Tenda i24 — AC1200 Wave 2 Gigabit Ceiling Access Point

Buying it, and when not to

The i24 is an AC1200 Wave 2 gigabit ceiling access point. This is where WiFi stops being a consumer product: a flat unit on the ceiling, fed and powered by one Ethernet cable, radiating down into the room where the people are.

Specify it for shops, offices, restaurants, church halls, clinics and market units - anywhere a router sitting on a shelf behind a counter has been failing to cover the floor. One cable per access point, powered from a PoE switch such as the TEG1105P-4-63W or TEG1110PF-8-120W, means no power adaptor in a ceiling void and one UPS protecting every access point on the site. It is the cheapest ceiling unit here and the right default for a price-sensitive commercial job.

It is Wave 2 11AC, not Wi-Fi 6. On a dense site - a busy restaurant, a co-working floor, a packed classroom - the Wi-Fi 6 i26 and i27 handle the crowd noticeably better and are worth the difference. For a large open area needing reach rather than density, the i29 long-range model is the correct choice. For an outdoor or semi-exposed mounting, use the OAP1200 instead; a ceiling unit will not survive rain. And in a private house, mesh is usually simpler than cabling ceilings.