Choose the Best Wi-Fi Router for your Home
Covid-19 Pandemic has forced us to work and learn remotely. You can’t always rely on
Mobile data because it is so limited moreover it is costly. In this situation, a Wi-Fi router has
become important in our “New Normal” life.
An efficient Wi-fi router can provide a seamless internet connection whether you are
streaming shows, attending classes or playing online games.
There are some factors (coverage area, speed, compatibility) to keep in mind when you are
buying a Wi-Fi router. You want the best device for your bucks and so do I. After searching
over 20 websites, I have shortlisted some of the Wi-Fi routers for your home that might
attract you.
How to choose the best router
Is Wi-Fi 6 necessary?
Wi-Fi 6 technology is a relatively new addition to Wi-Fi routers. Ok, it is not a Gimmick. It
works relatively well than its predecessor Wi-Fi 5(802.11ac). New routers are adding Wi-Fi 6
and the technology is already looking great.
Not only ensuring better connection with devices, but it also makes overall transfer speed fast
and connecting more devices. It also consumes less electricity, so you are saving some money
here.
Wi-Fi 6 can handle as much speed as 9.6 GBPS which is more than WIFI 5 (about 3 times
more). As people are moving into online show streaming and playing intense online games,
Wi-Fi 6 shows its capability.
How much area you need to cover
It can be hard to cover with a 5GHz router if you are living in a large house. 5Hz router
provides fast speed but low range whether 2.4 Hz does exactly the opposite. You can get 2
bands in the very same router.
1|Page
You can use Mesh Wi-Fi Kits if you don’t want to compromise in speed despite having a
large house. This setup is easy and they cover a huge area. They are getting popular even in
smaller
areas.
Interested?
Depends on your Internet Speed
If you get 50 Mbps internet connection and your Wi-Fi router is not delivering the same
speed, don’t get depressed. You can see routers are advertised as AC1200 or AX6000. This
numbers are nothing rather a speed combination of both bands.
These speeds are just on paper. In real-life testing, if you see Wi-Fi 5 router advertised as
AC5000, it is a single 600mbps 2,4GHz band and two 2166Mbps 5GHz bands. Wi-Fi 6
routers can deliver triple the speed as 1.2Gbps on 2.4GHz band and 4.8 Gbps on 5GHZ
BAND.
So, if you are living in a single room apartment and paying your ISP for 50Mbps plan with 5
AC5000 router, it will be nothing but OVERKILL. Your router can only deliver as fast as the
slowest point provided by your ISP.
TP-Link Archer AX11000 Next-Gen Tri-Band Gaming Router
https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AC5400-Band-GamingRouter/dp/B076HRZJ66/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=TPLink+Archer+AX11000+Next-Gen+Tri-Band&qid=1624216772&sr=8-2
2|Page
Pros and Cons:
 Easy Setup
 Lots of port
 Gamer friendly setting
 Malware Protection (Lifetime)
 Expensive
 Bulky
Specifications:
Wireless Specification: 802.11ax
AC Speed: AX11000
USB Ports: 2
Antenna(s): 8
Bands: 3
Parental Control: Yes
IPv6 Compatible: Yes
Malware Protection: Yes
3|Page
If you are gamer, wouldn’t it be so annoying if your router is slowing you down. TP-Link
Archer AX11000 Next-Gen Tri-Band Gaming Router is a little pricey at $399.99 even for a
Wi-Fi 6 router.
It gives you total control over gaming bandwidth with ability to see real-time latency. It
comes with malware protection, strong parental control and also built-in gamer-friendly
dashboard. Lastly the AX11000 delivers super speed file transfer times and excellent
throughput.
The router has Black texture and red accent in antennas. It features eight removable but nonadjustable antennas and an LED light flashes white when everything working properly, Red
when internet connection disrupts and orange when Wi-Fi is disabled. So far so good but this
router takes up huge amount of space wherever you put it.
With Wi-Fi 6 technology, the router has 1.8 GHz quad core processor, 1Gb of Ram and 512
MB of flash memory. You will find eight LAN ports, USB- A 3.0 port and a TYPE-C USB
port. It has OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access),1024 QAM
(Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), Target Wake Time, WPA3 encryption, 4X4 MUMIMO data streaming, beamforming, DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection), and support for
160MHz channel bandwidth.
Google Nest Wi-fi - AC2200 - Mesh Wi-Fi System
https://www.amazon.com/Google-Nest-WiFi-RouterGeneration/dp/B07YMKD6SM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Google+Nest+Wi-fi++AC2200&qid=1624216728&sr=8-1
4|Page
1 Pack
$159.99 at Amazon
2 Pack
$295.96 at Amazon
3 pack
$459.60 at Amazon
Pros and Cons:
 Minimal Design
 Smart Speaker(s) included
 Easy to control
 Good Eco-system
 Not worthy of replacing existing mesh router
 No significant performance improvement
Specification:

