The router is a fundamental piece to connect to the Internet in our day to day. It is the instrument that we all have in our homes when we have a connection to the network. There are many types, with different characteristics, and that makes us sometimes wonder if it can be interesting to acquire a new one. Normally users have the one given by the operator when contracting the Internet. However, these are not usually very powerful and also over time they may become obsolete. In this article we are going to talk about whether it is worth buying a Wi-Fi 6 router now.
Is a Wi-Fi 6 router worth it?
We already know that this technology is the latest in Wi-Fi. Is it worth a change? Is our router that we already have going to really improve or are the changes not going to be so important and better save that money? We will try to answer these questions in the following paragraphs.
The first thing we want to indicate is that if we are users who connect by cable to the router and if wireless use is anecdotal or very limited to simply using the mobile phone or browsing with a Tablet, the answer could be that it is not worth changing the router. We are not going to squeeze what it offers us and as long as we do not have problems with our connection there is no need to acquire a new one.
Do we have Wi-Fi 6 compatible devices? This is perhaps the main question to decide whether it is worth buying a Wi-Fi 6 router now or not. Keep in mind that it is a new standard and is not excessively implemented today. Therefore in many devices we still could not connect to this standard and enjoy its advantages. It is important, in short, that we take into account if we really have equipment that is compatible.
A case in which it is worth changing the router is if we are going to connect many devices at the same time by Wi-Fi. Compared to its predecessor, Wi-Fi 6 supports more connected devices at the same time, more simultaneous connections. For example, if we are going to play a video in Streaming on a laptop, if we are going to make a video call from a mobile, a download on another computer, watch a video over the Internet on television… All of this can be improved with this technology.
Without a doubt, Wi-Fi 6 technology is something that we will use much more over time. There will be more and more compatible equipment and we will also have more devices connected simultaneously to the network. Therefore, a very important point to keep in mind is that if our current router has problems, if it has already become obsolete and does not work well, it would be advisable to make a higher investment in this type of technology.
How to choose the best router with Wi-Fi 6
When buying a router with Wi-Fi 6, as well as any other model that uses other previous technology, there are certain aspects to consider. We are going to show some of the main ones for general use, for users who also want to make good use of the available resources.
One of the issues to consider is the number of external antennas and, in general, their wireless capacity . We are not talking only about speed, but coverage. It is a reality that today we connect from a large number of different computers. We have mobiles, tablets, laptops, televisions and everything related to the Internet of Things. This means that we do not always connect to the router side. Therefore, wireless coverage is going to be a very important point to analyze.
How many Gigabit Ethernet ports does it have? It will depend on our needs and if we are going to connect a lot of equipment by cable. If so, we must take this into account when choosing a Wi-Fi 6 router or another. The fact of having USB 3.0 ports is also a factor to consider today. Are we going to connect other equipment to the router, such as a hard disk to create a server? If so, this will be important.
Something that some routers have and that many users welcome is having a sleep mode. In this way the energy consumption will be lower. On the other hand, it is necessary to observe aspects such as the technology that it incorporates or the configuration. Whether or not it is compatible with MU-MIMO technology or whether it has Beamforming are aspects to consider. Of course, they are standards that are included within Wi-Fi 6.
If you want to enter the world of Wi-Fi 6 and do it with one of the best value-for-money routers on the market, the ASUS RT-AX88U and ASUS RT-AX58U are very good options.
What Wi-Fi 6 Offers
Now, what does Wi-Fi 6 really offer compared to its predecessors? Logically we are going to expect an improvement in terms of performance and quality. But we are going to talk about some more technical aspects to get an idea of the possible changes that we would have if we decided to change the router.
Without a doubt one of the main advantages is that it has a greater scope . This is a very important thing for users. In many occasions we connect far from the router and this can be a problem. Wi-Fi 6 technology offers improved coverage. It also includes WPA3 encryption. It comes to replace the WPA2 encryption that we saw how it might not be secure in certain circumstances. In this way, it will allow our wireless networks to be more secure and to keep potential intruders away. The theoretical speed is also higher. We talk that with Wi-Fi 6 we could have theoretical speeds of up to 9.6 Gbps. This represents more or less 40% more than Wi-Fi 5. It also has a higher modulation, since it is 1024-QAM by default.
But something key it offers is being able to connect more computers at the same time without losing Wi-Fi speed. This is something that is important already today, but it will be even more so in the medium and long term. We are seeing a significant boom in wireless devices.
The rise of wireless devices
There is no doubt that it is very common today to connect wirelessly with our devices. If we look back, just a few years ago it was normal to connect with a computer by cable to the router. Wireless networks were practically anecdotal. However, this has been changing little by little and today the opposite is normal.
We have a wide range of possibilities to connect wirelessly. We use mobiles, tablets, e-books, televisions … A computer can generally be connected by cable or Wi-Fi, but there are many devices that only connect through wireless networks.
It is what we know as the Internet of Things . They are all the devices that we have in our home designed to interact with each other, navigate and, ultimately, connect to the network. Most of them connect wirelessly to the router. Hence the importance of having a device in good condition and with the capacity for as many connections, as Wi-Fi 6 allows.
In short, with all this that we have mentioned, users will be able to get an idea of whether or not it is really worth buying a router with Wi-Fi 6 now. In the end, as we have seen, it will depend on each user and their needs.
