You're right to question that, because the AX12 (V1) and AX10 are actually built on very different chipsets, and the naming can be a bit misleading. The Archer AX10 uses a Broadcom BCM6750 SoC with 3× ARM Cortex-A7 cores at 1.5 GHz, while the AX12 V1 is based on a MediaTek MT7621AT using MIPS 24Kc architecture, dual-core at about 880 MHz. Despite the “AX12” name sounding higher-end, the AX10 actually has more raw processing power. The ARM A7 cores are significantly stronger per core and handle heavy network tasks like NAT, VPN, or QoS more efficiently. The MIPS chip in the AX12 is fine for normal home usage with browsing and streaming, but it won’t match the AX10’s CPU performance when the router is under load. There’s currently only one hardware revision (V1) of the AX12, and no newer versions with a different SoC have appeared so far. So in short, AX10 still wins in processing power even though AX12 might have some differences in wireless radios or antenna design

Yeah, that 1-core reading is a bit misleading. The MT7621AT actually has 2 MIPS 24Kc cores, but TP-Link’s firmware often reports only one in the web UI or system status. Both cores are used internally though, so it’s not truly single-core. As for 5 GHz stability, you’re right - some users have noticed that the AX12 can be a bit more consistent on 5 GHz, probably because of different radio tuning or firmware optimization from MediaTek. Still, if you’re running a lot of connected devices or need heavy NAT/VPN tasks, the AX10’s triple ARM cores will definitely perform better overall. So you didn’t really make a bad choice - the AX12 is just tuned a bit differently, trading some CPU power for stable wireless performance