Inexpensive mesh sets for Wi-Fi 6 are still rare. The Nova EX12 costs only 350 euros in a set with three satellites.
The still relatively new WLAN standard Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax) has major advantages over the previous standards, especially in environments with many other wireless networks or many devices in the same network. Mesh networks, which often had to transport data several times through the air, also benefit from this. If you want to upgrade, however, many manufacturers still have to dig deep into their pockets.
The Chinese manufacturer Tenda is now adding the Nova EX12 mesh system to its selection of inexpensive Wi-Fi 6 mesh sets. It is the manufacturer’s first series with a total data rate of 3 Gbit/s. According to Tenda, a set of three should cost around 350 euros; additional satellites are also available individually or in a set of two.
Quad core CPU
The heart of the EX12 mesh satellites is a Broadcom chip with four cores and 256 MB of memory. Clients can connect to the WLAN via 2.4 and 5 GHz; the new 6 GHz band (Wi-Fi 6E) is not on board. Wi-Fi 6 is supported on both bands, but the EX12 is also backward compatible to 802.11a. Capable clients can achieve up to 574 Mbit/s in the 2.4 GHz band and 2402 Mbit/s in the 5 GHz band using 1024-QAM and 2×2 multi-user MIMO. It is encrypted with WPA2 or WPA3.
Tenda also promises uninterrupted roaming according to IEEE 802.11k and v. This is especially important for live streams and audio and video calls. Three Gigabit Ethernet sockets (copper) allow wired devices to be connected or the mesh backbone to be accelerated by wire. The administration of the set runs either via web interface or via app.
Integrated router
The Nova EX12 can not only serve as a mesh access point, but also as a router with a WLAN port: Tenda allows PPPoE dial-up, DHCP, static IP addresses and PPTP with IPv4 and IPv6. A parental control with schedules and URL filter is also installed.
The 350 euros mentioned are Tenda’s current recommended retail price. Due to the chip crisis, one can expect the price to fluctuate by a few euros. The manufacturer plans to launch the set in Europe shortly.
