ULTIMATE Wifi 6 Mesh Router Test Review 

Bro, this was like watching a teacher explaining their science experiment. steps are clearly explained, results are displayed clearly. bro even took average results to show that there weren't any bias for a specific testing session. keep it up. 2 points i wish you will be able to include in your next round of testing would be 1. Comparing against ISP provided routers 2. Choosing the server to test instead of using default - this is because default could mean that Google is choosing the "best" server to connect to and this might change depending on the latency of the servers etc. thanks for the content man

Sincere, unbias and no nonsense review. Indeed a rare stone in the RU-vid community! Keep up the good work!

I've watched several wifi 6 mesh explainers/reviews this week. This is the best of them by a long way. All key concepts explained clearly, concisely and quickly, and the review was similary sharp. Exactly what I have been hunting for. Excellent editing by an exceptionally good content creator. Thank you!

I dont comment much on any video but I really wanted to support what you do here as you are literally the only person who included a proper home layout in your tests. Thanks a lot for this comprehensive test and keep up the great work!

Reading through some of these comments, your thoroughness is rightfully recognized and appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to produce this video comparison - we found it very useful and used it to direct our purchase selection. Cheers to you!

Alex, wifi 6 mesh high speed network coverage area is going smaller than wifi 5 mesh AP. The location of where you put the router is going to be very important. I recommend moving your main router to the center of your house (like your guest rooms near the hallway of your house) with wire connection to your fiber modem near the main door and then place the 2nd AP no more than 5 meter from your main router in the other side of your living room closer to your main door. Place the 3rd AP in the master no more than 5M away from your main router in your guest bedroom since your goal is to get higher speed. If you don’t have cat5e or cat6 cable run to your guest bedroom, most apartment should have wire connection run to the living room. You can place your main router there and then place your other AP closer to main router will increase that back hall speed to the router and then the main router will send the traffic to your fiber modem -> internet. In order to cover dead zone, you will need to get more APs. Keep in mind that wifi 6 doesn’t go through concrete walls as good as wifi 5. In theory, wifi 6 can reach 1G+ speed but I have not seen any good test results even with wifi 6 card with external antenna. Good luck with your wifi 6 deployment

Great video alex! I used to struggle with AC mesh setup(even with 2 x AC5300) as my current place does not have rj45 port in the room, heavily rely on wireless backhaul for node in the room, to do pc desktop gaming, the latency is so bad that i got disconnected from the game and video streaming in the bedroom as weell. After upgrading the XT8 i no longer have all these issue. Speed is amazing even the latency as well! No longer have to suffer all these after the change, For those who struggle with no ethernet backhaul for ur 2nd node, go with AX router mesh! AX is the biggest change from AC!

Yes, for the tech and network savvy, Access Points + wired router/firewall are the way to go. I am achieving your max speed using only AC with 2 APs (1 in Living, 1 in MBR). The roaming on APs are much better too. With multiple IOTs and demand for stable and reliable wifi, I recommend going with the APs setup for new home.

Always found your review thorough. Based on them, bought orbi triband 8x. The next step is setup. Here in Australia, i pay $90 for 100Mbps and get 65Mbps on a good day.

Awesome review! Unbiased and professional - delivered with the beautiful Singapore accent (which I miss a lot after living in Singapore for 3 years - it was great hearing it again). Thanks!

Hei Alex, awesome comparison in including the tri-band routers. Got the Linksys MX4200 in January and have been getting fantastic coverage throughout my unit.

I completely agree with your closing statement about typical reviews. Thank you for putting together this review. I found the information helpful.

Well done sir! Quite literally helped me make a decision on what mesh systems to purchase. Professional clear strait to the point. Well done brutha! Love from the states!

great detail... many thanks! I'm struggling with my decision and conversion to a mesh network. Probably going with the Orbi to support 3500sqft home with 2 floors. My GB plan with Verizon just wasn't being fully used and 2nd floor reception was always struggling for consistent stream. Thank you once again and look forward to more content!

