Are the new RT-BE96U / GT-BE98_PRO really worth it over my current Asus RT-AX88U?

[Tech9]

I would upgrade the router only when I have at least 10 devices 6GHz capable excluding phones and tablets. Otherwise it's like investing in speed tests and accepting beta tester membership. Why paying premium for a router you don't really need today? By the time you actually need it it will burn 2-3 years of support already with 2-3 years at best to EoL. Look at home AIO routers as disposable hardware. No much futureproofing there.

 

[wrink]

I would upgrade the router only when I have at least 10 devices 6GHz capable excluding phones and tablets.

I don't buy that argument of upgrading the router when "at least 10 devices" are 6 GHz capable, when I actively spend more than 90 % of my usage and productive time on my 2 Macbook Airs (one work, another personal) - whose 6 GHz performance in latency and throughput is what I actually care about, within my intranet, from my NAS. I don't care about the 10-15 IoT devices on the 2.4 GHz band. And being in the crowded 5 GHz bands is not proving great on the Macbook Airs. Hence 6 GHz is worth looking into.

While I'm not into buying gear for the sake of it, I'm prepared to invest in worthwhile gains. Which is why I'm doing these explorations across the merlin-supported routers for the best strategy.

 

[Tech9]

Explore and test your luck then. Let us know the results. Best strategy - for guaranteed results high bandwidth devices must be wired.