A bit early to the party, the Synology RT6600ax router doesn't support the new WiFi 6E, which utilizes the 6 GHz band for even faster transfer speeds. I asked Synology about this, and they responded that WiFi 6E is a new standard, so they expect supply constraints, which will lead to higher production costs. Unfortunately, this is true, and worldwide manufacturing and logistics problems have caused many issues in the IT sector, and not only. In other words, you manufacture what you can with the current supply; there is no reason to wait for months on newer ICs which are likely also way more expensive.

The RT6600ax continues the legacy of the RT2600ac, which I have for some time now used daily in my home setup without any issues; and offering lots of capabilities, the new SRM OS is a real pleasure to use. Having a ton of experience with operating systems for Linux boxes, Synology created a terrific router operating system I am sure many other brands with much more experience in this sector envy. The mesh capabilities of the RT6600ax are restricted for the moment since you can only connect it with similar routers. Still, in the near future, Synology will provide compatibility with the MR2200ac and RT2600ac routers. The same Synology routers will also receive the SRM 1.3 upgrade later this year.

In the real-life tests I conducted, which are the most interesting, the RT6600ax was slightly faster than the Engenius ECW230, which might be notably more expensive but has lower wireless throughput. However, it uses a stronger, more capable WiSOC (IPQ8072A) than the RT6600ax. Only in two-client scenarios during the OLAP and OLTP tests did the RT6600ax fall behind the ECW230. With the utilization of the 5.9 GHz part of the spectrum, which allows for a third 160 MHz channel, which is for the time being not congested, the RT6600ax can match the speeds of WiFi 6E routers because the lower the frequency, the less power is required to transmit at the same distance. Lastly, the price is a little stiff, but you should not forget that it also includes the terrific SRM 1.3 OS, and Synology somehow has to recoup part of its development cost. In general, I can say I liked Synology's new router, although I would like to see better mesh performance, which is critical for many consumers nowadays. I am waiting for Synology to soon introduce an upgraded MR2200ac with WiFi 6 support since buying multiple RT6600ax routers to expand the network is too expensive.