Asus ROG GS-AX5400
Strix router is bettered by ProArt equivalent
WE’VE GOT SOMETHING a little bit different for you—a router. For the first time in a while, we’re starting up our router reviews again. Now, you’ll have to bear with us, as this format and its associated benchmark testing is likely to change quite dramatically over the next year or so, but it’s an area that we want to iron out properly and get more into the mag.
So, what have we got here? This is Asus’s latest ROG GS-AX5400 WiFi 6 router, a somewhat premium offering, clocking in at just shy of $250. Being part of the ROG Strix lineup, it’s definitely a more ‘ gaming-centric’ device and the design very much screams that.
There’s a bold holographic ROG logo on the top (thankfully not RGB), followed by some (sadly RGB) lighting running around the sides, and then four little white LED lights on the top left to indicate power, 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and WAN connectivity status. It also features four antennas to improve WiFi 5 and WiFi 6 performance, and for rear I/O, you have access to a 1Gb/s WAN port, 4x 1Gb/s ethernet ports, a USB 3.2 port, and that’s about it.
As for tech features, those used to the Asus firmware will be well at home here. There’s access to the Network Map, guest network setup, AI protection, Adaptive QoS (for smart bandwidth allocation), Traffic analysis, various Open NAT, and Game optimization features. Alongside that are the usual Wireless, LAN, WAN, IPv6, VPN, Firewalls and other configuration tools now well established in the Asus ecosystem (we’ll have a few software versus, comparing these firmwares in detail over coming issues).
Wi-Fi encryption extends up to WPA3, and there’s also support for MAC filtering, and multiple guest networks too (up to three separate guest networks per frequency band). As for the hardware, you get a 1.5GHz tri-core processor, 512MB of RAM, and 256MB of flash memory.
We did some basic testing with this one, across both wired and wireless connections, using speedtest.net as our primary test facility. Perhaps unsurprisingly when operating in wired mode, the performance compared to our regular AX88U across multiple runs was within margin of error. Both devices achieved a ping of 13ms, and download speeds of 148.57Mb/s for the AX88U, and 149.82Mb/s for the AX5400. Meanwhile, the upload speeds were far closer, at 17.33 and 17.1Mb/s respectively.
Moving on to the WiFi 6 testing, however, and that’s where things began to come unstuck. The router is positioned downstairs in the living room, with our office directly above it. Using the Speed Test app on our Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, we performed multiple runs, using the same server and configuration in the same location in the office as before. We noticed repeatedly that, despite both routers having around the same signal strength over WiFi 6, the AX5400 scored on average, a measly 33.6 down, and 17.3 up with a ping of 15ms. That’s in contrast to the AX88U, which packed in repeated runs of 124Mb/s down and 17.1 up, with a ping of 15ms too.
SETTLING SCORES
Eliminating the interference and moving the phone directly next to the router didn’t entirely alleviate the symptoms either, nor did disabling every other wireless device in the house. Scores improved, but only up to 80Mb/s down, nowhere near the 120+ achieved by its ProArt cousin. Now, this could be down to poorer quality antennas (although WiFi signal strength was perceivably the same on both routers), or a firmware glitch (both are using official Asus variants for testing), however, no matter what we did, over multiple attempts and reconfigurations, we just couldn’t get the AX5400 anywhere close to the AX88U on Wi-Fi performance.
For a router that touts WiFi 6 support as one of its main selling features with bandwidth up to 4,804Mb/s (a spec that’s identical in the AX88U), that doesn’t bode well. Admittedly, the AX88U costs $75 more, features a quad-core processor, and has a far more mature firmware, but even so, that’s a huge return in investment for a wireless device performance that’s so much better in comparison.
So, who is this aimed at exactly? If you’re a gamer, at college, or have a small apartment, and just can’t stump up for the more premium offerings, it’s a reasonable choice. Wired performance is certainly there, and the feature set inside the UI firmware is exceptional, but if you can spare the cash, the AX88U and Asus’s less gamer-focused offerings will serve you much better.