Lifesaver, I’m looking at purchasing a mesh system for my newly purchased 5rm HDB. Really informative! Thank you!

Excellent explainer. In the market for a Mesh setup myself and it's true, it can be a minefield for those who don't take the time to study the speed/bandwidth ratings. Thanks for this.

Nice sum up. Your reviews are often more applicable for us (Singaporean). It's interesting that you mentioned pair XD6(node) to the XT8. Ideally, XD6(dual band) and XT8(triband)....the XD6 if wireless, will "lose" one of its band to connect...its often not recommended to mix them (only for tech ppl).

This is the best comparison I’ve seen by a long shot. Fantastic job!

Hi Alex. Thanks for the video. We no longer use the traditional analog phones. WhatsApp or Zoom calls are much more common now. Did you manage to test out the latency? Are there any packet lost or drops that you experienced?

Thank you once again for an awesome comparison video! Very useful as I’m considering what set up to get for my new place, esp if I want it to be a smart home. Looking forward to your next video!!

Alex, thanks! Just what I needed to help make my decision for my new home setup.

Very good video and comparison overall. The amount of time and energy to test it all is a LOT of work

Hey Alex, thanks for the in depth video. Great job! Much easier to relate since its SG context. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

Really well dont video bro - both is editing and the design of the tests. Extremely well done bro, thanks!

Great review! I like that you mentioned you can mix models.

I personally prefer SDN solutions, like TP-Link Omada system. Much more easy to upgrade and expand since its more business oriented solution.

Great Review! Concise and Unbiased. Love your ID also !

wa wa wa like waiting for movie premiere siol. Excited and looking forward!

I have used multiple different generations of Linksys Velop. They are really easy to work with but they definitely do not last... Always dies within 6-9 months after purchase, 24/7 operation. In contrast, my Google Nest has been hard at work for the last 2 years, only periodically needing restarts. Again, thanks Alex for the awesome video! :D

Hi Alex, good morning to you. I have couple of questions… 1. Are you using a ONT or ONR from SingTel? 2. Do these products consist of a Mesh Router and Mesh Point? Or are these all Mesh Points? Example : In a 2-pack bundle, is it 1 Mesh Router + 1 Mesh Point? In a 3-pack bundle, is it 1 Mesh Router + 2 Mesh Points? 3. Are you also using a SingTel provided wifi router?

Hi Alex, If possible do include ASUS ZenWifi XD6 in the list. With a wired backhaul, this is one of the most powerful 4X4 Wifi 6 mesh router currently available.

Great idea, planning and execution of this review coverage Alex. Unfortunately you missed one critical bit of information; How crowded the channels you used for backhaul and clients were during these tests. Without this information the speed tests don't really say much, nor can I as a viewer even draw any conclusion regarding the bandwidth measurements you made. Some of the units may have landed on crowded channels, some connected via 2.5GHz backhaul while others over 5Ghz. You neighbours may have chosen to use their interfering networks while you were testing one product, while not during another. You could easily have found out the signal strength from the built-in airport utility in an iPhone, or similar app for Android when conducting these tests. I have been running the RBK850 with one satellite myself for a year, purely for wirelessly connecting two 1GbE ethernet networks. The RBR850 is connected directly to the network that has a hard link (wired) connection to the fiber modem, exactly like your setup. The satellite (RBS850) is 40 feet away and used as a wireless switch with other wired devices plugged in. The signal between the satellite and the base station travels through two wooden walls, a sofa and a closet. Still, even with these obstacles the throughput speed I get between devices at communicating across the wireless bridge is 585Mbps both directions in the 99th percentile, 612Mbps in the 95 percentile, 805 Mbps in the 50th percentile. Measured over a 24h period consistently. The latency overhead for crossing the bridge is 2-3ms. To get this "fairly" stable result, I had to carefully select minimally crowded channels for the backhaul. Initially I didn't do that and got very high variance in speed and latency, seldom exceeding 400Mbps and with packet drops resulting in frequent 12-20ms spikes. As for interference, I live in a flat with a lot of neighbours with all kinds of wifi devices and networks. 97 other networks picked up in the spectrum to be precise. The 5GHz channel I chose only had 3 overlapping networks, with the closest one being 45 dB weaker than mine. That you got so much lower bandwidth than I in your test is most likely a result of channel interference, and to a lesser extent due to variance in obstacles. So I was a bit sad not to find your measurement on this.

