TP-Link Announces Two Wi-Fi 6 Routers

[thiggins]

TP-Link yesterday unveiled a pair of draft 802.11ax routers, both based on Broadcom's draft 11ax platform.

The Archer AX6000 (shown above) and Archer AX11000 compete with draft AX products already announced by ASUS and NETGEAR, but bring some unique features to the market.

The Archer AX6000 is spec'd to support maximum link rates of 1148 Mbps in 2.4 GHz and 4804 Mbps in 5 GHz when used with four-stream draft 802.11ax devices. It runs on a 1.8 GHz quad-core Broadcom CPU backed by 1 GB of RAM and a surprisingly small 128 MB of flash. It competes with ASUS' RT-AX88U and NETGEAR's RAX80.​

The Archer AX11000 is a tri-band design with a second 5 GHz radio. It competes most directly with ASUS' ROG Rapture GT-AX11000, which is also a three-radio draft 11ax product. Although NETGEAR's Qualcomm-based RAX120 is also billed as AX11000 class, it's not tri-band.

​

Both products have a single 100/1000/2500 Mbps Ethernet WAN port, eight port gigabit Ethernet LAN switch and USB 3.0 ports in the usual "A" and newer USB-C formats.

Other common features include Link Aggregation support (LAN ports), Airtime fairness, Smart Connect (Band Steering), DFS channel support, VPN server, Alexa and IFTTT automation support and app-based setup via Bluetooth.

TP-Link is throwing down the gauntlet on pricing, accepting pre-orders on Amazon for the Archer AX6000 at $349.99; $50 below ASUS' RT-AX88U and NETGEAR's RAX80. They are also the first to announce a price for an AX11000 class router, which is $449.99 with "late January 2019" availability.
​

 

[follower]

Why does TP-LINK copy ASUS's or other manufacturers design and everything always? A copycat?

 

[thiggins]

Why does TP-LINK copy ASUS's or other manufacturers design and everything always? A copycat?

Chipset manufacturers provide end-product companies or OEMs with reference designs for their platforms. So there is usually a similarity in products based off those platforms.

The TP-Link designs have differentiating features: BT based setup, 2.5 Gbps WAN port on both models, USB C ports and 8 port switches on both models.

TP-Link was also first to market with AD7200 (60 GHz radio) class router.

 

[Gar]

Why does TP-LINK copy ASUS's or other manufacturers design and everything always? A copycat?

Just not firmware, tplink sux at it, few and far between

 

[Razor512]

I guess I forgot to press reply last time.

TP-link tends to not support their devices with firmware updates for very long, often less than 6 months if you look at their website. https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/download-center

Even for models that were popular for a long time, as soon as a new version comes out, the old version loses support within 3 months. Hopefully that can change in the future, as they make quite good hardware for the money, and it is mainly the short firmware support cycles that holds them back.

 

[sanke1]

For best firmware support, ASUS is the No. 1 choice. Look at RT-AC68U. It is still getting updates even after 5 years.
TP-Link does not understand what software support means.

 

[RMerlin]

I want to buy this but unfortunately it is very expensive

Expect all Wifi 6 routers to be very expensive products throughout 2019, as these are not aimed at the general market, but the high-end enthusiast market.

 

[sfx2000]

Expect all Wifi 6 routers to be very expensive products throughout 2019, as these are not aimed at the general market, but the high-end enthusiast market.

Which means the first vendor that hits $160-200 USD range is going to probably be fairly successful...

 

[RMerlin]

Which means the first vendor that hits $160-200 USD range is going to probably be fairly successful...

I'd be curious to know how much BCM asks for their stack (CPU + wifi SoC). CPU must not be that expensive, seeing how the RT-AC86 U has been dropping in price. A dual core BCM4906 would work just fine with a mid-range model.