Router Advice Needed

[Cyn]

The title is bit confusing, let me clarify everything, I'm trying to find a good fancy budget friendly router. But I wanted to try out the latest out there as well. So during the sales I tried out couple of things and bought a few routers and so far these are my observations.

1. Asus Blue Cave - This is a mess, it heats up and the 2.4GHz is a dropping. Intel chips are just something to stay away (adding more fuel the fire, my iPhone XS has less coverage than my wife's 6S). Returning first thing.
2. Netgear Nighthawk R6700 - This was solid overall and if you want to just let it run, this would be ideal.
3. Synology MC2200AC - This one is bit of a confusing guy, the best thing about it is the UI, but thats it. Coverage wise, its in average section. This is a Tri-Band router, a common problem I saw on them is at times devices connect to a channel of 5GHz which is slow, this is a problem in the next one as well. I really liked Synology router but feels like its going to haunt me with the coverage.
4. Netgear Orbi - RBR20 - This is a mesh router and the only weakness about it is the tri-band issue. I'm using an old MBP (2012) which doesn't know MU-MIMO, so wondering if thats the case. But coverage wise, this is the winner. But even now the speed dropped to 7Mbps for me and can't load a single webpage.
5. Linksys Velop - Coverage wise, this is lower than Orbi. But need more testing to be done on this one.

Most of them were picked up during the deals season, I felt like the Asus AC86U is a solid router but then when reading about reviews on Amazon, many have said the 2.4GHz died after a couple of months. Its on the expensive side as well ($150 at the moment). I have a feeling I should just drop consumer grade and go for Ubiquiti AP or Amplifi HD. Any thoughts guys?

 

[wesbez]

I’ve got the 86u and have not had the experience you mention. Got mine during Black Friday and it was a good deal. Very solid especially for vpn throughput. Older 5GHZ devices don’t find the SSID. not sure why as yet. Moving from the EOL’d 56u because it’s been big upgrade for me. I’m a fan of ASUS so I’m pretty bias.

 

[Klueless]

I felt like the Asus AC86U is a solid router but then when reading about reviews on Amazon, many have said the 2.4GHz died after a couple of months.

I bought two (two locations). Like you said, one of the 2.4's died after a couple of months. Turned the 2.4 radio off and on then rebooted. Knock on wood it's been running ever since (about two months now). The other one's been rock solid for six months now.

 

[Scotts1986]

I’ve been using 3 AMPLIFI HD routers for a few years now and setup a bunch of others for friends and family and have been impressed with them. If your still looking for a router I would give the AMPLIFI HD a shot.