Wi-Fi 6E arrives at CES 2021

Wi-Fi 6E is coming very slowly to a product near you. The Wi-Fi Alliance started certifying devices on January 7, and CES 2021 saw many product announcements related to the launch of Wi-Fi 6E.

Wi-Fi 6E, if you haven’t already, is a new Wi-Fi standard that was approved by the FCC last year. While Wi-Fi 6 (without “and”, also known as 802.11ax) is a lot of technical improvements aimed primarily at more efficient use of the existing spectrum, Wi-Fi 6E focuses on expanding Wi-Fi to a newly released spectrum piece. Previously, Wi-Fi worked only on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrum, but Wi-Fi 6E uses the 6 GHz spectrum. In the United States, 6E has a large chunk of continuous spectrum – 1200 MHz. Previously, 5 GHz offered only 140 MHz of useful spectrum, not DFS, and 2.4 GHz had only 70 MHz of very crowded spectrum, which is vulnerable to microwaves and other interference.

Neither Wi-Fi 6 nor Wi-Fi 6E is for speed – both are more for dealing with Wi-Fi capacity problems, which often arise in apartment buildings and large public meetings. If your Wi-Fi is awful due to crowded air waves in a densely populated area, Wi-Fi 6E can greatly improve wireless performance. However, entering Wi-Fi 6E will mean buying new customers and new access points, hence this summary article.

The highest profile device at CES was the Samsung Galaxy S21, and while the cheaper variants don’t have Wi-Fi 6E, the $ 1,200 “Ultra” model does, and by most accounts, is “the first Wi-Fi 6E in the phone world. ” Expect this trend to continue for most Android phones in 2021. Wi-Fi 6E is an option on the Snapdragon 888 SoC that will end on most major devices, and you will likely see the most expensive models embracing it.

Wi-Fi 6E is coming to laptops too. MSI’s GE76 Raider looks like it will be the first Wi-Fi 6E laptop, thanks to Intel’s AX210 Wi-Fi card. By the way, the Intel AX210 card is for sale to users, so you can upgrade most desktops and laptops to Wi-Fi 6E, right now, with a complementary card. Customers are arriving, so what we need are Wi-Fi 6E access points, or “routers”, when you’re talking about complete consumer network equipment. Most major consumer network brands appeared at CES with a Wi-Fi 6E router to show off.

The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000

We are starting with the router closest to reaching general availability: the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000. This was announced in September as the “world’s first 6E Wi-Fi gaming router”, but it finally had a launch window: January 2021. Newegg currently has it for pre-order for $ 549.99 with a release date on January 29, but some reports say the router is already being shipped. Like many “gaming” routers, the GT-AXE1100 has a crazy design that looks like it can turn and start walking like a spider at any time.

In addition to the usual 4x gigabit LAN ports on the rear and a gigabit WAN port, there is also an extra 2.5 Gbps port on the rear, which you can configure for WAN or LAN. A 2.5 gig WAN port sounds like it would be more and more useful in the future, but I don’t think there are modems for consumers who can take advantage of it yet. Comcast has a 2 Gbps service, but it appears to depend on modems that can link aggregate across two gigabit Ethernet ports. Google has a very limited 2 Gbps Internet service, but it comes with its own network equipment and, according to the registration page, “customers will not be able to use their own router”. Plan the future, I think!

Most of the specifications for these routers only reiterate the standard features of Wi-Fi 6 / 6E, but Asus lists a 1.8 GHz 64-bit Quad-core CPU with 1 GB of RAM, which looks like it can handle a lot traffic without decreasing. The router supports 4×4 MU-MIMO for 5 GHz and 6 GHz, for a theoretical maximum speed of 4.8 Gbps. There are also two USB 3.2 ports on the side for a cheap NAS configuration.

Netgear Nighthawk AXE11000

Asking for permission to fit in the stellar base, it is the Netgear Nighthawk AXE11000 Wi-Fi Router. The Nighthawk seems to meet all the specifications of the Asus router, but it costs $ 50 more: an incredible $ 599.99.

