AX86U range compared to my old AC87U

[MJW75]

Hi All. Will the range of a AX86U be as good as or better than my AC87U?

I've had my AC87U For many many years and it has been great. The key reason for buying it was the range. I live in a 100year+ old house with solid walls which really challenges wifi signals. I'm considering a AX86U but I'm having difficulty finding range comparisons. It needs to have at least as good range as the AC87U.

Many thanks.

 

[ColinTaylor]

To begin to answer that question we'd need to know what country you're in.

 

[MJW75]

To begin to answer that question we'd need to know what country you're in.

I'm in the UK.

 

[Adooni]

AX86U is the best router if you want to upgrade it. But if you happy with AC87U why to do it?

in UK you do not have option to by router online and return it in 2weeks if you do not like it? A lot of countries have it even Poland.

 

[MJW75]

Ok - So I bought a AX86U and thought I'd update here in case anyone else searches for this in the future.

I only have 220Mbps internet and my AC87U maxed this out pretty much throughout the house. In my garden about 5m from the rear door, speeds dropped to 25Mbps. At the end of my garden (about 25m long) I had no signal. It is worth noting I have a house that is over 100 years old with solid brick walls and some internal solid walls, so difficult for wifi signals.

With the AX86U mounted in the same location, in my garden 5m from my rear door I had max speed (220Mbps). At the end of my garden, I still got 50Mbps.

So in answer to my own question, the range of the AX86U is much better than the AC87U, even though it is a smaller unit with fewer external aerials. It also seems to generate a lot less heat, which is great as the adjacent Mac mini server now runs a bit cooler (and quieter).

 

[SoCalReviews]

This is what many Wifi users still clinging to their old AC/Wifi 5 routers may not understand. The AX/Wifi 6 spec changes don't tell the whole story. In most cases a top rated AX router like the AX86U is going to improve throughput, range, and reliability for all of their older client devices (g, n, ac) and it will allow them to connect to more of them with lower latency and less performance degradation than their older AC router. The differences will be especially noticeable when using 5Ghz.