SFR innovates and launches the Box 8X, “the most powerful on the market” according to the operator

WiFi 6
8 Gbit/s… The new Box 8X from SFR has everything from a nugget, and even does better in performance, in a way, than the Freebox Delta
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SFR unveiled its new home box on Tuesday, released from the Altice Labs laboratories. Called “SFR Box 8X”, the operator’s modem in the red square looks like two drops of water to its previous evolution, the Box 8 of 2019, still on the market. SFR touts its box as being ” the most powerful on the market », and it must be admitted that this qualification is not really stolen.

Up to 8 Gbit/s and Wi-Fi 6, the SFR Box 8X is a great

We quickly understand, reading the characteristics of the Box 8X, that SFR has focused on the connection speed with its new modem. First detail: the downlink speed, which can reach 8 Gbit / s shared, the device doing as well as the Freebox Delta, the only other box on the market to be able to reach this symbolic bar. 8 Gbit/s is also a download speed four times faster than that of the previous generation, the Box 8.

Regarding the upstream speed, it will be limited to 1 Gbit/s. A very high bar, this time higher than that of its competitor Free, blocked at 700 Mbit / s. But thanks to the recent XGS-PON protocol, SFR technically has the possibility of increasing this uplink speed to 8 Gbit/s.

Second detail on speed: the presence of Wi-Fi 6, now a specialty of SFR boxes, the operator having been the first (since joined by Bouygues Telecom) to equip one of its modems with this technology. It was in 2019, already with the Box 8. If you connect several devices to the Box, Wi-Fi 6 will allow you to reach an upstream speed of up to 1 Gbit/s per device simultaneously.

Four or even five Ethernet ports

The design of the Box 8X is comparable to that of the Box 8, of which it is the evolution. But unlike the previous generation, SFR has equipped the Box 8X with four Ethernet ports, instead of two, each of which can broadcast 1 Gbit/s. To achieve 8 Gbit/s availability, the operator has added a fifth very high-speed Ethernet port, which the subscriber can obtain, on request and at no additional cost, in the form of an SFP module, moreover 10 Gbps compatible.

The router, therefore, it is validated. But what about the more interactive part and the customer experience? The decoder of the SFR Box 8X is quite simply the same as that of the Box 8. It thus integrates Dolby Vision (4K HDR) and Dolby Atmos technologies for image and sound, as well as the voice assistant “OK SFR and Alexa, without having to buy a smart speaker from Amazon.

The SFR Box 8X is offered to customers eligible for XGS-PON fiber from February 8, at a price similar to that of the Box 8, but only as part of the high-end SFR Fiber Power 8 offer, accessible at rate of 34 euros per month for 12 months, then 50 euros per month beyond the 12-month commitment period. The traditional SFR Fiber offer directly offers the 2019 model (Box 8).