Everywhere I see the original hEX price is still the same as the refresh. Does it make any sense? Who would buy the original version when the cost is the same?
I would like to get a MT switch, ideally, with at least 8 ports. But the key is I want a switch with RouterOS. From what I can see, the least expensive RouterOS gigabit device is actually the hEX at $60. When hEX R came out, I was thinking the original cost would drop, would be a really nice switch for something like $40.
I guess the demand for the original hEX must still be there, otherwise I don’t see how distributors can possibly still sell them for $60.
Mikrotik never changes MSRP of a device … not even when being discontinued. I have no idea what happens to real price (distributors paying to Mikrotik) and it’s up to distributors to do something about it if they are left with warehouse full of obsolete devices.
And your right is to choose between different offerings to maximize feature/price ratio. So you’re more than free to ignore hEX if you can get a similar device for lower price. Or purchase hEX refresh (it’s a nice 4-port switch with dedicated management port ) not to spend your dimes on obsolete gadgets.
I understand about MSRP, my question was more oriented to the real market picture that I see. And I was curious to know if there is anything special in the original hEX that still keeps the demand alive.
I was lucky to snatch a bunch of hAP ac2’s for $60 each, those beat hEX in pretty much every aspect. A better switch chip too.
Leaving wifi out of the analysis (that is, only comparing the AC2 with the hEX) and only comparing the switching functionality and performance, does the AC2 outperform the hEX?
I guess performance-wise they should be the same in most scenarios. MikroTik doesn’t publish switching performance for these. The main differences are in features.
RB750Gr3 has MT7621 switch chip which doesn’t support rules. There are two block diagrams, one with disabled switching, one with enabled. I’m not sure what it means as I don’t own a hEX. The disabled one won’t switch at wire speed. The enabled mode will.
E50UG has EN7562CT, no rules either, smaller host table. On top of that, eth1 is not connected to the switch chip, and while it can probably bridge at wire speed, the CPU would be wasted on that (instead of, for example, running WireGuard or some containers).
ac2 has all 5 ports on the switch chip and supports 92 switch rules. One downside is it doesn’t support offloaded bridge VLAN filtering (unlike both hEX’es), but VLANs can be configured using the switch menu (what I have been doing).
I guess that “real market picture” depends both on MT’s policy (do they drop their own device prices after a while or not) and your local distributors (do they tend to keep prices high “just because they can” or do they lower them to remain competitive … if there’s real competition on the market). Global players (e.g. Amazon) affect local markets somehow, but with cheap gadgets also postage costs (and customs duties) matter.
But I guess that if your local distributors don’t drop prices (for old devices, such as hEX Gr3), then they don’t see any reason to do that … either they don’t have any stock and listed price doesn’t matter … as if a customer comes and orders a device, they’ll have to order it from source and if customer comes and orders an obsolete device with high price, then it’s obviously good value to the customer.
Or distributor does have some stock but still see market demand and want to maximize profits (or they simply can’t lower prices because they might start creating losses depending on price they had to pay when stocking).
But anyways, you should be discussing these arguments with your local distributor, not here. We don’t make pricing policies and MT has limited influence over local prices.
) not to spend your dimes on obsolete gadgets.