Ubiquiti launching residential hardware division, new home Wi-Fi system

[NJW]

Sorry, not impressed. There's more than a hint of form over function, for a start, and I don't think the prices are good. I'll wager that 200USD will translate to 350EUR on the Atlantic crossing.

Too much lock-in – everything is proprietary and pre-paired, at least until separate extenders become available. It will probably do very well, in an Apple kind of way.

 

[brandonkick]

While I do think it is a tiny bit pricey, you have to consider what your getting.

A high quality router and high quality wireless. For $200 USD, again while a bit
pricey, it's not too much to ask. I don't know what kind of warranty they offer on
this but if it's even in the ballpark of quality that their commercial stuff is then I think
the consumer market is in for a real treat.

If you want a $20 wireless router, and the problems that come with it, then by all means
get a $20 wireless router. I've had issues in one form or another with every consumer grade
router I've ever owned or used. The lone exception is a cisco unit I bought a while back (maybe 3
years?) and flashed with DD-WRT. It was a real junker before the flash, but now it works alright.

I'm on the fence about this, I think I might wait it out just a tiny bit. If sales aren't good they might
lower this to the $99-$149 range. I'd probably jump on it at that point.

 

[NJW]

If you want a $20 wireless router, and the problems that come with it, then by all means
get a $20 wireless router.

But I don't have any problems with my $20 router (17,65 €, actually). My home router is a TP-Link WR740N and it currently has an uptime of just over two months, the last reset being due to changing a port forwarding rule. I can't remember the last time it had a problem that required a reset. It serves a Linux laptop (madame's, on all day), three full-time Android devices and two Raspberry Pis. One Android and one RPi are all-day music and radio streamers, so there's a fair level of continuous traffic.

It has been my router of choice for domestic clients (now changed to the later WR841N) and I have had one failure out of 37 supplied. That failure had been on the receiving end of an unprotected lightning surge, so it's forgiveable.

As for Wi-Fi repeaters – they have 'flakey' writ large on them. Not a good solution to extending Wi-Fi cover: unreliable and inflexible, a poor engineering solution.

 

[brandonkick]

@NJW

We have obviously had different experiences with cheaper, consumer grade hardware. It sounds
like they've worked really well for you and for me they haven't really passed the test of time.

Who knows, maybe I'm all hyped up about it since I loved that UniFi AP I installed for a client. It has
worked so well for them, and when test driving it at home I was blown away by the range of the thing.
For the money, I feel like there are no other alternatives. Hell I'd probably even go with it instead of
similar offerings costing 3, 4 or more times more money. That all has nothing to do with their new line
though. They may be just as fantastic, or they may be a flop.

Right now, my comcast gateway providing wireless at home is flaky at best. It's motivation to move on
to something else. This seems to be a perfect fit. I'll just wait for the few round of reviews to come in.

 

[NJW]

@brandonkick : sorry if that came across as a personal attack – not the intention at all. In my experience, low-cost routers can be just as good as more expensive solutions in many cases. Indeed, sometimes they're better. See also the recent discussion (which I can't find right now) about the reliability of USB Wi-Fi adapters, where cheaper is often better. Assessing on merit beats assessing on price and brand, especially with consumer equipment.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

But I don't have any problems with my $20 router (17,65 €, actually). My home router is a TP-Link WR740N and it currently has an uptime of just over two months, the last reset being due to changing a port forwarding rule. I can't remember the last time it had a problem that required a reset. It serves a Linux laptop (madame's, on all day), three full-time Android devices and two Raspberry Pis. One Android and one RPi are all-day music and radio streamers, so there's a fair level of continuous traffic.

It has been my router of choice for domestic clients (now changed to the later WR841N) and I have had one failure out of 37 supplied. That failure had been on the receiving end of an unprotected lightning surge, so it's forgiveable.

As for Wi-Fi repeaters – they have 'flakey' writ large on them. Not a good solution to extending Wi-Fi cover: unreliable and inflexible, a poor engineering solution.

The first minute I saw these new Amplifi's...I was hoping they were using ethernet over powerline bridging. As I try to avoid using repeating or mesh when I can. I have setup mesh and repeaters before. Ubiquiti does a decent job with repeater mode in their Unifis.

Ubiquiti is strong on performance. I don't know the details of their repeater setup yet...but it's a wireless bridge and I think it's on the 5.0 band. Their setup utilizes both Band Steering, and Router Steering...which are two excellent features not usually seen in el cheapo products. I'm curious to see how it will do, and looking forward to it being thoroughly reviewed and tested by Tim over at SmallNetBuilder.

The market has proven over and over, it is willing to pay lots of money for higher performance WiFi that works. With large mcmansion homes being common these days, typically a single wireless unit cannot do the job. It does fine for me, I have a 3 story 3,600 sq ft home with my network distro in my man cave bar in the basement. Covers my 3 floors fine. But many newer homes are much larger, and spread out, sprawling. High performance, single device wireless routers, have done well in sales. Look at the higher end Asus RT models, or the Netgear Nighthawks, (most of those in the mid to upper $200.00 range). Your beloved TP-Link is releasing a new model, the Talon AD7200. MSRP of $350.00. http://www.snbforums.com/threads/tp-link-releases-first-wireless-ad7200-router.32625/

Many newer homes have lots of devices that demand more bandwidth. Double digits and more for device counts. Wireless cameras. Wireless audio systems. Many homes with kids that pound bandwidth hard, and they need good QoS to the kids gaming, or downloading/torrenting, doesn't crush it for everyone else. Those loads will hammer cheaper hardware.

Having an easy peasy setup system that is truly "plug and play" for the average, non-network savvy home user, will do well.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Hands-on: Ubiquiti’s Amplifi covers the whole house in a Wi-Fi mesh. Ars Technica Review.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

http://blog.amplifi.com/2016/09/15/what-is-home-wi-fi-mesh-technology/ Blog post on some cool features of Amplifi.