Tenda i36 — BE5010 Dual-Band WiFi7 Ceiling Access Point

Buying it, and when not to

The i36 is a BE5010 dual-band Wi-Fi 7 ceiling access point - the newest and most capable access point in this catalogue.

It is for the site that is being built to last, or being built to impress: a new corporate office, a premium guest house, a serviced building where the WiFi is part of what the tenant is paying for, or a venue whose users arrive with current-generation phones. Wi-Fi 7's wider channels and improved scheduling give the most benefit exactly where device counts are high and expectations are higher. Like the rest of the i-series it is one Ethernet cable per unit from a PoE switch, so the install discipline is identical to a cheaper build.

On a site whose devices are mostly older, it will spend its life serving 11AC and Wi-Fi 6 clients and the customer paid for headroom nobody uses - the i27 delivers the same practical result for considerably less. For small premises, the i26 or i24 is the right size. For a warehouse or hall where distance is the problem, the long-range i29 covers more floor per drop. And confirm the PoE budget and the switch uplink capacity before quoting a multi-unit Wi-Fi 7 build; the access points will outrun a gigabit uplink before they run out of radio.