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Inferior physical design of new AP6 420 vs our older APX 320

Rafael Telles

We recently moved to a new office and decided to upgrade our two APX 320s to two AP6 420s. The specs on the new APs look great in paper but once we tested them in real life the increase in performance wasn't as much as we expected. Anyways at least in performance we improved a little, however in terms of physical design it went downhill!

I really dislike the new AP6s, the unit is larger and uglier, but the biggest complaint I have is with the positioning of the ETH, USB, Reset and power input on the side instead of in the back of the unit. Our APX 320s looked very nice installed in the dropped ceiling, the AP6 420 show the Cat6 cable connecting to it from the side (not a clean look), plus all the other ports/holes.

This post is meant as feedback for the design team, maybe for the next APs they will go back to a more compact unit and putting the Eth jack in the back again,



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[edited by: Erick Jan at 12:35 AM (GMT -7) on 11 Oct 2024]
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  • 0 in reply to Rafael Telles

    Just to be sure: The design of AP6 is the same of Legacy AP from back in the day. You will find even the same design from AP100. 

    So Sophos went back to the original design. 

    The AP6 840 is the same design as APX. See: https://www.sophos.com/de-de/products/secure-wifi/tech-specs 

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  • 0 in reply to LuCar Toni

    The AP6 840 is overkill and too expensive for our office, one APX 320 would be enough but we had a second one for redundancy. To be honest I regret upgrading to the AP4 420 but now it is too late to return them to CDW and ask for a refund so I will use them. Such a shame cause the APX 320s were only 18 months old and look nicer and now will be unused.

    Too bad Sophos decided to go back to the original design, I like better the compact unit, not as nice looking as Unifi APs but clean enough.

  • 0 in reply to Rafael Telles

    The real joke is that the ceiling mounting bracket that is compatible with 420/420E and 840/840E is designed for the 840's / old layout:

    420/420E APs should at least have an option for a small plastic cover that is mounted on the plate for the cabling that helps hiding the cabling when ceiling-mounted.

      Yes, the older models had connectors on the side (AP15, AP55, AP100) too, but in those times ceiling models existed that don't had these issues. APX introduced a "one-for-all" design and AP6 is now going back to the roots without special ceiling models and with two completely different layouts. With twice the costs of the smaller model none of our customers would choose the 840s just for a better look.

    Regards,

    Kevin

    Sophos CE/CA (XG, UTM, Central Endpoint)
    Gold Partner

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