Asus RT-AC86U
Middle of the road
We’re more accustomed to seeing Asus go for the $500+ end of the router market, so the Asus RT-AC86U Wireless AC2900 router is interesting simply due to the low cost of this Wi-Fi router. Despite the decent pricing, it doesn’t make this a slouch, with a combined throughput of 2900Mbps.
It may deliver a high overall bandwidth, yet it’s only a dual band router. The 2.4GHz network delivers up to 750MHz, while the 5GHz network can deliver up to 2167Mhz. Combine the two, and that’s how we end up with a final speed of approximately 2900MHz. It uses a 3x3 antenna configuration, which is fine considering most devices these days can only use 2x2. It’s also fully MU-MIMO compatible, allowing for the best performance while multiple users are all busy downloading.
Asus doesn’t advertise which Broadcom chipset is used to power the radios, but it does mention the 1.8GHz dual core Wi-Fi at the heart of the system. This is relatively powerful at this price point, ensuring smooth and snappy performance under moderately high loads. There’s 256MB of Flash memory, along with another 512MB of normal RAM.
Asus has decided to put its ports underneath the unit, which we feel isn’t the best design. There’s a large stand at the rear that gives the ports clearance, but makes it harder to plug in new devices. On the bottom you’ll find four Ethernet ports, a single WAN port, USB 3.0 Type-A and USB 3.0 Type-C.
At the front of the unit are three omnidirectional antennae, which can be rotated to point them in the best position. We love the eight LED lights on the top of the unit which make it extremely easy to see what the router is doing, including which Ethernet ports are active, and which wireless networks are in use. Compared to the sparse performance indicators found on other routers, they allow at-a-glance monitoring of the router. Asus also includes a limited subscription to the WTF gaming network service, which can deliver better international pings for Aussie gamers.
Delving into the web-based interface shows a relatively simple and crude screen, but there’s the option to delve deeper into more advanced settings. It’s not as deep as more professional routers, but will be fine for the average small home and gaming users.
Our standard benchmark test, transferring a 1GB HD video file at a range of ten metres through one concrete wall showed solid albeit
Asus has decided to put its ports underneath the unit, which we feel isn’t the best design
not revolutionary results. Download speeds hit 453Mbps on the 5GHz network, while upload hit 359Mbps. The 2.4GHz network wasn’t as speedy, with downloads of 237Mbs and 198Mbps upload.
Still, these are up there in the top half of results for routers priced around the $200 mark. We’re not a huge fan of the port placement, but the inclusion of MU-MIMO and QoS at this price is excellent.