Tenda AX12 Pro — AX3000 Dual-Band Gigabit Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router

Buying it, and when not to

The AX12 Pro is an AX3000 dual-band gigabit Wi-Fi 6 mesh router with five antennas. AX3000 puts it a clear class above the AX1500 models: more capable 5GHz radio, so the devices that can actually use Wi-Fi 6 get the benefit rather than just the badge.

This is the right single-box router for a well-served house on a decent fibre plan, a serious home office, or a small business with a dozen or so staff where you want one capable router rather than a switch-and-access-point build. Because it meshes, a second unit can be added later for an upstairs or a back building without replacing anything.

Think twice if the real problem is walls and distance rather than capacity. A single AX3000 router in a bungalow with corridors and concrete still has to push signal through them, and two cheaper mesh nodes placed well will beat one expensive router placed badly every time. For a true whole-home job, price the ME6 Pro or Nova MX12 three-pack. For a commercial site with staff and guest networks to keep apart, the W30E enterprise router or a cloud-managed switch and ceiling access points is the better architecture, and it will save you callbacks.