender capabilities costing around £80 and dropping to under £60 for a non-wireless pair with AV passthrough. The set we currently have for review is the Powerline AV 200 Mini set XAVB1301 which contains a pair of 200Mbps Powerline adaptors. This is not a new product and has been around for almost 18 months but is currently widely available at a very keen price. The current cheapest from our rainforest friends is just £28.83 which makes this set look a very tempting prospect. Let's see how this 200 Mbps set fares.

Styling and Design

The Powerline AV200 Mini set (XAVB1301) adaptors are a couple of generations down the line now as they were released back in March 2012 and whilst they are called the mini adaptors they are a fair bit larger than Netgear's current generation of Nano powerline adaptors and similar versions from the likes of TP-LINK. But even so, these will still fit easily in a double wall outlet or a 4 way extension for example without interfering with neighbouring plugs. As you can see in the photo below with the XAVB1301 on the left and the current 500Mbps Nano adaptor on the right, there is a size difference but it isn't massive. They retain the familiar build quality, feel and style of a hard white plastic shell with ventilation slots either side. To the bottom of each adaptor we get a Fast Ethernet port, factory reset button and the security button for enabling the 128-bit encryption.
Netgear XAVB1301
To the front of the adaptor we have three LED indicator lights - Power LED, Ethernet LED and Powerline LED. The first will light up green when connected to the power and in power saving mode, where it uses less than 0.5 Watts, it will light up amber. The second light is the Ethernet LED and it comes on when the adapter is connected via the Ethernet port to a powered-on device. The final light will come on once the Powerline Network is enabled. This light will then change colour thanks to Netgear's handy Pick-a-Plug feature which easily tells you where the best place to set up your adaptors is.

Green indicates the best link, with a speed of over 80Mbps, followed by Amber with 50-80Mbps and then Red with under 50Mbps.

Setup

As with all the Netgear products we have reviewed to date, along with a recent recent favourite from TP-LINK, the Powerline AV200 adaptors are a breeze to setup and install. Within 30 seconds your Powerline network will be up and running with no configuration required at all. You simply plug the first adaptor in the same location as your router, press the security button, then within 2 minutes press the security button on your second device, plugged in wherever you want and once the Power LED has stopped flashing the Powerline network will be fully setup complete with 128-bit encryption. These adaptors are fully Homeplug compliant so adding additional ones will present no problems. The adaptors also come with two x 2m Ethernet cables.
Netgear XAVB1301

Performance and Testing

Our recent reviews of Powerline products with claims of up to 500Mbps speeds have thrown a few spanners in the works due to issues such as only containing Fast Ethernet ports (max of 100Mbps) which means obtaining 500Mbps is impossible, but with the AV200 Mini set here, this should not be as much of an issue. Although we should still clarify the theoretical speeds you could receive. The 200Mbps quoted 'up to' speed includes the uplink and downlink speeds so the maximum you will ever get is 100Mbps.
Netgear XAVB1301
However, during our testing the full speed of our internet connection was achieved without any issues or interruptions. For streaming from a service such as Netflix again we have no problems and as you can see from the DUMeter software screenshot below we saw speeds peak over 32Mbps, then drop to about 3-4, with the occasional rise to 10Mbps during playback. The playback started immediately and no buffering or stuttering was seen.


Now onto the file transfer testing. With this test we would hope to get close to the maximum theoretical speeds possible of 100Mbps with these AV200 adaptors. With DUMeter again we saw speeds peak at just under 70Mbps download and just over 72Mbps for the upload. Impressive speeds and this should be fast enough to transfer files quickly across your network or stream HD content to your media centre for example. But it would have been good to see speeds above this and approaching close to the possible 100Mbps maximum.
Netgear XAVB1301
Netgear XAVB1301


Our next screenshot below shows the speeds achieved when simultaneously downloading and uploading a 1GB test file across our network. The speeds hover around the 40-43 Mbps mark for both up and downstream. This is where with a single pair of adaptors with claims of 200Mbps at first glance can appear misleading. As the devices have just a Fast Ethernet port, you are limited to a throughput of 100Mbps anyway, so for simultaneous transfers, the 80-86 Mbps seen here is reasonably impressive based on the hardware limitations.
Netgear XAVB1301

Netgear XAVB1301 Powerline Utility

One last point is a useful free program we have mentioned before in our Netgear reviews - the Powerline Utility software. It can be run from any PC on the network regardless of whether it is directly connected to a Homeplug and gives a visual display of the Homeplug network and shows the current Uplink and Downlink connection speeds. It allows you to rename each device should you have several Homeplugs, along with turning the LED lights off on a particular Homeplug (although that does appear to disable the device as well) and changing the security key if you wish.

Netgear XAVB1301

Conclusion

The Good

  • Very cheap
  • Plug and play
  • Effortless setup

The Bad

  • You won't get 200Mbps

Netgear XAVB1301 Mini Powerline Adaptor Review

The Netgear XAVB1301 200Mbps Mini Powerline Adaptor set offers excellent value for money. Yes, it's getting a bit long in the tooth, having been out for 18 months or so and lacking the speeds and features of the latest generation of 500Mbps Powerline adaptors, but for just shy of £29.00 you get a pair of 200Mbps adaptors with 128-bit security and Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) ports and a setup time literally as long as it takes you to plug both adaptors in. With a performance that, during our testing, comfortably coped with a 40+Mbps internet connection and gave speeds around 70Mbps for file transfers, the price looks extremely attractive.

We do still have the issue with the speed claims, but as long as you know from the start you won't ever get 200Mbps from the single pair of adaptors then you won't have anything to complain about. There's the useful Netgear Pick-A-Plug feature which gives you an instant indication of the level of performance you are likely to receive from your chosen power outlet along with the Netgear Powerline Utility software which allows you to see the network linkrate, configure security options and rename devices if you wish. These adaptors are fully Homeplug AV compatible and also compatible with the other Netgear Powerline products. Due to the low price the XAVB1301 can be picked up for and the performance, we have no issues in awarding this our AVForums Recommended badge.

Scores

Build Quality

.
.
.
7

Connectivity

.
.
.
7

Ease of Use

.
.
.
7

Value for Money

.
9

Verdict

.
.
.
7
7
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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