[silisili]

I think ax is now 2 generations behind, if we count 6e and 7, and a pretty nice upgrade over ac.

The nice thing about the newer 2 is 6ghz, for people in highly congested areas. I live on an acre and pick up tons of 2.4ghz, some 5ghz. I can't imagine how bad it would be in a modern tract home development, or worse, a large apartment complex.

[jorvi]

Not that much worse for 5GHz because a decent wall will already heavily attenuated that signal.

When I was still at university, just walking out of my studio appartement and closing the door would already drop my 5GHz signal a good bit. Open the door, much better.

[GrygrFlzr]

It depends where you live and what the building codes in that area try to address. Here in Tokyo the biggest worries are earthquakes, so my apartment walls usually incorporate wood instead of concrete and the 5GHz signal through my closed door and six layers of rooms only just drops to 2/3 on my phone.

Unfortunately, this also means I'm competing with nearly a hundred different APs in the apartment alone - of which many broadcast in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz - to the point that my Macbook less than a meter away from the router still takes a hot minute to automatically find the AP unless I manually select it.

[silisili]

They are pretty close in frequency IIRC, but in a crowded place I assume every little bit would help. Not sure how much, though.

Of course the -real- benefit to upgrading early is that you'll likely have the 6ghz space to yourself for a couple years.

[TylerE]

It’s a trade off. The higher the frequency the worse it does with obstructions, generally.

[MobiusHorizons]

When concerned with congestion that is considered a benefit ( but you might have to run more than one access point)

[TylerE]

Yeah, it’s that second one is the biggie, especially if you’re dealing with something like an outbuilding that either only has intermittent power or even no power at all.