Why are high-end wireless routers so expensive?

Unconsciously, Wi Fi has been entering our lives for many years, especially in today's popular internet and smartphones, which have become an indispensable and important element in our lives. For home users, wireless routers are not only essential devices for accessing the internet, but also the simplest and most direct device for generating Wi Fi signals.

In the early days, wireless routers were relatively expensive, but now the cheapest home Wireless Router can be bought for a few tens of yuan, which can be said to be a conscience in today's rising prices. However, looking further, we found that high-end wireless routers are still relatively expensive, with some even reaching over 2000 yuan in price. So what is the price of high-end wireless routers compared to household wireless routers priced at tens of yuan?

1. Wireless specifications
High end wireless routers typically support the latest wireless specifications, such as 802.11ac, as well as dual frequency concurrency at 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Although low-priced products represented by intelligent wireless routers are now supporting 802.11ac and 2.4GHz/5GHz dual frequency, with a price of only one or two hundred yuan, their wireless transmission rate is not high. Generally, it is 1167Mbps (300+867Mbps), while high-end wireless routers can reach 1900Mbps (600+1300Mbps) or even higher.

2. Hardware performance
Before the concept of intelligent wireless routers, high-end wireless routers had already taken on this role. The equipment of CPU, memory, and external storage is like a small computer. Intelligent wireless routers that are not priced too low are usually equipped with inexpensive processors such as MediaTek MTK, as well as 64MB or 128MB of memory, while high-end wireless routers are equipped with Broadcomm or Marvell processors, which have higher main frequencies and stronger performance, often with a memory of over 256MB. The maximum number of machines we can bring usually depends on the hardware configuration. Moreover, QoS speed limits and DDoS also require higher hardware configurations to support. 5G Industrial Router



3. Workmanship and Materials
High end wireless routers are exquisitely crafted in both materials and workmanship, and their appearance has been carefully designed. Even when placed on the desktop, they are a highly technological decoration, while low-priced wireless routers are easy to see as cheap. High end wireless routers use multi-layer PCBs internally, with almost all components using SMD components and solid-state capacitors. Especially for Asus high-end models, the workmanship can even be comparable to computer motherboards. However, low-priced routers have relatively thin PCBs with few components, and even use plug-in electrolytic capacitors for capacitors. In addition, due to circuit design and other reasons, capacitor leakage often occurs. 4G Industrial Router



4. Scalable performance
Although intelligent wireless routers claim and implement gigabit Wi Fi, the wired part (WAN+LAN) still uses a 100Mbit Ethernet interface. This combination of wired and wireless looks quite comical, especially in today's world of 100Mbit fiber optic home access, when faced with data transmission from computers and NAS devices in local area networks, they are almost unable to cope. The high-end wireless router is equipped with a gigabit Ethernet interface, and in practical applications, the transmission speed is more than 10 times faster than a hundred gigabit port. In addition, the USB interface has become a standard feature of smart wireless routers, while high-end wireless routers are equipped with a USB 3.0 interface, which becomes a NAS with decent performance when connected to a mobile hard drive. Industrial DTU



5. Firmware
We know that the functionality of wireless routers largely depends on firmware. Although the original firmware features provided by manufacturers may not be very complete, they are very stable and have sufficient functionality. However, almost all high-end wireless routers have excellent third-party firmware that matches them, such as DD-WRT, Tomato, and Merlin. Due to different hardware configurations, fewer users, and lower performance, intelligent wireless routers, although equipped with the ability to flash third-party firmware, still lack excellent firmware and low playability. However, being able to remotely control through smartphones is a good highlight. Of course, high-end wireless routers now have exclusive mobile apps.



6. Stability
Our requirements for the internet are not only fast, but also stable, especially for online game users who are very sensitive to network quality. Low configuration routers with too many devices are prone to network speed stuttering or even router crashes, while some inexpensive wireless routers may experience slower network speeds, abnormally high ping values for online games, and Wi Fi connectivity issues after running for a long time, forcing them to restart. However, high-end wireless routers can often work stably for several months without restarting, and network quality is guaranteed.



7. Technology precipitation and brand premium
We have found that high-end wireless routers are almost occupied by traditional network equipment manufacturers such as Linksys, Asus, Cisco, and Netware. The hardware configuration and years of technological accumulation undoubtedly contribute to the high-end image of these brands. Brands such as TP Link have become synonymous with low-end civilian wireless routers, so even if high configuration wireless routers are produced, there may be few people interested. However, the technical level and capabilities of internet manufacturers such as Xiaomi can only be considered as elementary school students in front of these traditional network device manufacturers' brands.