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GT-AX11000's 5GHz-1 is much weaker than 5GHz-2?

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Invisible Boy

Regular Contributor
I just bought a brand new GT-AX11000 (A1.1) Canadian version and everything works fine, except 5GHz-1 (lower band) is significantly weaker than 5GHz-2 (upper band). I have tried all configurations that I can think of but 5GHz-1 is consistently 15-20dBm weaker at any distance (Windows laptops or Android devices). To make sure it's not the interference from my neighbours, I put my phone right on top of the router and there is a 18dBm difference as shown in the screenshot. I have tried the latest official and Merlin FW with identical results. I have found a thread where 5 owners shared the same experience but wonder why, especially when there are other GT-AX11000 owners said their 5GHz-1 is actually stronger than 5GHz-2.

Also, there is no 160MHz option for 5GHz-2. Is it a Canadian thing? Thanks in advance.
 

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It's all due to the Canadian spectrum laws.
This website has the power limits on each band. 36-48 are limited to 200mW, 5 times lower than 149-165. So it`s normal that 5G1 is weaker than 5G2 149-165. Now, on the bright side, 52-64 has a much higher EIRP than 36-48. So, if you're using 80MHz bandwidths, it might be the better 5G1 option, but with the DFS inconvenience.
As for 160MHz, Canada only has one options in the 5GHz spectrum: 36-64.
 
Thank you so much for the answer finally as I was unable to find any rational explanation even from ASUS. If I knew this ahead of time, I might go for the AX86U instead which seems to be superior to the AX11000 in every way according to many reviews. Rather strange consider the price difference.
 
AX11000 is tri-band, so I guess the price difference is due to the having more bandwidth if you need to manage 100's of devices. On that note, the AX86S is currently on special and with an additional coupon on canadacomputers at 270 CAD if you don't need the 4 cores in the AX86U. I think the 2-core vs 4-core is the only difference.

I just find that the AX86U is still relatively expensive in Canada vs the AX11000, 360 CAD vs 450 CAD. In the US, I think it's currently 250 USD vs 450 USD.
 
I think the AX86U is about C$50+ more expensive than when it was first released if my memory serves me right. I don't actually need more processing power as my family has a dozen connected devices only. I was hoping the AX11000 would provide much better coverage, especially wall penetration but the improvement is minimal against my AC68U A2.
The only reason I am keeping it is that it was paid for by the employee benefit due to the pandemic. I am curious on AX86U's WiFi performance against the AC68U and AX11000 but I don't want to toy with brand new goods at the expense of the retailers so I will leave it as is.
 
You can use the SNB chart for the AC68U in the review and compare it with the chart for the AX88U non-review (which contains the numbers for AX86U). (edit, just noticed that the AC68U link only had 2.4GHz data, this one has 5GHz data)
 

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