Question Urgent router for newbie

[slavi_asenov2002]

Hello All,

I know that there might be some tier lists as in other components but I have kind of limited time to choose a router as I am overhauling the entire apartment (small one 70ish square meters) network - new provider, new devices, reposition of old devices, ppl waiting on me etc.
My internet would be an 800mb/s. I have 2 smart TVs, 2 laptops, 2 PCs, 5-6 phones (more than half are regularly used at the same time)

As far I remember we have always had a TP-Link router (probably since 2006-8), however due to my current one that fried itself, I am currently using a router from early 2010s which barely has Wi Fi signal for half of the apartment.
I have stumbled across 3:
TP-Link Archer AX55 - Archer AX55 at ~75eur
ASUS TUF Gaming AX3000 V2 - 90IG0790-MO3B00 at ~85eur
TP-Link Archer AX73 ~ at 120 eur

The last one is just there to show what is my hard maximum in terms of budget.
Here is the website that I use (its a local retailer as it is near me) - https://ardes.bg/ruteri/ruteri. If none of the provided work, feel free to check it out.
I am not sure about any of them - super mixed reviews + I have never seen an ASUS router or know anyone with 1 + I am not as in touch as how I am with GPUs, CPUS, MBs etc.
I would also understand the argument go with the least expensive all will do the job.

Thanks in advance

 

[bill001g]

A very important thing to remember is the router is only 1/2 the connection. The end device must support any feature that router does. You do not want to pay for feature on the router you can not use. A very common one that pretty much no end device supports is 4x4 mimo. Almost all device..especially portable devices...only have 2 antenna/feeds. There are some 4 antenna cards for desktops but these are rather rare and you really would have to search for them.

Next do not get hung up on speed numbers. Pretty much you only need very fast speeds if you do large amounts of downloading. On a gaming pc for example it would save you time to download very large games like say microsoft flight simulator which is 100gbytes. Playing online games only use 1mbps. Something like watching 4k netflix only need 30mbps and having more bandwidth will not make it run better. Only you can say how much money you should pay chasing bigger number. How much per minute are you willing to pay to download a game faster.

Also do not think that some router with a bigger number on the box gets better coverage in your house. The amout of radio power allowed is the same as it was 20 years ago when wifi first came out. In some ways the newer routers go less distance. This though gets complex fast because it is easy to determine how far the signal goes. When you start to mix the concept of signal levels with how much data you can encode in the signals (ie the speed) it becomes impossible. This is why pretty much every router and claim to be the best and have the best coverage because they are telling half truths.

Most problem with coverage again are the end device. Unlike a router that gets power and can have large antenna portable device will sacrifice performance for portability and battery life.

I would avoid any wifi6 routers. For most people they did not work any better than wifi5. They key feature that makes wifi6 better is the ability to run 160mhz radio bands. Problem is there are so many restrictions on using these wide bands due to rules related to interfering with say weather radar that it is hard to use this feature. Many end devices rather than deal with all the different rules on this issue in all the different countries decided to only support 80mhz bands. wifi5 also support 80mhz bands so you do not get to use the main feature of wifi6.

You might find wifi6e routers in your price range, they have dropped a lot since wifi7 came on the market. wifi6e does run much faster "BUT" only if you have end devices that also support wifi6e so they can use the 6ghz radio band. Devices that do not support it will see no difference.

My guess is any router in the $50 price range would be fine for you. I would plug any gaming machine into the router with a ethernet cable. You should see over 300mbps on most your device with a wifi5 router which should be good enough for almost any application. Most end device match a router that would be called ac1200.

If you have coverage issue the problem is going to be placement of the router. Do not get conned into wifi repeaters or mesh to solve this. Things like MoCA or powerline networks with AP tend to be a better solution. Likely doesn't matter because you are going to be lucky to get just 1 router under your budget not mulitple boxes.

 

[Lutfij]

I am overhauling the entire apartment (small one 70ish square meters) network
In that regards, either of the routers will do. I'd pick up the cheapest router from the list, then hang it up on the wall and out of line of sight from your devices to the wireless router.

 

[slavi_asenov2002]

A very important thing to remember is the router is only 1/2 the connection. The end device must support any feature that router does. You do not want to pay for feature on the router you can not use. A very common one that pretty much no end device supports is 4x4 mimo. Almost all device..especially portable devices...only have 2 antenna/feeds. ...................................

Thanks for the information. I have always looked at the wifi support of devices the same way as the 3g,4g,5g but that is that.

If you have coverage issue the problem is going to be placement of the router.

Yes I will place the router more centrally as currently it is at one corner and the signal has to go through like 5 walls which is impossible, and I will remove the repeater as it was a short term solution.

In that regards, either of the routers will do. I'd pick up the cheapest router from the list, then hang it up on the wall and out of line of sight from your devices to the wireless router.

Yeah I will do that, asked a friend as well and he is satisfied with the Archer AX55.