I'm debating which of these two to get to use as a centre-of-the-house access point. Is the cAP ax wireless range much better than the range of the hAP ax2? The reason I'm considering the hAP ax2 is it's a more versatile device, with more mounting options, smaller (more discrete) and black (the place where I want to put it is dark wood so it will blend in better. But ultimately wireless performance is what matters most.

What is the area you are trying to cover ? Are walls from brick or is it drywall ? Is your space more open or not ? Do you have one floor or more ?

I guess that cAP ax will behave slightly better, specially in uplink direction.

cAP ax has slightly better antenna gain (1dBi better in 5GHz band and 2dBi better in 2.4GHz band). This doesn't necessarily help in downlink: if device is configured according to country regulations, most of spectrum in most of countries comes with EIRP limits which are the limiting factor (it's Tx power + antenna gain). This is actually offset by hAP ax2 having slightly higher Tx power so in DL there won't be any difference (even if country regulations wouldn't practically limit Tx power).

However, Rx sensitivity of both devices is identical. But higher antenna gain does help in Rx direction as well, which means that cAP ax will be able to capitalize this in Rx direction (compared to hAP ax2).

The difference is not that huge, so if most of your house isn't larger than usable range of wifi of either of devices, the difference won't really be prominent.
OTOH family happiness is important and if hAP ax2 has better WAF value, go for it

My view (I have them both):
Cap AX is better as pure AP. Period.
However AX2 is better for households from aesthetic point of view (definitely passes the WAF test) and it has additional ether ports, which especially in a home can come in quite handy.

I would say the covera is very similar. If you can mount CAP AX on the ceiling buy CAP AX. If you can not mount on celing I would go woth AX2. AX2 is much smaller than CAP AX2 and have more ports.
I have 2xHAP AX2 as AP. and Im very happy with them. One AX2 is used as WiFI AP and switch hub.

I would agree both Cap ax and Hap ax2 (I have both) are great bits of kit, pick your poison for the ocasion I say, as both are equally as good WiFi wise. If I could choose one for raw performance it would be the Cap ax 100%. But for just one room and aesthetics, I would choose the Hap ax2. Don't forget the bracket on the Hap ax2 can be used for standing horizontal and vertical as well as screwed to the ceiling!

Thanks for the replies thus far. Here's a diagram of my house layout. Signal strength values taken with mobile app and ISP wireless router placed where it says "AP" in the diagram, which is roughly the centre of the building. The house is brick walls throughout and the floors are concrete. The stairs are made of wood entirely and the stairwell walls are brick. The left-pointing blue arrows on the AP indicate the way the top side of the ISP router faces (I've mounted it vertically on the side of one of the staircase studs), which maybe explains why the signal is weaker in the room labelled "man cave".



Considering this is just the ISP router, coverage isn't too bad. Even if it's not ideal, I can watch YouTube anywhere in the house. The plan was to have an AP at the centre of the house, to serve the entire property and then a wireless router in the "man cave" where signal appears to be weaker and where the main router is, rather conveniently, going to be located. My PC connects directly to the router using CAT5. I'm thinking one of the following options:

2x hAP ax2
or...
1x hAP ax2 + 1x cAP ax
or...
something else?

I had considered the hAP ax3 as my main router but I don't think I'd benefit from its increased wireless performance since it would only serve the one room, and for a small home network the ax2 should be plenty.

buy 1x HAP AX3 the price diffrence is not to big but you will have future proof router with 45% higher CPU.
and 1x CAP AX because you will have it on stairwell and the signal should be better and AX have the same CPU as HAP AX3....

Considering this is just the ISP router, coverage isn't too bad.

Which make/model?
Sometimes ISP routers are anyway rather good at wi-fi coverage. (and sometimes they are terrible).

From the plan/data you shared it seems like it is not much directional in the sense of the arrow, as you have 48 on the left room (kitchen) and 56 on the right one (living room).

What happens if you just rotate the ISP router 180° horizontally?

Maybe you will get the -80 in the storage room and the -65 in the man's cave (and -56 in the kitchen and -48 in the living room).

Personally I would choose two Ax2's as they are (IMHO) more flexible devices that can be re-used somewhere else more easily.

So, if you plan to use ax2 or 3 as a router instead of your existing ISP router then you should consider what is max speed you want to have.

AX3 is more futureproof but AX2 have great WAF factor. I have cAP ax and for eg i can confirm WAF factor here is terrible. Both of my APs must be behind TV or something else.

But i presume that ax3 will be in man cave then im with Rox169 on this one. ax3 and cap ax is a way to go.