[SOLVED] Which WiFi 6 router will be best ?

[Jtparso]

My isp recently upgraded me to fiber optic and my connection is 1Gig download and 1Gig upload. Speed test shows I’m getting 945mbps download and 935mbps upload on wired connection and wifi is running 450 to 505 down and 350 up. My current router is a tp-link ax1500. My daily devices used are 2 iPhones, and a iPad on the wifi and two desktops and an Xbox on the wired connection. My house is roughly 1600 sqft. I’m looking at two different routers I want to upgrade to. My question is which one would provide me a more powerful signal throughout the house and possibly into my back yard and increase my wifi speed. Also all of my Ethernet cords are cat6A.

https://www.asus.com/us/Networking-IoT-Servers/WiFi-Routers/ASUS-WiFi-Routers/RT-AX56U/
or
https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/archer-ax4400/

 

[bill001g]

The distance the signal goes is a function of transmit power. This is regulated by the government and most routers transmit at the legal maximum. End device many times do not to save battery power so coverage issues are generally caused by the end device more than the router.

What confuses this is when people combine the concept of distance the signal goes, ie db level, and how fast you can transfer data. Very technically a older router that uses a much simpler data encoding would get a signal that goes farther but because it is simpler it is much slower. Many the really dense data encoding things like qam1024 used on the newest routers will only work in the same room many times.

So in general all routers have the same coverage because the measurement of signal level is very clearly defined but when you insert speed there is no comparison because every vendor will pick some combination that works best for them.

In general most people see very little difference between wifi6 and wifi5 (802.11ac). In some cases 802.11ac can be faster than some of the lower end wifi6 routers. The key reason for this is that many routers and a huge number of portable end devices only support 80mhz radio channels.
The ability to use 160mhz radio channels is the key thing that makes wifi6 much faster. The problem is there are all kinds of weather radar avoidance rules so many devices do not want to support the complexity of complying with the regulations. Also even when you do have devices that can use 160mhz radio channels you have increased your interference with the neighbors. The other big thing that wifi6 has over old stuff is using QaM1024 data encoding. Unfortunately this encoding needs almost perfect radio signal so it many times will not function outside the same room.

Since you already have a basic wifi6 router I doubt you will see much difference. The second router you list support 160mhz radio channels but your end devices likely do not.

If you need more radio coverage you are better off running ethernet cable to remote rooms and using a second router as a AP. Maybe more the question is why you would need more than you have already. Other than getting better speedtest numbers is there a actual application that will run better. You are already getting faster than many people get. Pretty much you only need very fast speeds when you are downloading huge files and portable device do not have much data storage to start.

Now if you really just need to spend your money on something your best option is to look at the newer wifi6e routers. These have the potential to be much faster. They use exactly the same data encoding as wifi6 but they can function on the 6g radio band. There is a massive amount of new bandwidth so it should be possible for mulitple neighbors to co-exist using 160mhz radio bands and not overlap as much. This stuff is really new so not a lot of end devices support it. It will likely be a couple years before we know how well it works in real houses. It took a long time for before we found out wifi6 was not all they promised because you could not compare lab results to real life.

 

[gggplaya]

Your wifi speeds won't improve much with WIFI 6. Probably less than 100mbps improvement.

If you want fast wifi, get WIFI 6E which can use 6ghz and take advantage of 160mhz channels. The range will be limited with 6ghz, but if you can pick up that signal, it'll be twice as fast as you get now.

Many new devices coming out have or will have WIFI 6E.