What is Wi-Fi 6?
Wi-Fi 6 is the newest generation of Wi-Fi technologies, and an evolution from the 802.11ac (or Wi-Fi 5) standard. It was finalised in late 2019 and, since then, has gradually received adoption in consumer and enterprise devices.
Compared to its predecessor, Wi-Fi 6 adds many welcome features, including:
- Faster internet speeds (up to 2.5x faster than Wi-Fi 5);
- Reduced network congestion;
- Increased client capacity; and,
- Reduced battery consumption
You might have also heard about Wi-Fi 6E. While similar, Wi-Fi 6E is best viewed as a separate standard from ordinary Wi-Fi 6. We have more information about Wi-Fi 6E and the 6Ghz wavelength up on our blog, if you're interested.
Router Advertising Explained
You may have seen Wi-Fi 6 routers advertised with the letters 'AX' followed by a string of numbers. An example of this is an AX5400 router. Many people won't know what this means, so let's quickly break down what these terms mean:
- AX refers to the official name of the Wi-Fi 6 standard, which is termed 802.11ax.
- 3200 (or other numbers): these numbers reflect the maximum bandwidth of the router, in Mbps.
So, for example, a router which is advertised as AX1800 will mean it should support speeds of up to 1800Mbps, as well as the Wi-Fi 6 standard.
The same can be said for previous generations of Wi-Fi, which followed a similar naming convention. In those cases, the AX portion will just be changed to reflect the latest standard of Wi-Fi that the router supports (most likely AC, as this was the generation prior to AX, or Wi-Fi 6).
It should be noted, however, that these maximum speeds are inclusive of combined bandwidth from the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. Since your device can only transmit data on one band, and since these speeds are only theoretical (i.e. tested under ideal laboratory conditions), you won't actually achieve these maximum speeds in reality.