Hey Alex! Appreciate the time and effort you put into this video. This is no easy feat! And of course we are thrilled that the ZenWiFi AX (XT8) is your pick of the bunch as the mesh system for your home network. ❤

As someone who recently bought the TP-Link Deco X50, I'm very curious to see how TP-Link compares to the others. 🙈 Edit: Yep, confirmed my thoughts for my HDB size (4 rooms; wires to satelites) and budget. PS: obviously awesome video, as always!

Great video! A quick recommendation is that the location of the 2nd and 3rd nodes could be closer to the 1st node. Theoretically, ap nodes can be placed in the middle of the 1st node and end user. Thanks!

So, thanks for the good video. I am sure lots of efforts goes into a nice video like this. One thing that caught my attention is that at 06:48 I see that you are placing your devices on the outer perimeter of your apartment. Wouldn’t it make more sense to bring the devices closer to each other by, perhaps, placing them closer to the center of your apartment?

I am looking for an upgrade for my wireless PCVR set up thanks a lot, helps, seems the Asus XT8 would do the trick

Thank you for making this helpful video. 🤝 I was looking for the best Wi-Fi6 mesh repeater.

Thanks Alex, pretty useful stuff. I have the same floor plan as yours. How many nodes do you recommend if I go for the Asus XT8

Thank you for the effort and time you have put into this video, I will strongly consider your recommendations.

Excellent video - clear, definitive and unbiased tests

Very nice summary. Maybe another video concerning the management of those products? Parental control, antivirus, web interface or simply an app….

In Singapore you can achieve similar results for less. Starhub has a partnership with linksys and renewing contracts nets you a "free" ax4200. Carousell is also flooded by these bnib ax4200. I got a 3 pieces mesh for 400 and speeds are great throughout.

Nice video keep it up. The results you showed are great it helped me evalauated that the Tplink deco X75 is the option for me , smaller in size, cheaper and has better performance . Now the question is 3-pack or 2 pack ? well i guess you can sell the 3rd device if not in use . As having a TP link mesh beside where i sleep is a nono for me :)

thanks for the video. would say a x20 (or the tp link x60 from myrepublic's plan) be sufficient if i would like to connect LAN cables throughout the house (for TV in living room, computer in study room etc) via the routing in the DB box? or would i need to get a mesh system that can support more connections as the x20 only has two ports?

Just bought Asus XT8 based on your recommendation. Thanks!!!!

first time I see you in my life. this video is just perfect.

Thank you Alex, I love your videos. And perfect choice, the Asus seems great!

Thank you for making a video where you actually test them. So many tech videos are just AI generated review reading and it is so frustrating.

Your 5 rooms layout similar with mine. But I’m using 4pcs Google nest WiFi router placing them at living room, bedroom 3, master and yard. 2 years already still rock solid 😆

Great video with very clear explanation! Just wanted to ask if how is the experience in video calls, browsing website etc was like? Were there times whereby it disconnects for a couple of seconds before it gets connected to the other nodes? Thanks!

On the ET12, If you use it as an AP (disable the router function) can both 2.5gb ports be used for LAN? I would love to use one 2.5gb port for backhaul and the other for a gaming PC in two different rooms. Basically using it like a switch. The 1 gb ports can be used for other devices like my Shield TV and printer. I plan to run an OPNsense router/FW that has 2.5 GB ports.

Using RBK852. Insane coverage and speed. Wire backhauled.

