Asus RT-AX3000
Asus offers up the first, fully-featured, affordable Wi-Fi 6 router.
We’ve been reviewing Wi-Fi 6 routers, which utilise the latest 802.11AX standard, for a year now. However, while we’ve been devilishly impressed with the performance they afford, we’ve been less than impressed with their affordability. Asus’ new RT-AX3000 is very small and traditional looking compared with previous devices but it’s fully featured, supports Wi-Fi 6 and costs less than competitors. So, should you buy it?
At first glance the RT-AX3000 might seem a little dull, but in a world of oversized spaceships and robot spiders, we welcome some normality. Set-up is performed either via a web browser or Asus’ mobile app. While the latter is simple and straightforward, the browser does rather overcomplicate things. Nonetheless, we had the internet up and running quickly.
The 3000 denotes a theoretical top speed of 3,000Mb/s spread across two bands – one on 2.4GHz and one on 5GHz. You can set them up as separate networks or, as we much prefer, have them appear as one single network and allow the technology to invisibly choose the best connection – these days we’re confident that it knows best.
We performed our standard Wi-Fi tests in a three-storey Sydney town house by downloading large video files from a Synology DS1019+ NAS to a Wi-Fi-6equipped Dell XPS 15 OLED laptop. Next to the router, speeds hit an incredible 754Mb/s. While this is still some way off Wi-Fi 6’s theoretical maximum of 2,402Mb/s it’s more than 100Mb/s faster than any Wi-Fi device we’ve ever tested. An Asus insider told us, “Under the low-profile look is a wolf in the sheep’s clothing. Rated for AX3000 connectivity, it actually features significantly more processing power than what we have on paper.” Sadly, the diminutive size dropped off quickly as we climbed floors. One floor up it dropped to 98Mb/s while two-floors up it fell to 89.7Mb/s. The latter two scores aren’t particularly slow for internet streaming, but we can’t help be a little disappointed.
As usual, Asus packs in the features, one of which is AiMesh: a technology that makes adding additional Asus Wi-Fi products, to form a mesh, very simple. AiProtection comes via Trend Micro and offers, regularly-updated network security and Parental Controls. AiCloud offers server functionality to any storage connected to the USB 3.1 Gen. 1 port. This can work across the internet or simply over the LAN. Other apps allow the port to be used with a printer, 4G USB dongle and a Download Manager which lets you share torrents without a PC. QoS lets you choose which applications get prioritised and all the usual networking options (including Port Forwarding) are available.
Pricing is strange as we’ve seen it range from over $500 down to $379. While the latter is preferable, it’s not exactly cheap in the world of routers. Nonetheless, it’s still considerably cheaper than our favourite, TP-Link Archer AX6000 which offers excellent performance and farsuperior range and has only dropped to $499. However, if you live in a small residence, want the features and could use the blistering, up-close speed, it represents a good, highperformance buy.