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WiFi 6E got off to a slow start, but it looks like this is the year manufacturers step up their efforts and cut prices.
Last week, the Ubiquiti UniFi U6 – Enterprise Edition Announced, this is the first relatively affordable WiFi 6E device I know of to launch.At $249, it’s hardly better than excellent Unified U6-LR. Currently, most consumer-grade routers sell for around £500, while Netgear WiFi 6E Mesh System It’s £1500!
WiFi 6E Access Point Prices
Netgear is now throwing their hats into the WAX630E’s ring for £299.99/$369.99. It’s not as attractively priced as the U6-Enterprise, but compared to the Aruba AP-635 which costs over £1000, it’s definitely worth the money. EnGenius has the ECW336 and does appear to have official pricing, but one website also lists it as £1000.
Netgear WAX630E vs WAX630 vs WAX620 vs WAX610
If you’re already committed to the Netgear Insight platform, the price of competing brands doesn’t matter. However, similar to Ubiquiti, Netgear is pricing this new AP very attractively compared to existing offerings. The older WAX630 was £290, the WAX620 was £230, then the WAX619, the most affordable at £175.
Looking at the four indoor Netgear Insight APs, the WAX630E’s specs are a bit confusing, which helps keep the price down.
The radio arrangement has changed a bit, it’s a tri-band system, like the WAX630, but now one band is 6Ghz instead of 5Ghz.
It’s no longer a 4x4x4 design, it’s a 2x4x2, so you only have two 2.4Ghz bands for a speed of just 600Mbps, the same as the budget WAX610.
However, both the 5Ghz and 6Ghz bands can now reach 160Mhz, a first for the Netgear series of APs. This means that the 5Ghz band can deliver a theoretical 4800Mbps, although a 2×2 client can only reach 2400Mbps. The 6Ghz band and its dual-radio design can also deliver 2400Mbps.
I’m assuming the logic of this design is that the Netgear access point can also work as a mesh node and will use the 5Ghz band for backhaul, so the extra band available will be able to provide higher throughput.
All Netgear access points have 2.5GbE, but both WAX630 models also have GbE ports.
Compared to the 456-to-600 WAX630, the maximum total number of devices that can be connected is reduced.
The biggest caveat with WiFi 6E and its faster than gigabit speeds is that POE switches that can run access points aren’t particularly cheap (at least for SOHO/SMB users). The Netgear MS510TXUP is the switch you might want to drive the WAX630E for around £570. Netgear does have a relatively affordable MS510TXPP, which has a variety of multi-gigabit ports and POE, but lacks Netgear Insight cloud management, which is only £303.
Netgear WAX630E Key Features
- New 6GHz band –– WAX630E offers many of the features and capabilities of WiFi 6 access points, including higher performance, lower latency and faster data rates, and supports WiFi 6E on the new wider 6GHz WiFi band
- Ultra low latency — Expanded to the new 6 GHz band, bringing 14 additional 80 MHZ channels to expand spectrum capacity and reduce congestion for lower latency
- Fastest WiFi with combined wireless speeds of up to 7.8Gbps ––Tri-band WiFi with combined wireless speeds up to 7.8Gbps (0.6+4.8+2.4 Gbps)
- 8-stream tri-band WiFi — 8 WiFi streams (two 6GHz streams, four 5GHz streams, and two 2.4GHz streams) means more bandwidth available to all devices on WiFi and less congestion
- Multi-gigabit speeds with PoE — Includes a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port with PoE++ for high speed and easy wiring. Includes an additional 1 Gbps Ethernet port for wired expansion of a WiFi access point or switch. The ideal switches to power the WAX630E are the GSM4210P, MS510TXPP, MS510TXUP.
- Easy installation —Easy configuration and deployment using NETGEAR Insight or through the appliance GUI
- Remote management — Use NETGEAR Insight to remotely monitor and manage all of your Insight managed devices from a single pane of glass.Includes 1-year Insight subscription
- 8 secure wireless networks (SSIDs)) — Separate VLANs and WPA3 make the WAX630E the ideal network configuration for SMB security and manageability
- separate VLAN — Separate networks keep administrators, employees, guests, HR, and finance networks securely isolated from each other
- future proof — Compatible with all new and upcoming WiFi 6E devices and backwards compatible with WiFi 6, WiFi 5 and earlier
Netgear WAX630E vs WAX630 vs Ubiquiti UniFi U6 – Enterprise Access Point Specifications
| everywhere Access Point |
Netgear WAX630E | Netgear WAX630 | UniFi U6 – Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| processor | |||
| RAM | |||
| although | 6 GHz band (2×2) 5 GHz band (4×4) 2.4 GHz band (2×2) |
6 GHz band (4×4) 5 GHz band (4×4) 2.4 GHz band (4×4) |
6 GHz band (4×4) 5 GHz band (4×4) 2.4 GHz band (2×2) |
| Channel width | 20/40/80/160 | 20/40/80 | 20/40/80/160 |
| Data rates supported by Wi-Fi 4 | 600Mbps | 1.2Gbps | 570Mbps |
| Data rates supported by Wi-Fi 5 | 1.7Gbps | 1.7Gbps | 1.7Gbps |
| Data rates supported by Wi-Fi 6/6E | 4.8 Gbps on 5Ghz 2.4 Gbps on 6Ghs |
4.8Gbps | 10.2 Gbps aggregate 4.8 Gbps radio rates for 6Ghz and 5Ghz |
| Ethernet | 2.5GbE POE + 1GbE | 2.5GbE POE + 1GbE | 2.5GbE RJ45 |
| power method | PoE++ 802.3bt 802.3at reduces throughput by 50% on 5Ghz |
PoE++ 802.3bt 802.3at reduces throughput by 50% |
802.3at PoE+ 2.5GbE POE injector not included |
| maximum.energy consumption | 27.64W | 30.1W | |
| maximum.transmit power | Maximum EIRP = 30 dBm Maximum PSD = 5 dBm/MHz |
||
| Antenna gain | 4.4dB 2.4Ghz 6.3dB 5Ghz 3.1dB 6Ghz |
2.86dB 2.4Ghz 4.41dB 5Ghz 4.98dB 6Ghz |
|
| concurrent clients | 457 | 600 | 600+ |
| aspect | 266.6 x 268.3 x 55.5 mm | 266.6 x 268.3 x 55.5 mm | 220 x 220 x 48 mm |
| controller | Netgear Insights Cloud | Netgear Insights Cloud | Local cloud key/self-hosted |
| Price | £299 $349 |
£289 | $249 US MSRP |