Stop me if that sounds familiar: a 1.8 GHz quad-core processor and a gig memory, 4×4 MU-MIMO for 5 GHz and 6 GHz, two USB 3.0 ports, gigabit WAN, 4 gigabit LAN and a 2.5 gig port for WAN or LAN. Like the Asus router, there are eight antennas, but instead of the spider design, four antennas live on each wing tip.

Netgear’s entry for the Wi-Fi 6E router contest is pre-order now, with availability estimated on March 15.

The Linksys AXE8400

If you’ve ever wondered what a white Xbox Series X would look like, check out the Linksys AXE8400. This is easily the least crazy design of the new Wi-Fi 6E routers, and as placing a router in a visible, centralized location is one of the best things you can do for connectivity, this can be a big deal for you. (Curiosity: this Linksys design dates back to at least 2018 and, therefore, is much older than the new Xbox! There’s even an older version that comes in black, if you’ve always wanted a mini-me version of Microsoft’s gaming console. )

Linksys has the distinction of being a mesh router and costs $ 449.99 for a pack of 1, $ 849.99 for a pack of 2 and $ 1,199.99 for a pack of 3. The Linksys press release lists the US release date as “Spring / Summer 2021” with “global availability to follow in the second half of 2021”. Fabric routers have the potential to benefit more quickly from the opening of the 6 GHz spectrum, since could use 6 GHz for backhaul between access points, releasing 5 GHz exclusively for client connections.

With no public data sheet yet, few important details are provided about the AXE8400 at this time. Just by the pictures, there are four LAN ports on the rear of indeterminate speed, along with a single USB 3.x port. The WAN port is labeled “Internet 5 Gbps”, so it looks like Linksys is really ready for modems with multi-gigabit ports, if they are produced.

The only interesting technology specification that Linksys is now publishing is that the AXE8400 has a “Qualcomm Networking Pro 1210” chipset at its heart, the platform Qualcomm has designated for companies looking to build a 6E Wi-Fi router. This is a Cortex A53 2.2 Ghz quad-core chip, built on 14 nm process technology.

The Linksys website is also publicizing what appears to be a non-meshed 6E Wi-Fi router, but we don’t have a name for it yet.

TP-Link brought an SFP + port to the party ?!

Finally, without a release date or price, we have a pair of TP-Link routers. First, the TP-Link Archer AX206, which has Wi-Fi 6E with 4 × 4 MU-MIMO. What’s interesting here are some serious wired network options. It is a pity that TP-Link provided only a single aerial image, because the back of this thing looks very busy: a USB-C port, a USB-A port, four gigabit Ethernet ports, a 2 WAN / LAN port , 5 Gbps, a 10 Gbps WAN / LAN Port and, when you want to get really seriously, a 10 Gbps SFP + WAN / LAN port, for a fiber optic connection. Wow.

The SFP + port draws attention, but I cannot say that I really understand the market segmentation here. SFP + ports are typically used for backhaul on business-style networks (or in the home lab crowd) to connect one device in your network rack to another. I can’t imagine a Rackmount-American wanting to touch one of those consumer plastic combo boxes with a 3-meter mast. I have a hard time imagining selling a ~ $ 40 fiber optic cable to a network enthusiast, and even if you could do that, TP-Link’s consumer division does not sell any other SFP + equipment. In a world where we can’t even get modem manufacturers to go beyond gigabit Ethernet, what should a normal person do with an SPF + port? I think more options are always better, but we’ll have to see what the price of these chic and questionably useful extras is.

Finally, from TP-Link is the Archer AX96 and, although again, there is no price or release date, it looks like it will be a cheaper Wi-Fi 6E router. The main tip is the speed rate for the 6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E, which reaches only “2402 Mbps”, which indicates that this router does only 2×2 MIMO in the 6 GHz spectrum, or half the speed of Asus routers and Netgear. 5GHz still looks like 4×4 MIMO, so this router would allow a small step to 6GHz.

At the rear (again, there are no photos), there are 2.5 Gbps and 1 Gbps WAN / LAN ports, three 1 Gbps LAN ports, a USB 3 port and a USB 2 port.

Asus listing image