We were also provided an animated version of this image, in which the Alien router bobs up and down gently while levitating. We elected not to use that one.
Enlarge / We were also provided an animated version of this image, in which the Alien router bobs up and down gently while levitating. We elected not to use that one.
Amplifi

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Ubiquiti’s consumer brand Amplifi has launched a new Wi-Fi 6 product line called “AmpliFi Alien.” The original Amplifi products were typically sold as three-piece Wi-Fi mesh kits, so we got a little excited when we saw a price tag of $380 for Alien.

Unfortunately, that price is for a single router, not a kit—which means that Amplifi Alien, like Orbi AX6000, is still in stratospheric “you probably don’t want this yet” territory where price is concerned. We have a sneaking suspicion both these price points are a bit of a gouge, since TP-Link’s Broadcom BCM6750-based AX1500 Wi-Fi 6 router is already available for under $100.

Like Amplifi’s earlier products, Alien features a small touchscreen on the router which can display the time, speed-test results, and offer some simple direct network control. Its power and WAN ports are recessed inside the base of the unit with a cable-management tunnel, but the four LAN ports are arranged along the back side of the barrel, opposite the touchscreen.

  • In this front/top shot of Alien, we can see the 274×1268 color touchscreen—and, of course, the glowing green ring at the bottom, which can be disabled if you don’t like the look.
    Amplifi

  • This bottom/rear shot of Alien gives us a look at the recessed WAN and power ports in the base and the exposed gigabit LAN ports running up the back.
    Amplifi

  • This is the back side of the Alien router, on which we can see the four exposed gigabit LAN ports and the cable management tunnel leading to power and WAN in the recessed base.
    Amplifi

Under the hood, Alien offers 5GHz 8×8 and 2.4GHz 4×4 radios, and—curiously—a Wi-Fi 5-only 5GHz 4×4 radio. Given the marketing copy, we expect that Alien will use the Wi-Fi 6 radio for backhaul in a multiple-router mesh setup. We think it’s an odd choice to include a Wi-Fi 5-only radio instead of sticking with Wi-Fi 6 on all three bands, though.

Amplifi describes these radios as delivering 7685Mbps total capacity and Alien as covering “twice the square footage” of Amplifi’s previous mesh Wi-Fi efforts, complete with a bar chart demonstrating the difference between 2 and 1. However, as we have exhaustively covered in the past, Wi-Fi marketing numbers are useless. We won’t really have any idea of how good Alien is until we’ve gotten a unit or two to test.

Alien hasn’t shown up on Amazon yet, but it’s available directly at the Amplifi website.