Thanks Alex for a comprehensive review and comparison. It helped a lot for someone like me who is not tech savvy. I have a few questions that I hope you could clarify. 1. Do you need to have a router (that is not a Mesh) connected to the ONT first before it sends the WiFi signal to the 1st Mesh in the living room? 2, Assuming a router is required, must the router be AX series that supports WiFi 6? Does it works on a AC router? I am asking because currently I have an Asus AC router that connects to the ONT. Both equipments are located in the backyard in the kitchen area. I have wired connection to the bedroom and currently using an average router in the room to provide WiFi. I intend to deploy the Asus XT8 mesh in the bedroom and the living room but I am not sure if I need to replace the AC router with an AX series say Asua AX88U Appreciates it your response in advance. Thanks!

Why doesn't any regularly available (home use) router mention the max recommended devices anywhere? 10 should be fine, but how about 30? Even the manufacturer website doesn't say it.

thumbs up. This is the kind of review that we need. By the way, do you have any experience with Asus CT8? I'm current using one and have been wondering if it's worth to upgrade to XT8. I don't have network point for the mesh, so everything is done thru wireless.

Great video! Am looking to buy a new system at the moment and going to go for the Asus now 👌🏻 thank you! Subbed too

What is a wired mesh system / wireless mesh system? 13:57 Does it mean that the nodes are connected to each other via wires or at each node is a lan cable??

Hi. Which of these routers are able to support separate/ disabling of band steering for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz

Great video. If only the tp link didn’t have the security spyware concerns in the app. ASUS xt9 it is. Thanks

Morning Alex, thanks for the video! I am moving into my new 4 room now and thinking to upgrade my mesh system . (currently using Deco M9 Plus). One concern I have is that when you put the Main Node in the DB box (with cabinet covering the DB box area). Will the Main node get over heated?

Thank you so much for all your work on this! Super helpful!

Thanks for the video Alex! Very informative. I am currently with Singtel (1gbps) as well. Hope to see a set up video of the Asus XT8 😊

Hi Alex, a wonderful guide just in time for my new house and I enjoy watching your videos. May I ask, if I’m using Linksys MX4200 Mesh Router, can I use other brands like Asus, Netgear Orbi as the nodes? Or I have to use the same brand as my router?

Hello, thank you very much for your video. I have Linksys Velop AX4200 Tri-Band WiFi 6 Mesh, I have 2 and I must say that I am not totally satisfied as the range is not tremendous. What I mean is, from my house to the garden the signal gets very week so I wanted to get a wifi 6 extension. My question is : Can I get an other brand than Linksys which is Mesh enabled and link the Velop with this new unit. In other word is Mesh a standard? Or do I have to stick with Linksys?

Hey Alex, thanks for the great video! Given 1yr has passed, what will you recommend if you are to change your home mesh router today?

Just my recommendation, instead of testing the speed at your home, you should focus more on the feature of the router and the smartphone app interface. I don’t see we would have coverage issue anymore with the mesh Wi-Fi, if that spot had weak signal and you really need coverage there, just buy another unit to cover that.

Badass review. Thanks for taking the time!

I am using TP Link deco x60 / AX5400 wifi 6, 3-packs. So far so good to me ...........................👍👍👍👍

Hi Alex I just picked up the lynksys AX5400 for $259 regular $599 Black Friday. I wanted to upgrade from wifi 5 to wifi 6 and couldn’t pass up this price.

hi alex! excellent comparison, thanks for the great videos! tplink launched this week the deco xe200, it seems to be a cannon! Do you intend to do a review of this model? thanks!

Thanks Alex for making this video. I am really a nerd when it comes to IT… so for a 3rm, is it safe to say getting 2 mesh will be sufficient?

