BE Wi-Fi 7 - Replacement for AX68/AX86 Series?

[Dezzo]

Have they yet announced a model which will be the WiFi 7 equivalent replacement for the RT-AX68U and/or RT-AX86 series?
So far they all seem to be super high end luxury models.

 

[Tech9]

All Wi-Fi 7 routers are tri-band 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz. I don't see compact vertical model like 86-series coming any time soon.

 

[sfx2000]

I would give it some time...

 

[johndoe85]

Have they yet announced a model which will be the WiFi 7 equivalent replacement for the RT-AX68U and/or RT-AX86 series?
So far they all seem to be super high end luxury models.

Im thinking about switching to Ubiquiti and this in specifics.

Ubiquiti UniFi Gateway Lite (router)
Ubiquiti Switch Flex Mini
Ubiquiti UniFi U7 Pro Access Point

 

[glens]

I'm waiting for a wifi 7 model which was introduced well after wifi 7 was actually "ratified". Along with affordable wifi 7 M.2 cards for anything I might be using which doesn't already have wifi 7 capability... (In other words, wifi 6 may well "see me out".)

 

[Tech9]

I'm not waiting for anything Wi-Fi 7. Eventual new clients with Wi-Fi 7 support have to deal with my new Wi-Fi 6 access points.

 

[Dezzo]

All Wi-Fi 7 routers are tri-band 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz. I don't see compact vertical model like 86-series coming any time soon.

Good point. Form factor isn't that important to me, but the 68/86 series has always been the sweet spot for value and features so hopefully they will have a suitable option eventually.

 

[Tech9]

There will be cheaper Wi-Fi 7 home routers, but you'll see Wi-Fi 7 speeds only on paper. I can guarantee available clients with 320MHz wide channel support and MLO will be very few and the range of 6GHz band (especially at wide channel high data rates) will be significantly less than current Wi-Fi 5/6 on 5GHz. Can't beat the physics.

 

[Jepz]

I've replaced my solid AX86u with an AXE16000, most important IMHO is price x performance, paid 359 USD on this WiFi6E router and I do not pretend to migrate to WiFi 7 right now, I don't like to be a beta tester.

 

[Tech9]

paid 359 USD on this WiFi6E router

What AXE16000 class router is $359 new?

 

[Jepz]

What AXE16000 class router is $359 new?

3 months used unit, from a friend who migrated to a be96u unit. I love enthusiasts, they save my money.

 

[Tech9]

3 months used unit

Exactly. This same unit has much worse price/performance purchased new.

 

[Itsjustmd15]

3 months used unit, from a friend who migrated to a be96u unit. I love enthusiasts, they save my money.

Good deal. My family loves that I'm an enthusiast. I just give them my old stuff for free. My parents got my wifi 6 orbi system and my brother got my ax11000s. I like being on the bleeding edge when I can justify it, which is almost always haha.

 

[Dezzo]

Looks like 6E isn't worth upgrading to from WiFi 6.
And 7 is too far off to be realistic at this point, so looks like I'll get another RT-AX68U in the meantime and just stay with WiFi 6.

I was worried about investing any more money into WiFi 6 if 7 was just around the corner, but it seems like it will be a couple of years at least yet before it's something I need to worry about.

 

[L&LD]

While I like and recommend the RT-AX68U, before buying one today, I would look at the price between it and the RT-AX88U Pro. The latter is the one that will easily carry you into Gen 2, WiFi 7 timeframes even if your ISP speeds double from where they may be currently.

 

[Paliv]

Just came across the release note for BE88U in China March 27. Never heard of this site, but it sounds incredibly expensive if the specs are accurate. I'm guessing it'll be 3 years before a good sub $250 wifi 7 model is available, and MAYBE by then I'll have some clients.

 

[RMerlin]

Just came across the release note for BE88U in China March 27. Never heard of this site, but it sounds incredibly expensive if the specs are accurate. I'm guessing it'll be 3 years before a good sub $250 wifi 7 model is available, and MAYBE by then I'll have some clients.

Why would anyone want a Wifi 7 router that lacks 6 GHz support? Might as well stick to a less expensive Wifi 6 router.

 

[Paliv]

Why would anyone want a Wifi 7 router that lacks 6 GHz support? Might as well stick to a less expensive Wifi 6 router.

I'm fairly certain that there is some translation issue going on here. Any mention of this announcement also thinks that AiProtection and other "Ai" branded features that ASUS has had forever are new and enhanced with some new trendy AI tech. So I don't know if their radio specs are correct at all. Nevermind, it seems they identified it as a dual band, I completely missed that though I'm still pretty convinced a bot wrote that article. There are a couple more almost identical ones I found as well as a youtube video with random screenshots of different ASUS routers that has a computer reading out the same text.

 

[Tech9]

Why would anyone want a Wifi 7 router that lacks 6 GHz support?

Marketing driven dual-band Wi-Fi 7 routers are perhaps coming for the countries with no 6GHz Wi-Fi band. About 2/3 of the population of the Earth lives there.

Regulations Enabling 6 GHz Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi Alliance

www.wi-fi.org

 

[RMerlin]

Marketing driven dual-band Wi-Fi 7 routers are perhaps coming for the countries with no 6GHz Wi-Fi band. About 2/3 of the population of the Earth lives there.

Regulations Enabling 6 GHz Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi Alliance

www.wi-fi.org

I know why Asus are selling it. My point was there is little reason for a customer to actually buy it.