Ubiquiti Unifi U7 Pro WiFi 7 Access Point Review

Earlier this 12 months, Ubiquiti introduced the brand new Unifi U7 Professional WiFi 7 entry level, which was the primary entry level to launch at a comparatively inexpensive value level.

On the time, the one different choices obtainable had been the Zyxel WBE660S NebulaFlex Professional, which price round £700, and the EnGenius ECW536, which price round $1200.

So, the Unifi U7 Professional, priced at $180/£171, represented unbelievable worth for anybody eager to improve to WiFi 7.

Since then, a number of lower-priced merchandise have turn into obtainable, together with the £190 Zyxel NWA130BE and the £265 TP-Hyperlink EAP773.

Specification

HardwareNetworking interface: (1) 1/2.5 GbE RJ45 portManagement interface: Ethernet          Energy provide: UniFi PoE switchSupported voltage vary: 44—57V DCMax. energy consumption: 21W2.4 GHz Max. TX energy: 22 dBm5 GHz Max. TX energy: 26 dBm6 GHz Max. TX energy: 23 dBmMounting: Wall/ceiling (Included)Ambient working temperature: -30 to 60° C (-22 to 140° F)Ambient working humidity: 5 to 95% noncondensingSoftwareWiFi requirements: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/beWireless safety: WPA-PSK, WPA-Enterprise (WPA/WPA2/WPA3/PPSK)Superior QoS: Per-user charge limitingGuest site visitors isolation: SupportedSupported Knowledge Rates802.11a: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps802.11g: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps802.11n: 6.5 Mbps to 300 Mbps (MCS0 – MCS15, HT 20/40)802.11ac (WiFi 5): 6.5 Mbps to 1.7 Gbps (MCS0 – MCS9 NSS1/2, VHT 20/40/80/160)802.11ax (WiFi 6/6E): 7.3 Mbps to 2.4 Gbps (MCS0 – MCS11 NSS1/2, HE 20/40/80/160)802.11be (WiFi 7): 7.3 Mbps to five.7 Gbps (MCS0 – MCS13 NSS1/2, EHT 20/40/80/160/240/320)Software RequirementsUniFi Community: Model 8.0.26 and laterUniFi OS: Model 3.2 and later

2×2 vs 4×4 MIMO

Fairly a number of folks on the Web had expressed frustration with it utilizing a 2 x 2 MU-MIMO design for all of the bands when the earlier Unifi U6-Professional had 2 x 2 (UL MU-MIMO) on the 2GHz band however 4 x 4 (DL/UL MU-MIMO) on the 5GHz band.

Within the case of this new Ubiquiti entry level, I think the primary motive for this design determination is to maintain the prices down.

The older U6 Professional is listed at £152.40, which is £10 greater than the even older WiFi 5 AC Professional. The U7 Professional is £171.60.

For those who then take a look at the U6 Enterprise, which is 4×4 and has 2.5 GbE, that’s £267.60.

At present, there’s solely the Zyxel NWA130BE WiFi 7 entry level at an analogous value level and that’s additionally a 2×2 MIMO AP.

Set Up

Organising the U7 Professional is an easy course of when you’re already accustomed to the UniFi ecosystem. After mounting the AP in your required location, you join it to a PoE change, which offers each energy and information connectivity. There is no such thing as a DC barrel port for exterior energy, so when you don’t have a POE change, you would wish to make use of a POE injector.

As soon as powered on, the U7 Professional will present up within the UniFi Community Software the place you’ll be able to undertake it into your community and configure the SSID, safety, and different wi-fi settings. For those who’re organising a UniFi community from scratch, you’ll first have to deploy the UniFi Community Software on a neighborhood server or cloud key.

The UniFi Community Software offers a single pane of glass for managing all of your UniFi community gear, together with entry factors, switches, and gateways. It affords a user-friendly interface for monitoring purchasers, analyzing site visitors, and making use of granular management insurance policies.

UniFi Community Software Settings

Throughout the UniFi Community Software, there are a plethora of settings you’ll be able to configure to optimize the U7 Professional’s efficiency to your setting. Some key settings to concentrate to incorporate:

Radio settings: You possibly can configure the transmit energy and channel width for every radio independently. Increased transmit energy can prolong the vary however may additionally improve interference. Wider channel widths supply extra throughput however cut back the variety of non-overlapping channels.SSID settings: You possibly can create a number of SSIDs to phase your community, every with its personal safety and QoS settings. For instance, chances are you’ll need to create a separate SSID for IoT units with stricter firewall guidelines.Visitor insurance policies: The U7 Professional helps visitor site visitors isolation, which prevents visitor purchasers from speaking with one another or accessing inner community sources. You too can apply bandwidth limits and time-based entry controls to visitor customers.Meshing: UniFi entry factors help wi-fi meshing, permitting you to increase protection to hard-to-wire areas. The U7 Professional can perform as a mesh base or mesh level in a UniFi mesh community.Radar: The U7 Professional helps DFS (Dynamic Frequency Choice), which permits it to make use of channels within the 5GHz band which might be sometimes reserved for radar. This will help alleviate congestion in dense environments. Simply remember that the AP should change channels if it detects radar exercise.

Efficiency

To check the real-world efficiency of the U7 Professional, I performed a collection of throughput checks utilizing my desktop PC, which has the  MSI Herald-BE NCM865 PCIe Adapter put in, I’ve additionally used my Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely when testing the vary of the AP.