Connectivity: 802.11s/a/b/g/n/ac, AC2200 2x2 Wi-Fi (expandable mesh; dual-band
2.4GHz and 5GHz, beamforming); Bluetooth LE

Processor: 1.4 GHz ARM CPU (quad-core, 64-bit)

Ram: 1GB RAM (Router); 768MB RAM (Point)

Storage: 4GB flash (Router); 512MB flash (Point)

Ports: 2 x Gigabit Ethernet ports

Dimension: 110mm diameter, 90.4mm height (Router); 102.2mm diameter, 87.2mm
height (Point)
5|Page
Google Nest Wi-Fi is available in US/UK/AU and priced at $149/129/AU$229 for 1 pack. It
delivers up to 2,200 square feet network coverage and can hold up to 100 devices.
The design of the Nest Wi-Fi is on the Simplistic side. Plastic body, matte finish and white
cylindrical designed router features one LED that shines white indicting connection. On the
bottom tough rubber base hiding two Ethernet ports and a standard AC charging port.
Nest Wi-Fi performs faster (100.68/119.56 Mbps Download/Upload) than its predecessor at
5GHz in the Ookla Speed test. In the 2.4GHz it performs worse (34.72/ 44.87 Mbps
Download/Upload).
Although it has a nice design and good ecosystem, when you are paying above $150 for a
router you want for than just design. The router is not the best at this price. Sure, there are
some routers that performs better at this price point. If you already have a mesh Wi-Fi
system, it is not worth of replacing that one for the Nest Wi-Fi.
Linksys Velop Wi-Fi 6 AX4200
https://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Tri-Band-Wireless-coverageMX12600/dp/B08LN1Z7JK
6|Page
Pros
 Easy setup
 Many ports
 Good Performance
 Good Range
Cons
 Costly
 Bulky
 No Malware Protection
Specifications:
Speed: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4 GHz/5 GHz
Connectivity: 3 x Gigabit LAN, 1 x Gigabit WAN, 1 x USB 3.0
Coverage Area: 8100 square ft.
Antennas: 8
MU-MIMO: Yes
IPv6 Compatible: Yes
The new Linksys Velop Wi-Fi 6 AX4200 is Linksys’s typical design. The white box is
chunky and has the dimension of 244 mm height and 114mm deep and wide. Linksys Velop
implements Wi-Fi 6 technology with tri-band that can provide a top speed of 4.2Gbps, which
7|Page
is a lot faster than most router. It can handle 4k streaming, online gaming and heavy internet
tasks with ease.
The app’s UI is nice and easy to use. The app offers some useful features like guest control,
parental mode, block individual device access. You can prioritize the network bandwidth
with devices such as gaming PC. The app also features “Channel Finder” that scan nearby
networks and adjusts Velops network bandwidth to reduce interference. The app doesn’t
provide the separation of 5GHz, 2.4GHz frequency separation and you can’t also block
particular website.
The Velop also impresses us with its performance. Devices in the same room as the first
Velop node registered a connection speed of 110Mbps per second, and Steam downloads of
12.5MB/s - which is in line with the speeds from our normal router.
Asus RT-AX86U
https://www.amazon.com/RT-AC86U-Wireless-Dual-Core-ProcessorAiprotection/dp/B0752FD3XJ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1XEOY9PGWGSZZ&dchild=1&keywo
rds=asus+ax86u&qid=1623860259&sprefix=asus+ax86%2Caps%2C719&sr=8-1
Pros
 Fast Wi-Fi 6 performance
 Security features
8|Page
 Gaming-focused
Cons
 Quite Expensive
Specifications
Speed: 802.11ax download speed up to 5700Mbps
Connectivity: 4 x Gigabit LAN, Gigabit Wan, 2.5G Wan, 2x USB 3.2
Antennas: 3
MU-MIMO: Yes
IPv6 Compatible: Yes
By the dimension of Asus RT-AX86U, you might this is not a gaming router.
But it is.
It is just 242mm wide and 100mm high which will save you some space compared to other
gaming routers.
It’s a dual band router (5GHz and 2.4GHz) featuring Wi-Fi 6. The Asus RT-AX86U router
will get you through video streaming, online gaming, online class with ease. The router also
provides new technologies like OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access)
with can transmit data to a lot of devices without hiccups.
Asus RT-AX86U features some decent selection of ports. It has two USB 3.2 ports, a
standard Gigabit ethernet port alongside a faster 2.5 gigabit ethernet port. There are 4
