Is triband going to become the new norm?

[maxbraketorque]

Now that the 6 GHz band is available, I wonder whether ASUS (and other vendors) will focus on making triband the new norm for their affordable performance routers. Will models like the 88U and 86U be transitioned to a triband? Having another high speed band available certainly has value in densely populated areas. Thoughts?

 

[sfx2000]

I think this is also a semantic thing - e.g. older 11ac devices were referred to also as Tri-Brand, even though they were actually dual band with three radios...

At some point - what will we call a device with 2 2.4Ghz radios (one main, one IoT), one or more 5GHz radios and a 6Ghz radio...

I suppose it really comes down to marketing vs technical terms...

 

[RMerlin]

No, because the 6 GHz band is not open in some regions, and a few other regions only partly opened it but with severe restrictions.

The RT-BE88U is already out, and it`s dual band. The RT-BE96U is the tri-band alternative.

Asus has a few other dual band models coming.

 

[maxbraketorque]

The price of a RT-BE96U is definitely way beyond what most people are willing to pay. However, the RT-AXE7800 is affordable. Its not BE, and I have no idea if its a quality product, but it has 6 GHz.

Interestingly, I just read a review of the RT-AXE7800 on Amazon from a reviewer who indicates that they are a professional installer of home wifi networks. The person said that the majority of their customers predominately use the 2.4 GHz frequency range. This seems to negate the notion that people are perceiving that they have congestion challenges on the 5 GHz spectrum.

 

[Tech9]

However, the RT-AXE7800 is affordable.

Overpriced RT-AX58U V2 entry-level hardware with one extra 5GHz radio, actually. Not very popular for this reason. Integrated in BCM6756 SoC 2-stream radios are used for 2.4GHz and 6GHz bands, the extra BCM6715 4-stream radio is used for 5GHz band. Gamers with VR sets on 6GHz go for similar specs Archer AXE75, Amazon USA price today $152. RT-AXE7800 is $245 and on sale price.

 

[Squall Leonhart]

asus are too gutless to commit.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Overpriced RT-AX58U V2 entry-level hardware with one extra 5GHz radio, actually. Not very popular for this reason. Integrated in BCM6756 SoC 2-stream radios are used for 2.4GHz and 6GHz bands, the extra BCM6715 4-stream radio is used for 5GHz band. Gamers with VR sets on 6GHz go for similar specs Archer AXE75, Amazon USA price today $152. RT-AXE7800 is $245 and on sale price.

Thanks. I was wondering if 2 bands on 1 chip is possible.

 

[sfx2000]

Overpriced RT-AX58U V2 entry-level hardware with one extra 5GHz radio, actually. Not very popular for this reason. Integrated in BCM6756 SoC 2-stream radios are used for 2.4GHz and 6GHz bands, the extra BCM6715 4-stream radio is used for 5GHz band. Gamers with VR sets on 6GHz go for similar specs Archer AXE75, Amazon USA price today $152. RT-AXE7800 is $245 and on sale price.

Case in point - Marketing has truly made choices hard for the consumer...

 

[sfx2000]

At some point - what will we call a device with 2 2.4Ghz radios (one main, one IoT), one or more 5GHz radios and a 6Ghz radio...

@RMerlin - we'll sooner or later get to that Broadcom Penta-Core solution - recall the hype there?

Marketing - Yay, we know it isn't, would you like a tchotchke?

 

[cookies]

Some thoughts, I've been back and forth on this but mostly concluded that 6GHz isn't that important yet. The only thing I can think of for myself is streaming to my VR headset. For those people I've set up WiFi for they wouldn't even need 6GHz for VR as they don't stream from PC to it.

At the same time though, arguably 6GHz on Wifi6 (meaning Wifi6E) arguably does make more of a difference for some users than WiFi7 as it raises the speed ceiling more than WiFi7 on 5GHz. But neither is super important for the vast majority of people yet. Trying to cover a larger or difficult layout house/apartment will not benefit much from 6GHz (very limited range), but maybe a little from WiFi7 packaging data more efficiently (on 2.4 and 5GHz). And I haven't even talked about client support. If you're in the market for a new router for other reasons, all of this is a bit of an annoyance, as you don't really get much more for your money now than 2 or 4 years ago, the solid WiFi6 routers have just gradually declined a little in price while the WiFi7 ones just push higher.

As for other specs, there are advantages though. 2GB RAM on the most expensive of new routers (BE 88/96/98 and up), a faster SoC (but I made a thread on SoC/RAM in the General Discussion forum and turns out arguably that doesn't make that much of a difference either). Then there is new firmware that will get updates for longer (this is definitely important), and there is also typically more than one 2.5GBit Ethernet port which makes it possible to finally network at higher than 1Gbit.

I'm basically waiting it out, its all a bit 'meh'. I was initially tempted to get the BE86U but turned out in the end that Asus just decided to check way too few of the above mentioned checkboxes.