Decent entry level WiFi 7 router

Comes with 1GB RAM which is very generous and 2.0GHz Quad Core CPU

on sale day sometime i saw be58 asus tuf ax4200 asus tuf ax6000 are in same price bracket around rm400 ish, out of these 3, which one would you recommend

on sale day sometime i saw be58 asus tuf ax4200 asus tuf ax6000 are in same price bracket around rm400 ish, out of these 3, which one would you recommend

RT-AX86U PRO

Thank you, but I searched on Lazada and another one BE86U shows up alongside AX86U Pro.

BE86U is newer so better? Or should I go with AX86U Pro?

Yes it is better but it's also more expensive as well

guys, im looking at wifi 7 routers/mesh alike

2 storeys corner house 28x80
current setup on ax3000 easymesh with ax1800 using RJ45 as backbone.
Issue: One of the bedroom is having issue with drop connection (speedtest is ok but real life usage is a torment)... router is below this room. All other rooms got no issue.

Is ASUS BT8 better or 2 x TPLINK BE805 / BE550 ?

WiFi Alliance and with their WiFi 7 scam
After doing some research about upgrading my own network, I just want to share my findings to everyone about how absurd is WiFi 7. The price difference between product can be a lot and you shall find out why. The main problem is you will never know if the WiFi 7 device you buy actually support any of the things I shall list below.

What you get with WiFi 7
Preamble Puncturing, Multi Resource Unit and bigger Compressed Block Ack.
These are the only 3 thing that is mandatory in certification. Preamble Puncturing and Multi-RU is the fundamental improvement to spectral efficiency. You rarely see anyone talk about them because the speed improvement are from zero to a bit. Yes, it is possible to see absolutely zero improvement in the real world.
They only matter in high interference environment, or during that short beacon period where your neighbor use a broadcast channel that is between your selected spectrum width.

512 MPDU compressed block ack is a double edge sword. It try to save a bit of airtime by doubling the ack period for MPDU. If there is no loss, then you save a tiny bit of airtime. If there is loss, you need to retransmit the whole 512 MPDU and actually get hit with massive latency spike.

WiFi Alliance deliberately hide the fact the specification is incomplete
They already knew from the start there will be at least an Release 1 certification, and Release 2 certification that is coming December, 2025 (end of this year). It feels like 802.11ac Wave 2 all over again. I have no idea what is inside Release 2 so just know that it will appear starting 2026 (next year).

WPA3 and mandatory PMF
If you disable any of these due to compatibility with your IoT or whatever shitty device you have, your WiFi 7 effectively operates as WiFi 6. Not just for the single IoT device, but for everyone.

4k QAM
For the first time in WiFi standard, QAM improvement is optional. Even with 4k QAM, you must have at least 42dB SNR for it to actually work, which is 128x more sensitivity than WiFi 6 (25 dB) !!!
dB is not linear. Every 3dB = 2x. You are free to do the math and correct me.

The old trick of comparing chipset and match them to feature will not work for WiFi 7. I will explain starting from 4k QAM.
For such a high QAM, the amplifier and all frontend components must be linear and distortion free. What each manufacturer put inside their product is up to them. As with amplifier, they won't be perfectly linear and all of them will introduce distortion as EIRP increases.

So don't see that it contains Qualcomm xxx model or Intel yyy model and assume they can do 4k QAM.

MLO
MLO is an operational mode in WiFi 7. The marketing is the one that keep peddling how it will almost double your transmit rate.
Only MLMR mode will do that. Every other mode can't. Guess what? MLMR is an optional feature.

For every device that claim MLO support, which mode do they actually support? This is the real question.

The challenge for MLMR is that if the frontend do not have enough air gap isolation, the signal will interfere with each other. So depending on how manufacturer pack all the components together, there is a chance that it won't work. WiFi 7 requires a totally new way of component placement. For manufacturer that just swap the chipset and retains the PCB layout, this won't fly.

320 MHz channel width
For the first time in WiFi history, doubling of channel width is optional. We have gone from 20MHz to 40, 80, 160 and... 320 is optional.
Every generation of WiFi get their speed predominantly by doubling the channel width. We have reached a point where the channel width is so large now, your neighbor will definitely interfere with you. For the rest of the world where 500 MHz is all there is in 6 GHz, the 320MHz channel is already taking up more than half the spectrum.

If your WiFi 7 device is cheap, it probably cannot do 6 GHz, won't do 320MHz and has the exact same performance as WiFi 6.

EDIT:
Decide to page people who is known to be interested in WiFi 7
tng55 QuantumEdge cyberic

Too bad... we can't use the UNII-7/8 (Upper 6 GHz) band between 6525 and 7125 MHz because these are restricted or reserved by MCMC, especially for future IMT-2030 plan (Sub-6G and clause inclusion for WAS/RLAN/WIFI). Otherwise, we could enjoy the full 1200 MHz range of the Pro or BE30000 version of ZenWiFi BQ16 and ROG Rapture GT-BE98.


Image source Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/1dbd...a_asus_be30000/

From MCMC Spectrum Plan 2022 (snippets for fair use of discussion only)






https://mentor.ieee.org/802.18/dcn/21/18-21...-6ghz-band.docx

https://dynamicspectrumalliance.org/wp-cont...-6-GHz-band.pdf
Strategic Communications and Multimedia Technology Roadmap 2025–2030 (MyTMAP2030)
https://mtsfb.org.my/wp-content/uploads/202..._compressed.pdf

IMT-2030


https://unidir.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/...nd-IMT-2030.pdf

https://www.asus.com/my/support/faq/1051272...20than%20before.