additional Gigabit ports. However, the router dedicates one of its Ethernet port to gaming and
automatically gives priority to any device connected to that port.
The Asus app has got some useful features like simple set up process. It allows two networks
(2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) splitting and set up different passwords for each. The app has also a
Gaming mode which improves Wi-Fi performance for gaming up to 4 connected mobile
devices. The router’s web browser features GeForce Now option that will be a very nice
touch to gamers.
TP-Link Archer AX10 (AX1500)
9|Page
https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-AX1500-WifiRouter/dp/B07ZSDR49S?tag=p00935-20&ascsubtag=07w7YqESW6pH6nLlu3tl5vg
Pros
 Affordable
 Good 5GHz
 Good range
Cons
 Not-so-good 2.4 GHz performance
 Lacks USB and multi-gig LAN ports
 Lacks anti0malware tools
Features
Wireless Specification: 802.11ax
Number of USB Ports: 4
Antennas: 4
Number of Bands: 2
MU-MIMO: Yes
IPv6 Compatible: Yes
Malware Protection tool: No
Parental Control: Yes
Guest Networking: Yes
10 | P a g e
This is the last Wi-Fi router which is featuring this list and it is TP-Link Archer AX10, it cost
$79.99. As our testing, it won’t disappoint you for the price. For 80 dollars, you are getting
Wi-Fi 6. Is that enough already?
NO.
The router both 5GHz and 2.4GHz band. Although the 2.4GHz band could be better, 5GHz
performs decent. You are not getting USB ports and 160MHz channel width with this less
than $100 router. If can overlook these features, if you are spending this amount of money.
The Archer AX10 is quite small compared to another router featured above. It has two-tome
glossy and matte black finish with a TP-Link logo. It has dimension of 1.5 by 10.2 by 5.3
inch and four non-removable antennas. The front part contains LED indicator power, radio
bands. The read part of this router holds a reset button, four gigabit LAN ports, a WPS button
and a power jack.
The Archer AX10 router has a download speed of 300Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and
1201Mbps on 5GHz band. 1.5 GHz tri-core processor, 256GB ram, 16GB of flash memory
and 802.11ax technology including OFDMA are powering it.
The router can be setup and controlled by TP-Link web-based controller and mobile app
which is available on both iPhone and Android. Of course, the web console offers more
control than the app available on the phone.
11 | P a g e
Wireless
Specification
Antennas
Wi-Fi 6
USB Ports Parental
(Amount)
Control
TP-Link Archer AX11000
802.11ax
8
Yes
Yes (2)
Yes
Google Nest Wi-fi -
802.11s/a/b/g/n/ac
Internal
Yes
No
Yes
Linksys Velop AX4200
802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax Internal
Yes
Yes (1)
Yes
Asus RT-AX86U
802.11ax
3
Yes
Yes (2)
Yes
AX10 802.11ax
4
Yes
No
Yes
TP-Link Archer
(AX1500)
12 | P a g e
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)
What is the difference between Wi-Fi and WLAN?
No.
WLAN means Wireless Local Network. It interconnects computer equipment to form a
network system which can communicate with each other. Whether Wi-Fi is connecting to a
device that transfer data at high speed.
What’s the difference between the Internet & Wi-Fi?
The Internet is connected network all over the world. The Wi-Fi is a personal wireless
network that connects your device to the internet.
What if after that I still can’t get a signal everywhere?
If your home is too large and you cannot get Wi-Fi signal all over your home then you can
add a Mesh Wi-Fi router (Google Nest, Linksys). This type of router makes sure you can get
same high-speed internet in every corner in your home.
Conclusion
Throughout this blog, I mentioned 5 different routers to help make your purchase decision. If
you want a high-speed gaming router then TP-Link Archer AX11000 Next-Gen Tri-Band
Gaming Router will be right option. If you want range, that can cover every inch of your
home, then Linksys Velop Wi-Fi 6 AX4200 is the way to go. And if you are saving some
money for future but you also need a good Wi-Fi router then TP-Link Archer AX10
(AX1500) is the best for buck.
13 | P a g e