R500 are a great deal which normally perform better than any of your unif ac pro/lite (minus 1 antenna stream for the Pro)But do note r500 are EOL so no more firmware upgrades which means no WPA3 support. R500 have better range than the Unifi in both 2.4ghz and 5ghz. As with ruckus APs. they do really well in areas that have a lot of interference compare to unifi and can easily handle 100 devices on a single AP while the Unifi AC Pro would choke. Ruckus shines well in high density deployments like schools and hotels.
As for comparison for range. R500/R600/R700 have pretty much the same range for all 3 of them
The r510/r610/710 have better range than the wave 1 ap
As for the difference between r500/r510 it’s a 2x2 radio with 64 different antenna patterns per band. Poe
R600/R610 is 3x3 radio with 512 ish different antenna patterns per band? Poe+
R710 4 antennas radio and 3000-4000 different antenna patterns Poe+
But hey for $120 to check it out for 3 r5o0, I think it’s worth it. ... you can always resell it later if you upgrade.
anyway, for WiFi 6 ...only the r750 is out and unleashed supports it. It is going to be a while before we see it used. R650 should be shipping soon in a few months.
Also note all of the ruckus APs will have enterprise grade WiFi chipset, while the Unifi AC Pro and lite have consumer WiFi chipsets. Only the high end unifi APs such as Unifi HD have enterprise grade chipset.
R710 can be had for about $200ish used. Just wait til large companies upgrade. Anyway try out r500 and you won’t regret it.
Excellent summary. Thank you!
New to Ruckus antenna patterns. What does it mean to have 64 vs 512 vs 4000 different antenna patterns?Practical use?
For some best practices question on number of APs, placement and orientation:
Scenario A: residential home 24'x60' with attic and crawlspace, up to 10 users
-> one AP (R500), in middle of attic, laying flat on floor (any difference upside down?)
Scenario B: three story apartment building 24'x60', up to 20 users
-> two APs (R500), one on first floor and other third floor, flat mounted to ceilings
Scenario C: 60' x 60' office, up to 50 users
-> two APs (R710), from center spaced apart midway, drop ceiling mounted
-> OR... three APs (R710), triangle formation, drop ceiling mounted