Maximum PC

Asus ZenWiFi XD6

- –ZAK STOREY

DESPITE OUR RAPID progress as a species over the last 200 years, the global footprint for radio noise has dwindled in the past two decades. Radio waves are slowly becoming quieter, the very things that ushered us into the realm of unhindered communicat­ion all those years ago are now becoming more refined and more sophistica­ted.

No longer are we churning out huge gobbets of informatio­n and throwing it deep into the dark abyss of space. No, the inevitable march of technology has brought ever more advanced forms of communicat­ion that have defined this era. As our computatio­nal devices grow more potent and we produce deeper and richer content, the need for more impressive forms of compressio­n and greater bandwidth has become paramount. From 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz, and now Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, all have improved upon the past generation, providing us with greater capacity, and all of them have become quieter as they do it.

Interferen­ce then becomes king, waves that could pass data through walls, although still here, are now choked and humbled, but while their successor’s bandwidths are far more powerful, they are hindered by such things as raindrops, or even the hum of a microwave oven.

While our homes haven’t changed quite as rapidly, the need to boost the future of wireless has become a paramount part of the tech enthusiast­s’ place of rest. Enter the Asus ZenWiFi XD6. These twin routers can bathe up to 5,400 square feet in the brilliance of the modern era, inside and outside your home. Let’s take a look.

 ??  ?? INTERNAL SPECS
Each mesh router comes equipped with a 1.5 GHz tri-core processor, 256MB of Flash storage, and 512MB of RAM. On top of that, they both pack one RJ45 WAN port and three RJ45 Ethernet ports too.
1
INTERNAL SPECS Each mesh router comes equipped with a 1.5 GHz tri-core processor, 256MB of Flash storage, and 512MB of RAM. On top of that, they both pack one RJ45 WAN port and three RJ45 Ethernet ports too. 1
 ??  ?? 2 DESIGN
From a design standpoint, the clean, crisp, white style with silver and gold elements gives the ZenWiFi XD6 a subtle appearance that means it should blend in with its surroundin­gs. This isn’t a ROG flagship product, laden with antennas and lights, and it benefits from that. 3 WI-FI 6
At the heart of the ZenWiFi setup is support for Wi-Fi 6. This new and improved standard is up to 2.2x faster than the previous Wi-Fi 5 routers and can pack a peak transfer rate of 5,400Mbps. That’s a huge amount of data, but it does require you to be within relatively close proximity, making these mesh routers vital to its applicatio­n around your home.
2 DESIGN From a design standpoint, the clean, crisp, white style with silver and gold elements gives the ZenWiFi XD6 a subtle appearance that means it should blend in with its surroundin­gs. This isn’t a ROG flagship product, laden with antennas and lights, and it benefits from that. 3 WI-FI 6 At the heart of the ZenWiFi setup is support for Wi-Fi 6. This new and improved standard is up to 2.2x faster than the previous Wi-Fi 5 routers and can pack a peak transfer rate of 5,400Mbps. That’s a huge amount of data, but it does require you to be within relatively close proximity, making these mesh routers vital to its applicatio­n around your home.

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