HERE COMES THE HYPE: Manufacturers are touting incredibly speed claims regarding 802.11ax (immediately below). However, we know that an 802.11ac 2×2 client at 256-QAM 5/6 has a PHY speed of 780 (see table above section). And with 802.11ax (and everything else the same), the PHY speed is 864 (see table immediately above). YES, that is better by a little (11%), but not nearly as much as you are led to believe.
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There is very little point in upgrading a Wi-Fi 5 router to a Wi-Fi 6 router until many/most of the clients connecting to the router fully support Wi-Fi 6. Until that happens, upgrading a router to Wi-Fi 6 will have very little impact. Vendors are throwing around huge Mbps numbers that are meaningless (because it is client device capabilities that mostly limits throughput).
"The bottom line is until Wi-Fi 6 / 802.11ax clients reach critical mass, the benefits of 11ax are minimal and will have low impact" [source: Cisco].
"For [most enterprise customers], we recommend installing 802.11ac wave 2 access points today, because of the sheer value of 802.11ac wave 2" [source: Cisco].
Consumer Reports concludes that there is very little point in buying a new Wi-Fi 6 router, especially if your smartphone, TV, laptop, etc. only support Wi-Fi 5.
A final word on Wi-Fi 6: Is is possible to get a 38% speed improvement over Wi-Fi 5 to a single wifi client? Yes, but you have to be a Wi-Fi 6 client very close to the Wi-Fi 6 router so that the highest 1024-QAM can be used. And 'at distance', other Wi-Fi 6 clients will see a speed improvement lower than that (closer to 11%). For Wi-Fi 5 clients, no speed improvement will be seen. For some people, maybe this small percentage increase matters. But if ultimate speed matters that much to you, just plug into Gigabit ethernet!
I have seen some reviewers show graphs showing a huge increase in Wi-Fi 6 speeds as compared to Wi-Fi 5, but that result was obtained by using 160 MHz channels in Wi-Fi 6 vs 80 MHz channels in Wi-Fi 5. When reviews show numbers too good to be true, scrutinize the details.
Regardless of what I and others say, be informed with the facts (and not hype) and make your own (fully educated) upgrade decisions. Look at your PHY speed before and after a router upgrade and decide for yourself if the change was worth it.
I actually think Wi-Fi 6 is going to be great. But the industry selling Wi-Fi 6 routers that are actually 'draft' routers that don't fully implement the Wi-Fi 6 specification, and are not Wi-Fi 6 certified, is a problem. The router industry has not self-regulated, and you, the consumer, are paying the price.
Fully "Wi-Fi 6 Certified" routers ARE just starting to come out. Be patient and don't buy a 'draft' router.
