Until not so long ago, buy a new one router It was about having to choose between the slightly more standard models that supported Wi-Fi 5 mode, or opting for the latest Wi-Fi 6 with a higher speed. There were reasonable arguments for choosing one or the other.
However, the two standards that already existed have been joined by a third option called Wi-Fi 6E, which the industry has dubbed “the biggest Wi-Fi system update in two decades.”
Based on this, most users who decide to purchase a new router for their homes, they find themselves in the position of having to decide which mode is best for each case, with brands such as TP-Link, Netgear, Asus, AVM, D-Link and a long etcetera.
If you’re trying to expand your wireless coverage or eliminate dead zones in your home, here’s what you need to know about today’s connections.
Why Wi-Fi 5 is still important
The Wi-Fi 5 standard, known as 802.11ac before the industry started branding its standards as Apple names its iPhones, was released in 2013 but is still available in routers today. low price. It’s also always a good option for two reasons:
First off, there’s no inherent difference in reception range between Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6, so you might be able to get comparable coverage with a router a lot less expensive.
Amazon’s Eero three-pack with Wi-Fi 6, for example, costs $119 with coverage of up to 140m2. However, if you opt for the Eero 6+ model, the price increases by another $30.
If what you are looking for is maximum speed and extension, you should contribute for the
If you’re just trying to extend coverage or eliminate dead zones in your home, buying the best Wi-Fi 5 system may make more sense than getting a Wi-Fi 6 system in the same price range, because this would give you faster speeds. but without getting your money’s worth.
Also, most of your connected devices at home are probably still using Wi-Fi 5 mode. Intel-based Macs, as well as pre-mid 2019 PCs.
A note here is that if you are purchasing a router mesh, you may see them advertised as “dual-band” or “tri-band”. With tri-band systems, the mesh points have their own dedicated communication line, separate from those transmitting data to your devices.
This results in less congestion and better speeds. Yet this feature is also not exclusive to Wi-Fi 6. A more robust tri-band Wi-Fi 5 system with backhaul may be a better and cheaper option than a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 system.
Where does Wi-Fi 6 make the most sense?
Wi-Fi 6 has some advantages over Wi-Fi 5, but you might be able to live without it. If you have a high-speed connection (10 Gbps), you may want to optimize your connection speed.
As network expert Dong Ngo has pointed out, Wi-Fi 6 can reach speeds of around 1000 Mbps in the real world with most devices, while Wi-Fi 5 could reach half that at best. of this speed.
That extra speed won’t matter for services like Netflix, which consumes around 25 Mbps for 4K video, but it could be useful if you’re downloading torrents from the internet, moving large amounts of data between storage drives network or stream from media. local.server.
The other big advantage of Wi-Fi 6 is that it can more efficiently handle many connections at the same time. A new technology called OFDMA is geared towards smart home devices and is useful if you plan to connect a large number of light bulbs and switches to your network.
Wi-Fi 6 also extends a feature called MU-MIMO to downloads, which can be useful during simultaneous Zoom calls or online gaming sessions to balance bandwidth between different demands.
manufacturers of routers They also claim that phones and laptops offer better battery life when using Wi-Fi 6, although I have yet to see any independent tests to quantify this.
They also support increased network security, but unless all of your devices support Wi-Fi 6 in their specs, you won’t get that extra protection.
Of course some routers Wi-Fi 6 users benefit from additional features not directly related to the standard itself, such as better designed antennas or more powerful processors.
(We discovered, for example, that the router Archer AX50 TP-Link Wi-Fi 6A better performance and range that he Archer A7 with WiFi 5). Still, Wi-Fi 6 alone doesn’t guarantee better reception, and its speed gains won’t be noticeable in most internet use cases.
It’s still early days for Wi-Fi 6E
On the table, Wi-Fi 6E is a big deal because it adds an additional new frequency band to the routers domestic for the first time in over a decade. So the routers Current Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 offer two bands to minimize congestion.
On the one hand, there’s the 2.4 GHz band, which offers slower speeds in exchange for a higher coverage range. On the other hand, the 5 GHz band, which offers faster speeds in a shorter coverage range.
The router it can automatically split connections between the two bands, or it can show them as separate networks, letting you manually assign devices to each.
To add to the confusion, 5GHz bands are often labeled “5G” out of the box, even though they have nothing to do with your phone’s 5G network.
Wifi 6E adds a 6 GHz band to the previous ones, further reducing congestion and allowing speeds rarely possible on the 5 GHz band. But there is a big downside: its range is even shorter than the 5 GHz band.
This should improve over time with better hardware and even newer Wi-Fi standards, but for now the tests of CBS found no noticeable speed gains for Wi-Fi 6E over short distances and steep drops over longer distances.
Meanwhile, current Wi-Fi 6E hardware is expensive: The new Wi-Fi 6E mesh system from Net Gear costs the modest sum of $1,699, and even the router Most basic Wi-Fi 6E in TP link Its price is $300, money that would be much better spent on a mesh system with Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6.
Additionally, support for Wi-Fi 6E devices is currently limited to Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra and S22 Ultra, as well as a handful of lesser-known phones and a small number of laptops.
(Wi-Fi 6E rumors on the iPhone 14 did not materialize.) While other devices will still be able to connect to routers wifi 6E, the vast majority will still not be able to take advantage of the additional band that it costs you to acquire in a router much more expensive.
None of this means you have to skimp on quality when replacing a router ancient. I’ve found that older or low-speed routers tend to be the source of most Wi-Fi issues, but be sure to invest in the features that really matter.
Discover our special classification of best routers of the year.
Original article published in TechAdvisor.com.