How to choose between EX7300 and EX7500

[SIERRA-880]

Hi,

I have a poor WiFi in my house of about 300 m². I would like to improve the signal with one or more extender.

The EX7300 look nice because it can be set as an acces point (I can easily connect my router to one extender via ethernet). And the other one as a repeater.

The EX7500 use fast lane but is it as good as an ethernet cable ? It will be nice to disable the wifi of my bad quality router.

I would also keep the same SSID, not _EXT.

Wich one do I need to choose ?

Thank you

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

The EX7500 can also be set up as an AP.

The main difference between these two extender is the 5 Ghz radios.  The EX7300 has one 5 Ghz radio set up to use 4x4 802.11ac.  The EX7500 uses two 5 Ghz radios, each set up as 2x2 802.11ac. With most equipment they will give about the same performance.  In AP mode you would see a performance advantage with a Mac Pro (or a PC with a 3x3 or 4x4 802.11ac client).  If you are using the extender to bridge ethernet over 5 Ghz (no WiFi clients), then the EX7300 would have an edge. 

But most people are extending WiFi, and have devices are using either 2x2 or 1x1 radios - and performance will be the same with those.  And triband is a bit more flexible.  

So if your wifi clients are the usual 2x2 or 1x1, then I'd get the triband EX7500, and use 5 Ghz fastlane on the extender that isn't in AP mode.   Another option (more expensive) is to get an Orbi system and deploy it as an AP.  An RBK40 package will handle 300 square meters, though the RBK50 might give you a bit more speed.

With all these options, you can turn off the router wifi because you'd also have an AP on the network. 

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

The EX7500 can also be set up as an AP.

The main difference between these two extender is the 5 Ghz radios.  The EX7300 has one 5 Ghz radio set up to use 4x4 802.11ac.  The EX7500 uses two 5 Ghz radios, each set up as 2x2 802.11ac. With most equipment they will give about the same performance.  In AP mode you would see a performance advantage with a Mac Pro (or a PC with a 3x3 or 4x4 802.11ac client).  If you are using the extender to bridge ethernet over 5 Ghz (no WiFi clients), then the EX7300 would have an edge. 

But most people are extending WiFi, and have devices are using either 2x2 or 1x1 radios - and performance will be the same with those.  And triband is a bit more flexible.  

So if your wifi clients are the usual 2x2 or 1x1, then I'd get the triband EX7500, and use 5 Ghz fastlane on the extender that isn't in AP mode.   Another option (more expensive) is to get an Orbi system and deploy it as an AP.  An RBK40 package will handle 300 square meters, though the RBK50 might give you a bit more speed.

With all these options, you can turn off the router wifi because you'd also have an AP on the network.