We are following EU.
In USA now, incumbent is fighting inside FCC to take back half the band.
It's a highly contested band given it has great balance between low cost and high capacity.

In the foreseeable future, maybe WiFi Alliance need to bring in 60Ghz to continue increasing speed.
I mean yes there's technology advancement. But foundational improvement comes slowly. You won't see the kind of improvement where they can get by just doubling of channel width anymore.

I actually had the chance of testing the Talon AD7200 from TP-Link which comes with the 802.11ad 60GHz standard.

I would say it's pretty useless in reality, range is so limited which you might as well use a cable at that point.

The good thing is the OEMs still manage to squeeze more performance out of 5GHz. Many high-end WiFi 7 routers I tested manage to deliver 10-20% throughput improvement on the 5GHz band even for my older WiFi 6 clients  (iPhone 12 Pro). The argument of WiFi 7 routers don't benefit WiFi 6 device is invalid.

And a lot of people did not consider the loaded latency which improved significantly on WiFi 7. This means WiFi calls and latency sensitive apps like WiFi gaming and LIVE streaming will be much smoother and this benefit older devices as well.

What you said is indeed true.
At least in the coming WiFi 8, the advertised speed is the same as WiFi 7. But I don't see how this will go on forever considering they already maxed out the channel width. Maybe they will further segment it with 320+80 or something.

I would say the speed improvement is due to better frontend hardware. Lower distortion, more linear amplifier, different way of component placement leading to better shielding against self interference.

This will bump up MCS so older device works better. If OEM use the same frontend and swap to WiFi 6 SoC, I believe performance will be similar. This is especially true for router that support 4k QAM.

Still, 4k QAM is optional. There's a chance you see zero improvement.

Look, the bottom line is that old Wi-Fi is full of traffic jams. 😩

We used to just plug in a router and expect Wi-Fi to deliver the internet speed we paid for. But now, with everyone streaming 4K and running 50 smart devices, the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands are totally clogged.

The 6 GHz band (used by Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7) is basically a brand-new, empty highway. It’s designed to let your router handle way more traffic without slowing everything down. It’s about capacity—not just raw speed.

The latest gear, like Wi-Fi 7 with its 320 MHz super-wide lanes, is built to prevent your Wi-Fi from being the weakest link in your setup—especially if you have fast fiber internet or use devices like VR headsets that demand flawless connections.

So no, the upgrade isn’t just a marketing gimmick. It’s a real solution to congested networks. 👍

I think you need to read my post again.
I explicitly call out WiFi 7 spec due to all the OPTIONAL features.

As a consumer you suddenly need to know all these thing to get the full benefits of WiFi 7. It used to be that you buy a WiFi 5 or WiFi 6 gear and expect them to perform better.

Not with WiFi 7. I never say 6GHz is a scam. But not all WiFi 7 has 6Ghz.
Same goes for 320Mhz, 4k QAM, MLO. They are all OPTIONAL

My bad, you nailed it 100%. 🤦‍♂️

That's the entire problem with Wi-Fi 7 right now: It's a huge asterisk.

It used to be simple: Wi-Fi 6 meant better performance. Now, WiFi 7 is a checkbox menu for manufacturers.

You buy a router expecting that blazing speed and the new 6 GHz band, only to find out those features, the 320 MHz channels, the 4K QAM, and the MLO, are all "optional"

You suddenly have to be a spectrum regulator just to make sure the "WiFi7" badge on the box is actually worth anything.

For us in Malaysia, it's double trouble: Even if you buy the most expensive router that does include all those features (like the BE30000/Pro version with two 6 GHz radios), our local rules force them to disable half the 6 GHz band anyway.

So you're paying a huge premium for optional features that you can't even legally use here. It’s a consumer minefield.

What you said is indeed true.
At least in the coming WiFi 8, the advertised speed is the same as WiFi 7. But I don't see how this will go on forever considering they already maxed out the channel width. Maybe they will further segment it with 320+80 or something.

I would say the speed improvement is due to better frontend hardware. Lower distortion, more linear amplifier, different way of component placement leading to better shielding against self interference.

This will bump up MCS so older device works better. If OEM use the same frontend and swap to WiFi 6 SoC, I believe performance will be similar. This is especially true for router that support 4k QAM.

Still, 4k QAM is optional. There's a chance you see zero improvement.

Yup, the most important differentiation factor would be the RF components now. Most consumer routers will choose off the shelf components from Qorvo / Skyworks and etc combined with their own antenna and RF algorithm

You only see specialized RF components on enterprise AP but that's done to improve capacity rather than maximum throughput.

In fact, consumer gear often outperforms enterprise AP in single device peak throughput as they want to look good on benchmark

However, I would say every WiFi 7 routers will support 4K QAM. Saying 4K QAM is optional on WiFi 7 is misleading.

I am merely stating the fact that 4k QAM is optional during WiFi 7 certification. This by itself is not misleading.
My list is extremely specific. I do not think I write anything fuzzy to mislead anyone.

I don't doubt when you said  WiFi 7 router have them, since you review a lot of them.
There remains a lot of question if all endpoint device will have them as well. Both the router and endpoint must be able to do 4k QAM for optimal performance.

As time goes by, will there be low cost router that don't have them is also a question.

If indeed every devices can have 4k QAM, then WiFi Alliance should mark it as a mandatory feature for certification.
Until that happens, there is a non-zero chance this feature is missing.