The Ubiquiti U6-Pro UniFi WiFi 6 Access Point is an indoor WiFi 6 AP with 5.3Gbps over the air speed and a 300+ client capacity. The U6-Pro is a dual-band WiFi 6 (802.11ax) access point that represents the next generation of high-performance wireless technology for home and enterprise users. Delivering blazing fast over the air speeds of up to 5.3 Gbps over its 5GHz and 2.4GHz channels, the U6-Pro will maximise the WiFi experience of any residential or office deployment. Plus, with its ability to support over 300 concurrent clients, the U6-Pro ensures reliable wireless coverage across even the most device-dense environments. The U6-Pro also marries power with ease of use through streamlined setup, configuration, and mobile-friendly management via the UniFi Network app. Easy to Deploy and Manage! There is a bump in the antenna gain of 0.5dBi for the 5GHz, while the transmit power is 22dBm as opposed to the 26dBm of the U6-LR, the platform is also different but is that enough to make a noticeable difference between the two models? There should be a difference, but I am not sure it’s going to be that steep, hence the small difference in terms of cost between the two models. When further away, you can see the impact of the lower transmit power for APs like the U6-Lite. Higher power and higher spatial stream APs offer more distance, and can compensate with features such as beamforming. Range is where the U6-LR and U6-Pro show their biggest advantage over the U6-Lite. Higher gain antennas and higher transmit power allow them to reach further. A few extra dBm is enough to allow an AP to effectively cover a larger area. In-wall models are handy if you have Ethernet run to a wall plate. The three models I've tested aren't the best to compare because I don't have a AC-In-Wall-HD, or a Wi-Fi 5 model from Omada. Once again UniFi and Omada APs are generally the best value. The Instant On AP11D and AP17 are the worst value on a pure performance per dollar metric, but hopefully they'll be replaced with Wi-Fi 6 models soon.

The curious thing is that the industry wants to push us now towards WiFi 6E. Slow down, guys, you’re not going to pull this off in the WiFi networking market, although I applaud your effort. I know people that are still using 802.11n (WiFi 4) routers, so the adoption at the home-user level is really not that great; neither is at the SMB or enterprise level because the equipment costs money, the monitoring and the management for new hardware costs money and it’s not worth it upgrading every couple of years. Wireless Test (5GHz)I’ve seen this approach with lots of EnGenius access points, including the ECW230 and the latest WiFi 6E ECW336, and it works wonders for the heat management of compact access points. Ubiquiti still insists that their APs are suitable for outdoors, so there are no ventilation holes and you do get a silicone cover for the ports area, which means that the device will get hotter to the touch when it’s operational (due to the heat transfer), but there should be no risk of overheating. Ubiquiti U6-Pro Heat Management. The U6 LR unsurprisingly has the best performance (speed and range) across both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, thanks to the highest signal strength and 4×4 MIMO on all bands. Next, I detached the metallic part of the case, leaving the antenna assembly still connected to the PCB. Flipping it upside down allowed me to identify the dual-core 1GHz Qualcomm IPQ5018, there are 4GB of flash NAND memory from Mouser Electronics (THGBMNG5D1LBAIL VD6963 2147KAE) and 8MB flash memory from MXIC (25U6432F). Ubiquiti U6-Pro Teardown. The U6-Pro switches from MediaTek to a Qualcomm chipset. Generally speaking, Qualcomm’s solutions are better than an equivalent MediaTek chipset. I’m glossing over a lot of details there, but the underlying differences are enough that Ubiquiti classifies the U6-Pro as a 6th generation device, while the U6-Lite and U6-LR are both 5th generation. Ubiquiti seems to have had different ambitions with its U6-LR and the U6-Pro, and that’s to make the transition towards the WiFi 6 standard as cheap and painless as possible, so neither really aim to be speed champions. The problem is that while there is a clear distinction between the U6-Lite and the other WiFi 6 Ubiquiti APs, the lines get very blurred when putting the U6-LR and the Ubiquiti U6-Pro next to each other. Yes, I know the former should reach farther (LR stands for long range), while the latter is built to perform better on the 5GHz, but is that really the case? Ubiquiti U6-Pro.

The U6 Mesh can be placed on a table, wall-mounted or ceiling-mounted, but the others are designed to be wall or ceiling mounted only. You can of course place the others on a table but coverage may suffer. Now how reliable that Wi-Fi is across the whole home and whether there are dead spots is another matter altogether. If your home is large or spread across multiple floors, a single Wi-Fi router is just not going to cut it. But your ISP-provided router comes with just 1 Wi-Fi radio. When everything is working properly, then the LED will be solid blue and, before it’s adopted to the UniFi controller, it will be solid white. What’s very problematic is that Ubiquiti has advertised that the users would be able to set the color that they wanted (RGB), but they have removed that feature. I have no idea why because as I said, the single LED pales in comparison to the traditional array of LEDs anyway. Why not have some fun? Hold on, what is the U6 Mesh? Are the other U6 models not mesh devices? Of course all UniFi WAPs are mesh devices, as I explained earlier. I think UniFi chose a terrible name for the U6 Mesh and I can only imagine this for marketing purposes. This model is obviously aimed at the Google/Netgear/TP-Link plug-and-play mesh Wi-Fi market who are not very tech-savvy but represent a growing market. Those products typically only support wireless up-link because they do not have Ethernet ports. But the U6 Mesh has an Ethernet port, so it is just as wire-able as the other U6 models. The U6 Mesh should really have been called the U6 Pro Outdoor or something, because it is technically very similar to the U6 Pro, but with an IPX5 waterproof rating. I have been using the UniFi U6 Lite in my home for many months now and have been impressed by how much it improved Wi-Fi in my home. Range is very good and so are transfer speeds. But how does it compare to the other U6 models?While the likes of TP-Link, Google and Netgear have decent mesh Wi-Fi offerings these days, UniFi WAPs are at a whole different level when used as a part of a UniFi OS/console managed home network. And that’s exactly what we have in the VueVille DIY Smart Home network. The U6 Lite supports only WiFi4 (802.11ac) on the 2.4 GHz band, but the others support WiFi6 (802.11ax) on the 2.4 GHz band.