For the pace checks, I used each iPerf and a self-hosted OpenSpeedTest server on my TerraMaster F4-422 10GbE 4-Bay NAS, which is operating Unraid.

I’ve additionally in contrast the outcomes to the Zyxel NWA130BE, which is one other WiFi 7 AP in the identical value vary.

It’s price noting that the two.5GbE connection limits each the Zyxel NWA130BE and Ubiquiti U7 Professional entry factors. Nonetheless, I used to be in a position to obtain 3530Mbps with the Netgear Nighthawk RS700S once I examined it utilizing a cellular, because of the 10GbE connection.

WiFi 7 6GHz Efficiency

In close-range checks, the Ubiquiti U7 Professional achieved speeds of 1950 Mbit/sec at 160MHz and 2460 Mbit/sec at 320MHz, whereas the Zyxel NWA130BE achieved speeds of 1860 Mbit/sec at 160MHz and 2376 Mbit/sec at 320MHz.

Shut Vary:Ubiquiti U7 Professional @ 160MHz: 1950 Mbit/secUbiquiti U7 Professional @ 320MHz: 2460 Mbit/secZyxel NWA130BE @ 160MHz: 1860 Mbit/secZyxel NWA130BE @ 320MHz: 2376 Mbit/secDown One Flooring (wooden ground)Ubiquiti U7 Professional @ 160MHz: 1825 Mbit/secUbiquiti U7 Professional @ 320MHz: 2068 Mbit/secZyxel NWA130BE @ 160MHz: 1721Mbit/secZyxel NWA130BE @ 320MHz: 1898 Mbit/secAcross one room (by means of a brick wall)Ubiquiti U7 Professional @ 160MHz: 1100 Mbit/secUbiquiti U7 Professional @ 320MHz: 1427 Mbit/secZyxel NWA130BE @ 160MHz: 1123 Mbit/secZyxel NWA130BE @ 320MHz: 1425 Mbit/sec

WiFi 7 5GHz Efficiency

Within the 5GHz band, the U7 Professional maintained a wholesome lead over the NWA130BE. At shut vary, it delivered 1771Mbps at 160MHz and 2198Mbps at 240MHz. The NWA130BE may solely muster 1512Mbps at 160MHz.

The NWA130BE doesn’t can help you use 240MHz channel width. Contemplating the restricted variety of bands obtainable for 5GHz @ 160MHz, it’s in all probability greatest to not depend on 240MHz.

Shut Vary:Ubiquiti U7 Professional @ 160MHz: 1771 Mbit/secUbiquiti U7 Professional @ 240MHz: 2198 Mbit/secZyxel NWA130BE @ 160MHz: 1512 Mbit/secDown One Flooring (wooden ground)Ubiquiti U7 Professional @ 160MHz: 1450 Mbit/secUbiquiti U7 Professional @ 240MHz: 1649 Mbit/secZyxel NWA130BE @ 160MHz: 1323 Mbit/secAcross one room (by means of a brick wall)Ubiquiti U7 Professional @ 160MHz: 1568 Mbit/secUbiquiti U7 Professional @ 240MHz: 1863 Mbit/secZyxel NWA130BE @ 160MHz: 1511 Mbit/sec

2.4GHz Efficiency

For two.4Ghz, I solely did fundamental testing as most individuals now use this solely for IoT, and the throughput isn’t that necessary.

Ubiquiti U7 Professional @ 40MHz: 342Mbit/secZyxel NWA130BE @ 40MHz: 342Mbit/sec

Value and Various Choices

The Ubiquiti U7 Professional is available for purchase now from the Unifi retailer for £171.60. Amazon has Prime supply choices from Scan for £223, and 4Gon has it for £177.72.

The older Professional is priced at £152.40, and the U6 Enterprise, which is a 4×4 WiFi 6E AP, is priced at £267.

The Zyxel NWA130BE is presently the very best different choice at an analogous value level. That is priced at £200 from Zyxel or £190 for Amazon.

TP-Hyperlink has the EAP773 priced at £263 on Broadband Purchaser, that is one other 2×2 MIMO AP, however this advantages from 10GbE. It lacks the 240MHz channel width on the 5GHz band and has a better energy consumption of as much as 24W.

Total

The Ubiquiti U7 Professional is great and excellent for prosumers and small companies wanting the very best WiFi efficiency.

The U7 Professional’s efficiency is on par with or exceeds that of the equally priced Zyxel NWA130BE, making it a powerful contender within the WiFi 7 entry level market. Its 2.5GbE2.5GbE Ethernet port and help for the most recent wi-fi requirements be sure that it will possibly deal with the calls for of recent, high-bandwidth functions.

Whereas some might desire the 4×44×4 MU-MIMO design of the dearer U6 Enterprise, the U7 Professional strikes a steadiness between efficiency and affordability that can attraction to many customers. Its sturdy characteristic set, together with superior wi-fi safety and QoS choices, additional provides to its worth.

Ubiquiti appears to get numerous criticism for its customer support and numerous different points, however it’s simple to see why it’s so widespread within the prosumer house. The Ubiquiti U7 Professional is comparatively inexpensive and has unbelievable efficiency, making it simple to handle through the UniFi Community Software.

If I had been to construct out my community from scratch, I’d in all probability go down the Unifi route with the Ubiquiti U7 Professional as my chosen AP.

Initially posted on Mighty Gadget