We will say it from the get go, the Amped Wireless ALLY PLUS Wi-Fi system is a frustrating mesh solution for your home that is full of contradictions, on paper it looks great – promising a massive 15000 sq. ft coverage from the two nodes with AC1900 speeds but to put it bluntly, we don’t believe it.

We have been going through the gauntlet of mesh Wi-Fi systems here at One Cut this past few months, most of them being above average and a great solution to your Wi-Fi woes, so we are not unaccustomed to the setup and execution of these systems. To Amped’s credit, the ALLY PLUS is the easiest mesh system we have set up with a very intuitive and easy to navigate app interface. The app itself is also one of the best when it comes to control over the system, offering unparalleled activity alerts, parental controls, filters and scheduling options. Best of all, you can keep your entire Wi-Fi network and all your devices safe from malware with powerful, built-in Web protection by industry leader AVG.

Now, all these features do work well and paired with a strong connection, output and advertised coverage, it should all point to this being the best system there is, however, therein lies our first problem: Speed. The ALLY PLUS system offers 2.4GHz 600Mbps + 5GHz 1300Mbps (simultaneous) dual band connectivity from the two classy looking nodes each with their own multitude of internal and external high gain, low noise amplifiers. Yes, we are all aware that different factors play into connectivity, especially wirelessly, but in our multitude of both wired and wireless tests (which have warranted very positive results from other systems), we never achieved anything close to those.

Part of the problem, we think, lies in the extender. You see, the main router delivered about 75% of advertised speeds within proximity but as soon as you relied upon the extender in other areas of the home, speeds dropped dramatically, perhaps due to its lack of a third backhaul band and this was disappointing. Speeds essentially halved or more. The irony of our speed dilemma was that it is advertised on their website that the ALLY PLUS system gives users “Ultra-fast Wi-Fi speeds” and features built in MU-MIMO technology with that delivers more speed by serving data to multiple devices at once. Where are these speeds?

Frustratingly though, coverage across the home was quite good and did envelop the home in Wi-Fi signal. We did not find any dead zones, but we cannot confirm it meets its promise of 15000 sq. ft coverage as it did taper off quite quickly outside the four walls of the modest test home. After again being met with these frustrations, we did turn to their website for documented support only to find a plethora of “page not found” messages and when we examined the many reviews on Amazon we were met with other users having an equally frustrating experience with many complaining that their request for support fell on deaf ears and devices suddenly died just 6-9 months of ownership.

Look, we are usually positive about most of the items that come our way but if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck we will call it as it is. The Amped ALLY PLUS home Wi-Fi system is not the one you should buy, despite the price. We would like to believe that all our issues were just related to our experience alone, but clearly it wasn’t and that should be all the proof you need as a consumer.

PS – If the folks at Amped Wireless would like us to change our opinion on this one, feel free to get back to us and we will update the review!

For more information check out www.ampedwireless.com