Update 5/16/2020: Early Access is on sale with detail specs now revealed.
One of the major missing piece in my personal opinion and perhaps some others in Ubiquiti UniFi product line is lack of Wifi 6 access point option. We all knew it was a matter of time but knowing the company has recently released Wi-Fi 6 consumer line AmpliFi alien, the desire from UniFi community must have raised a notch. The wait looks will be over soon.
FCC has filed a new registration about couple weeks ago. The device has ID of SWX-UAP6L.
The L stands for Lite. In UniFi Access Point product line, Lite is budget friendly model.
I am not familiar with full interpretation of these report but I can see 802.11ax, so it is indeed WiFi 6. Not surprising to anyone, but there is no mention of WiFi 6E operating frequency. Since the 6E standard has just recently been announced, we won’t be seeing any product with 6E support for a while but perhaps this may be one separating feature of Lite version from other versions in UniFi AP 6 line.
What is missing here though is ax label on 2.4 GHz band. Small Net Builder actually found WiFi 6 gave most notable boost in 2.4 GHz performance rather than 5 GHz band on their test. So this is a little disappointing news to some.
In general, 2.4 GHz AX performance was better behaved than 5 GHz. Most products produced around 2X throughput when used with an AX STA vs. an AC STA. Right now, this is likely to be the thing that most buyers would notice from upgrading both router and device to Wi-Fi 6. Note that you’ll get this benefit even from using 20 MHz bandwidth and even with the lowest priced two-stream NETGEAR RAX40.
Small Network Builder
Once again, I’m not 100% certain how to interpret these but lack of 160 MHz channel along with Lite name, I speculate this is 2×2 WiFi 6 MIMO.
So in summary, UAP-6L will be:
- UniFi’s first WiFi 6 compatible Access Point
- No WiFi 6E
- No WiFi 6 support on 2.4 GHz
- No 160 MHz channel support
- Suspect 2×2 MIMO
This is very exciting news for UniFi users and I need to update my original review. I’m most likely to skip the Lite and wait until regular or pro model especially I only have one Wi-Fi 6 device in home; nonetheless, just knowing I have the option whenever I need it makes me feel better.
You can see reddit discussion about this topic.
Update 5/16/2020, early access from Ubiquiti is officially launched according to the reddit.
Wi-Fi 6 Access Point with dual-band 2×2 MIMO in a compact design for low-profile mounting.
UniFi 6 Lite is a 2×2 Wi-Fi 6 access point that delivers up to 1.5 Gbps aggregate radio rate with 5 GHz (MU-MIMO and OFDMA) and 2.4 GHz (MIMO) radios. Mount UniFi 6 Lite horizontally in the ceiling to cover a high-density environment, or mount it vertically on the wall to extend its range. UniFi 6 Lite has a compact and nano-sized design, so it can use nanoHD covers and mounting accessories.
Features:
- 2×2 high-efficiency Wi-Fi 6
- 5 GHz band 2×2 MU-MIMO and OFDMA with radio rate of 1.2 Gbps
- 2.4 GHz band 2×2 MIMO with radio rate of 300 Mbps
- Gigabit Ethernet, powered with 802.3af PoE
- Compatible with UAP-nanoHD covers and recessed mounting bracket
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/gkdyg9/ea_unifi_6_lite_access_point/
Not much surprise here from the spec. However, based on the 2×2 MU-MIMO max speed at 1.2 Gbps means this is capped at 80 MHz. Also, 2.4 GHz band still max at 300 Mbps like nano-HD, so this is again confirming Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2.