WiFi 6 routers are becoming more and more common. Throughout 2021, its price has plummeted, and it has been easy to find models for less than 30 euros from brands such as HUAWEI, HONOR or Tenda . However, there are some WiFi 6 routers on the market that are slower than some WiFi 5.
When buying a router, it is currently highly recommended to look at whether the router has WiFi 6. With this new standard we have many new features at the network level, including a more efficient use of the spectrum, higher speed and greater range, and the possibility of using WPA3 as encryption to better protect our connection. The problem is that the presence of WiFi 6 is not the only factor that we must analyze.
WiFi 6 is more efficient using the same spectrum
For example, it is not uncommon to go to stores like Amazon and find WiFi 6 routers with a maximum speed of 1,800 Mbps. This is the case with the Tenda RX3 (53.53 euros) or the ASUS RT-AX55 (79.99 euros). In both models, the theoretical maximum speed is up to 574 Mbps in 2.4 GHz, and 1,200 Mbps in 5 GHz. Other cheap routers with WiFi 6 reach speeds of up to 3,000 Mbps , such as the HUAWEI WiFi AX3 (34.90 euros) .
However, when looking for a WiFi 5 router , you are likely to find speeds that are very similar to those achieved by some of these models, and even higher. For example, the TP-Link Archer C80 reaches theoretical maximum speeds of 1,900 Mbps , with 600 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band, and 1,300 Mbps in the 5 GHz band.
The speed of the router is influenced by several factors. A speed such as 1,800 Mbps indicates that it is the maximum that the router can offer when we are close to it and uses both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. To that we must add the MU-MIMO (which is usually 2 × 2, 3 × 3, 4 × 4, etc). With MU-MIMO, we find the number of transmitting and receiving antennas that each router has, and therefore the amount of simultaneous streams that it can handle.
Buy a WiFi 6 router whenever you can
Therefore, a WiFi 5 router with MU-MIMO 4 × 4 can be faster than one with WiFi 6 and MU-MIMO 2 × 2, since it can handle more streams at the same time; although it does not do it with such spectral efficiency. What we do find with WiFi 6 is that the minimum speed of these routers is 1,800 Mbps, while with WiFi 5, the minimum speed reached by the cheapest models was 1,200 Mbps.
Therefore, at the same price, we now have higher speeds, in addition to the rest of the improvements that this standard provides . Thus, it is highly recommended to buy a router with WiFi 6 connectivity, since, although it is a little more expensive than a WiFi 5, we will guarantee to have the latest functions and news offered by the wireless connectivity standard.