UniFi have had several Wi-Fi 6 version of access points (APs) for awhile in their early access store. But early access products have their own risks so I have personally avoided purchasing them and I see there are many out there also has been doing the same on online forums. Now the wait is to be over very soon.
Two models that are currently listed on preorders are U6-LR and U6-Lite.
WiFi 5 vs. WiFi 6
Most home users likely to have Wi-Fi 5 version of router/access point(s) if purchased last a few years. Wi-Fi 6 provides up to 30%+ faster peak throughput speed. Practically, it is more like 10% in my personal testing (ref). Additionally, Wi-Fi 6 should provide better performance for higher density (more simultaneous devices) and also helps battery life. However, these benefits are available only if both client and access points support WiFi 6; otherwise, it falls over to the weakest link i.e. WiFi 5.
U6-LR vs. U6-Lite
Here I have also included early access (EA) and general access (GA) versions for comparison.
The freshly named U6-LR-EA don’t have DFS channels or 160MHz channels. Most thought it was a temporary thing, but it looks like that’s permanent. DFS and 160MHz firmware just appeared, but only for the retail U6-LR. UI has stated they al keep a separate firmware branch for the U6-LR-EA.
https://community.ui.com/releases/UAP-USW-Firmware-5-43-7-12444/1b660a84-f099-4ac8-9e51-0f4a113e7a7e
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/ju4fhy/unifi_6_aps_found_in_ga_store/
Risk with Early access
The main news for general public is that we will now have official Wi-Fi 6 Access Points for UniFi. Even more important take home message for tech geeks here is that Early Access products have several risks:
- Hardware change
- Price change
- Not allowed to resell
- Loss of support/early end of life
I had been personally refraining from EA products because of the third bullet point. I like new techs/gadgets. For upgrading, I have been selling my older products, but the third rule hinders doing this.
The forth point is something I have not confirmed/seen myself in UniFi line yet but it may be only because I just started to look into them. But I won’t be surprised and people should not be surprised because not all early access/beta products will make to public release. In such case, they may make a decision to just stop supporting technically unreleased product.
Who is UniFi EA products for?
I see potentially three groups of people that UniFi EA products may fit and won’t regret.
- For those who absolutely wants to have the latest/upcoming technology as earliest as possible and be happy with the given spec/feature of the product at the time of purchase.
Never assume or expect a new feature that is not available at the time of purchase. - For those willing to consider the product is just a temporary placeholder i.e. plans to purchase official release (general access) version at their full price when they becomes available.
The question you ask yourself here is simple. Is the price enough for X months of head start/time that no other alternative is available. For the case of U6-LR, the earlier adopters have had approximately 3-5 months of head start. - The last in the category is those who wants to really help out Ubiquiti.
By acting as a tester, you may be able to contribute to shape up the upcoming UniFi product to be usable for others as well as yourself.
This is by far the minority if there is anyone. This is because if this is the one’s true motivation of purchasing EA product, it is great for Ubiquiti but it means the person has no benefit him or herself i.e. altruism. So honestly, I believe most falls under the first or second group.
What else is coming?
There are only two Wi-Fi 6 APs that are now listed for December release. However, many APs came to EA store in the similar timeframe so I surmise their public release are also soon. These include U6-Mesh (FlexHD replacement), U6 Extender (Beacon HD replacement) and U6-IW (IWHD replacement).
Furthermore, one of EA product is 2.5 Gbps switch that has a name of U6 on it while none of the Wi-Fi 6 AP shown to this date supports the backhaul speed. So such device is expected to be coming. Whether this is U6-Pro or something else is only time will tell.
If you can wait longer, Wi-Fi 6E versions of APs will be there though expect them to show up at least 1 year or longer.