Range hap ac3 vs others - Coverage and antenna count

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

Hi!

hap ac3 is advertized as:
“We have included external high gain wireless antennas with outstanding coverage.”

Did you see any advantage over e.g. wap ac? I am quite unsure about the device.

  • Do external antennas give any benefit in coverage e.g. in office or warehouse environments?
  • How can hap ac3 work with only 2 antennas as a dual radio AP? Should’t it have 4 like RB4011 (2 per radio)?

Thank you for your thoughts
Stril

2

The RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD-IN has four antennas because the 5Ghz interface supports up to 4 wireless chains. Antennas used in these devices are dual-band which can support both 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz simultaneously. It depends on the extended antenna which is used, some have higher antenna-gain, which will allow reaching further distances at the cost of omnidirection.

3

Is there a significant difference in real WiFi coverage between the hap ac2 vs hap ac3 to justify the higher price of the latter? Need to decide between these two models, RB4011 and Audience may be better but too expensive.

4

http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/single-router-wifi-coverage-ac2-vs-ac3-vs-audience/150185/1

5

hAP ac³ (as compared to hAP ac²) has a slightly better CPU, more RAM and way more flash (and a decent amount of flash, for example, means better chances your WiFi will become Wave2 some day when v7 is stable enough). Also better antennae, but these along do not justify the price difference. So… if everything you care about right now is just the WiFi coverage then just go buy the cheaper one.

6

I’m using AC3, compared to other MT device is depend what model. If you still using 2.4G, i prefer RB951UI-2HND. While it has lower specification compared to AC3, in my experience it has better performance.