Dear Alex, Thanks for this fantastic video which is so educational! I have the same home layout as yours. May I ask if I were to go with your recommendation with the Asus XT8, how many nodes should i get? Will 2 nodes be sufficient? One in the living room, and one in the masterbedroom? Will the wifi in the other 2 bedrooms be weak? Thank you!😊🙏

Hi Alex! Thanks for your detailed review! since it is a while ago now, can i ask if you're still using a 1gbps plan? If i have the Asus ZenWIFI AX( XT8 ), do you think getting a 2gbps will be an overkill? cause 2gbps is still a 1gbps x 2 broadband. my concern is a strong mesh/router but if the broadband isn't strong enough the device wont perform to its best too. LMK your thoughts! thanks!

SO if you could get the Asus ET8 over the xt8 would you? is 6E worth the upgrade? THe xt12 looks great but a lot more expensive for my 1400 sqft home.

Hi Alex, would Asus XT8 2 nodes sufficient for hdb typical 5rm 113sqm flat? If so, where would you recommend to place the second node? Thanks for the reply.

Hi Alex! Your video is very informative. Is there a way to contact u to get some advice and recommendations on which mesh would be better to use on a 2.5gbps, 5 room resale flat?

Honestly you should get AMPLIFI Aline I had the HD model and now upgrading to Aline. They always update it and for the past few years never had any connectivity problems

Hey Alex, what a fantastic review. Thanks

Great work. You last point about how this isn't just Marketing goop lands well.

That's a pretty narrow comparison. Surprised to not see Amplifi Alien or Eero 6e, amongst many others

That is such a nice place and thanks for the test!

what would you say is the best 3 pack wifi mesh system? appreciate the help !

I’ve got the et12 pro and wondered if you’ve ever bypassed the supplied WiFi router from your provider and used the ASUs as a router instead?

Hi Alex! Are there any router + POE AP setup you’d recommend? I catered a lan cable in the ceiling outside my MBR so hopefully it helps with dead spots!

Awesome webshow. I'm in the need of a mesh system for my house .

Hi Alex! Thank you so much for all your wonderful videos! I would like to ask a noob quesiton, what do you think of Tp-Link Deco X60? Im going to move in to a new 4rm HDB! Will Deco X60 be sufficient? Or u will recommend X75?

Your 2nd node location, when you say it is 'wired', is there a LAN cable connecting the primary 1st node to the 2nd node? I am in similar situation as you now, so was researching where is the ideal place to place the mesh or an extender. Wouldn't the ideal position be somewhere in the corridor?

Hi Alex, do you need a Cat6 data cable for the home before you can use wifi6? I moving into a new house (resale ) and would i need to reroute the house with Cat6 cable in order to use wifi6. Not sure if the existing cable from this 7yr old HDB is CAT what…

Great video. Singapore does have great Internet speeds but if I am moving back to a country with slow Internet I assume a mesh wifi 5 will be fine since the slowest part of the chain is the actual Internet speed? or would I still be better off with 6?

Hi Alex, great review!! Can I know what’s the recommendation on the number of nodes for the same space that you have, if I want to buy the Asus xt8. Would 2 nodes be sufficient? One in the Db box and one in the non-master bedroom.

Could you please do a multi-device streaming test as well?

Can I check with you on the wired connection setup at db box area for hdb? The main node (which I will place in db box) will connect to the optical network terminal (aka modem) For only other nodes , I will connect a Ethernet cable to the modem to the designated room Ethernet port in the db box . All I need to do at my designated room is to connect the Ethernet cable to the nodes? I am asking this because I understand the main node only has 2 Ethernet port. Not sure of the setup

Not clear which has 2.5GB WAN input. In Romania 2Gbps internet is 7 to 8 Euros per month, so it’s a shame to waste it with a 1GB limit or no point to buy a slightly cheaper internet. I am considering to go Orbi Pro for VLAN tagging wireless devices.

Hi Alex, would you consider to setup NAS? Looking forward for this NAS video. Thank you

Oh, that's in Singapore dollars. Coversion to USD is roughly 1/3 less.

This is how you do a review! Damn, it was informative!

You are the only local RU-vidr I watch. No nonsense and straight to the point. ☺👍

great test analysis. must have QA background

a good video, thanks for the clarification. do you have the video about the wifi7?