TRENDnet TEW-687GA 450Mbps Wireless N Gaming Adapter Review

Performance
I conducted a lot of tests with the TEW-687GA during the review for the TRENDnet TEW-691GR Wireless N Router. To sum up those results, the TEW-687GA is fast! It may not hit the advertised 450Mbps, but it gives you more than enough speed to stream HD content, play online games and transfer large files. Here’s some revised graphs lifted from the TRENDnet TEW-691GR review.

Not only is the TEW-687GA good at wireless N, it even excels on older wireless G routers, such as my Linksys WRT54GS. At nearly every distance, the TEW-687GA outperformed my laptop’s built-in Intel PRO Wireless A/B/G card.

Each network adapter struggled at 40 feet with about four walls between the adapters and router. LAN Speed Test would not successfully complete for either adapter at this distance. Because of this, I decided to try a file transfer instead. The Intel PRO Wireless A/B/G sustained a steady 300KBps, while the TEW-687GA had real spotty performance. Out of the gate, the file transfer soared to 1.4MBps on the TEW-687GA. However after a few minutes it crashed to zero and the transfer stopped. I found this odd since it performed fine in the same location while connected via wireless N. Albeit after multiple attempts, I was unable to get any type of stable performance for the TEW-687GA at this distance.

Gaming
It’s no secret that the TEW-687GA is marketed as a gaming adapter, although measuring its performance in games isn’t the most consistent or simplest thing to do. Ping times can vary greatly depending upon server load, time of day and various other factors. On PC, ping times didn’t vary much between the TEW-687GA and a wired connection. Any variation could be chalked up to one of the aforementioned variables. Furthermore on consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it is impossible to measure ping times. However, I can attest that the TEW-687GA worked flawlessly with both consoles in multiplayer games and streaming HD content.