28.06.2019 
The TP-Link Archer T2U Plus wireless USB adapter is not a high-end piece of hardware, but it is an interesting one. It has an affordable price and promises to deliver excellent wireless range and speeds, both on 5 GHz wireless bands as well as on 2.4 GHz bands. We have tested it for a few days, to evaluate how well it performs and what it has to offer. If you want to know about what the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus wireless USB adapter can do, read this review:
TP-Link Archer T2U Plus: Who is it good for?
The TP-Link Archer T2U Plus wireless USB adapter is an excellent choice for:
- People who need a modern day WiFi USB adapter that does not cost a fortune
- Those who want a WiFi adapter with a powerful antenna for extended coverage
- Users who want a plug-and-play USB WiFi adapter that just works
Pros and cons
We have quite a few good things to say about the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus wireless USB:
- It can connect to wireless networks broadcast both on the 2.4GHz bands and on the 5GHz bands
- It has one 5dBi high gain antenna which delivers an excellent range
- The antenna can be rotated and positioned any way you need it
- The price is low and affordable
As for the cons of buying this WiFi adapter, we don't have any.
Verdict
The TP-Link Archer T2U Plus is an excellent Wi-Fi adapter that delivers solid connection speeds and great wireless coverage. Its pricing is affordable, and its specifications make it a good choice for most people. When you need a WiFi USB adapter that does not cost a fortune but which can provide satisfying performance, TP-Link Archer T2U Plus is a great device that you should purchase.
Unboxing the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus wireless USB adapter
The TP-Link Archer T2U Plus wireless USB adapter comes in a small box, made of cardboard. The front side of the box shows you what the WiFi USB adapter looks like, and also gives you some information about the power of the antenna, the maximum speeds that it can achieve, and the fact that the antenna's position is adjustable.
On the back of the box, you will find additional information printed. For instance, you can find out that the WiFi adapter uses a high gain antenna, which should mean that it can connect to your router from greater distances than regular WiFi adapters with regular antennas. Inside the box, you find the Archer T2U Plus wireless USB adapter, a CD with drivers and software, a quick installation guide, a printed tutorial for how to connect to WiFi networks in Windows, and the warranty documents.
The unboxing experience is fast and straightforward, and you get everything you need to start using the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus wireless USB adapter.
Design and hardware specifications
Regarding the design of the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus wireless USB adapter, the most interesting and useful part about it is the fact that you can adjust the antenna's position any way you like it. The antenna can rotate 180° relative to the USB adapter and 90° horizontally.
Although the USB adapter part of the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus is small, the antenna is fairly long, as you can see in the image below. However, the good part about the antenna is the fact that its 5dBi should give you excellent wireless coverage, even if you are far away from your WiFi router.
The TP-Link Archer T2U Plus uses a USB 2.0 port and can connect to WiFi networks that broadcast both on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. It offers support for all the modern wireless networking standards up to 802.11ac or Wi-Fi 5.
Furthermore, it comes with 256QAM support, which is a technical way of saying that the 2.4 GHz data rate can increase from a standard 150 Mbps to 200 Mbps. On the 5 GHz band, when connecting to WiFi networks using the 802.11ac protocol, you can get a fast theoretical maximum speed of 433 Mbps.
The TP-Link Archer T2U Plus uses a chipset made by Realtek, called RTL8811AU.
If you want to know the exact physical dimensions of the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus, they are 2.28 x 0.71 x 6.83 inches, or 57.8 x 18 x 173.4 mm. As for the operating systems supported, the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus officially works on any version of Windows and macOS. See more details about this product, here: TP-Link Archer T2U Plus.
The TP-Link Archer T2U Plus looks like an excellent WiFi USB adapter that should be able to sustain stable wireless connections even on long distances. The hardware specifications are what you would expect from any WiFi USB adapter.
Using the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus
To get an idea of the quality of the network connection provided by the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus wireless adapter, we ran a few tests on a desktop PC running Windows 10 and on a Lenovo Legion Y520 gaming laptop. This laptop has an integrated wireless network adapter called Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265, which supports 802.11ac, and also 2x2 MIMO wireless transfers, which means that it offers two spatial streams of transmitting and receiving data on the same channel or frequency. Our internet connection was broadcast by an ASUS RT-AC1200G+ wireless router on the 5GHz band, using the 802.11ac protocol.
First, we ran Speedtest on the desktop PC with Windows 10, which was connected to the WiFi network using the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus. We managed to achieve some excellent results: 3ms ping, 228.57 Mbps download speed, and 148.46 Mbps upload speed.
Then we ran the same tests on the gaming laptop. Remember that both the PC and the laptop were connected to the same network, at the same time, and were placed on the same desk. The ping time was the same. The upload speed was also the same, but that's because our internet connection is capped at 150 Mbps for the upload speed. However, the download speed was better on the laptop, but not by a large margin.
We also ran the advanced networking tests offered by PassMark Performance Test. We used the desktop PC to which the USB adapter was connected, and transferred some data between the PC and our gaming laptop which was connected to the router through an Ethernet cable. The results show that the wireless connection offered by TP-Link Archer T2U Plus is fairly stable and the average speed is about 200 Mbps on the 5GHz band. It is a satisfying result!
The TP-Link Archer T2U Plus did an excellent job in games too. We played a couple of matches in League of Legends and the ping was between 46 to 50 ms. We did not experience any signal drops or connection loss either.
The wireless performance offered by the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus is what you would expect from a device of its type.
Do you like the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus?
As far as we can tell, the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus is an excellent WiFi USB adapter that works well and offers both good WiFi speeds and coverage. If you already have this adapter, share your experience with it, in a comment below. What is your opinion about the TP-Link Archer T2U Plus?
