Skip to content

TP-Link TL-WA850RE, single-rate repeater with one LAN socket review

A long-standing repeater that names the standards it works with, publishes one rate, and never says what frequency that rate belongs to.

The bottom line An old, plain listing that names its standards and counts its socket, and leaves both the frequency and the socket speed blank. For a television in a back room behind a b, g or n router it is exactly what it says; for anything faster it is the wrong shelf.

On the listing

A German-language version with a German web interface, quick-start leaflet and packaging; speeds up to 300 Mbit/s and compatibility with all common wireless routers under 802.11b, g and n; one LAN socket for bringing wired devices such as televisions and games consoles into the wireless network; extension and encryption at the press of a WPS button; signal LEDs showing the current signal strength to help with placement, which can be switched off; and a box containing the unit and a quick-start leaflet.

One number, no band

300 Mbit/s is the only rate on the page. Nothing is being added together here, which makes it the plainest figure in this family — and it is still a standard rate rather than an observed one. What is missing is the frequency it belongs to, and with it any way of knowing whether the unit has one radio or two.

The socket that is counted but not rated

One LAN socket, stated in the title, described in a bullet. No speed. A television at the far end of a house is exactly the use the bullet names, and how much that television can pull through the socket is not on the page.

The LEDs that switch off

A small thing that is rarely stated. A repeater lives in a socket in a corridor, and a row of bright lights at ankle height in a bedroom is a reason to unplug it. This one says it can be turned off.

Before ordering

Plug it in where the router signal is still good, not where the signal is worst. Everything past this unit is limited by what reaches it first, and the LEDs on the front exist to find that spot.

Availability

Priced from 15 € to 19 € across the German, French, Italian and Spanish Amazon stores the day this page was checked.

It is stocked on the American and British Amazon stores as well, in that country’s own currency. The range above leaves those out: it counts euro stores and no others.

Every figure in this section is what Keepa held on the day this page was last updated. Stock and prices move without warning.

Prices quoted in this text were read on 10 September 2026. The live price is at the top of the page.

Where it holds up, and where it stops

Strengths

  • Names the standards it works with individually — 802.11b, g and n — rather than claiming compatibility in the abstract
  • The signal LEDs can be switched off, which matters on a unit that lives in a hallway or a bedroom socket
  • Ships with a German web interface, a German quick-start leaflet and German packaging, all stated

Compromises

  • One rate and no frequency, so whether the unit serves 2.4 GHz only cannot be read from the page
  • The LAN socket is counted and never rated, so what a television plugged into it can expect is unpublished
  • No access point mode is named, which is the arrangement that would remove the halving a repeater costs

Specifications

Wi-Fi generationNot published on the listing as a generation — compatibility is given as 802.11b, g and n, and no Wi-Fi generation number is claimed for the unit itself
IEEE designation802.11b, g and n — stated, as the routers the repeater is described as compatible with
Stated class figure300 Mbit/s — stated in the title and repeated in the second bullet. Only one figure is published, so nothing on this page is being summed, and it is a standard rate rather than a measured one
Band planNot published on the listing — one rate is published and no frequency is named for it, so whether the unit has one radio or two is unstated
Stream countNot published on the listing — six bullets cover the language version, the rate, the LAN socket, the WPS button, the LEDs and the box contents, and none gives a stream figure
Plug-in or desktop formNot published on the listing — signal LEDs are described as helping to find the best position, and no socket body or desktop body is described in words
Ethernet port countOne — stated in the title as one port, and described as a LAN socket for wiring televisions, games consoles and similar devices into the wireless network
Port speedNot published on the listing — the LAN socket is named and counted, and no speed is given for it
Access point modeNot published on the listing — the LAN socket is described only as a way of bringing wired devices into the wireless network, and no mode that turns a cable into a new network is named
Amazon referenceB00A0VCJPI (same reference on 6 Amazon marketplaces)
EAN1210002614542

The questions that come up before an order

Why does a repeater halve what passes through it?

Because a single radio has to receive a frame and send it on again, and both use the same air time. Everything that reaches the far side has crossed the same radio twice. Units that avoid this keep a second band for the link back to the router, and this listing does not say whether it has one.

What are the signal LEDs for?

They show how strong the signal from the router is at the socket the unit is plugged into, so the unit can be moved until the reading is good. Since a repeater can only pass on what reaches it, that reading is the single most useful thing on the case.