Asus RT-AX86U AX5700

amazon Asus RT-AX86U AX5700 reviews

The RT-AX86U is Asus’ latest Wi-Fi 6 Router designed for gamers and home users who demand high-speed connectivity options. Equipped with a 2.5 gigabit/s (Gbps) WAN/LAN port, a dedicated gaming LAN port, and the ability to deliver 2 Gbps LAN speeds through link aggregation. This Router gives you all the tools you need to maximize your home network for a lag-free gaming experience.

While its price tag prevents it from being considered a budget-conscious wireless router, it managed to score very well in our close range throughout the performance tests.

Design and Features

The RT-AX86U uses the same vertical-only design as its 802.11AC-based sibling, the RT-AC86U, which we reviewed in 2018 and is still available as a slightly lower-end sibling. That means it looks great in the store or using web photography, but if you live in a smaller place, make sure you know where you’re going to put it because upright posture is everything you have. That said, the rest of the unit is smooth.

It has a perforated matte black case with a red mesh panel along the bottom edge and has three detachable adjustable antennas along the top edge. Also at the bottom are ten activity LEDs for power, both radio bands, four LAN ports, 2.5 Gbps and 1 Gbps WAN, and WPS. On the rear, you’ll find four gigabit LAN ports, one 2.5 Gbps WAN/LAN port, one gigabit WAN port, two USB 3.2 ports, the power switch, the power jack, and the reset button. One of the LAN ports can be used as a dedicated gaming port that automatically prioritizes bandwidth for any devices you connect. You can configure two LAN ports for link aggregation to provide a 2 Gbps LAN connection level. On the left side of the Router is a WPS button, an LED On/Off button on the right.

RT-AX86U is a dual-band AX5700 Router that can achieve maximum (theoretical) data rates of up to 861Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, up to 4,804Mbps on the 5GHz band. It is powered by a 1.8 GHz quad-core processor, 256 megabytes (MB) of flash memory, and 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM. It also uses all the latest 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) technology, including 160Mhz bandwidth, OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), TWT (Target Wake-up Time), transmission Simultaneous MU-MIMO data, direct-to-client beamforming, and WPA3 encryption.

The RT-AX86U can be managed using the same Asus Router mobile app as the ZenWiFi AX XT8 we reviewed. That’s great because ZenWiFi is a Wi-Fi mesh system, not a router stand-alone, although, for those who prefer more granular control, there is also a more advanced web control panel. The console opens a network map that shows the names of all connected clients and shows you internet and security status, connected USB devices, and Wi-Fi information for wireless bands 2.4GHz and 5GHz routes.

A menu on the left side of the screen has Quick, General, and Advanced Internet Settings. Use General Settings to configure Guest networks, access the Router’s Traffic Analyzer, configure USB memory settings, and Adaptive access Quality of Service (QoS) and Gaming settings. You can specify bandwidth thresholds and configure application-specific bandwidth priorities using Adaptive Quality settings or use the Game settings panel to access the Gear Accelerator widget Allows you to assign bandwidth priority to specific devices. Here you’ll also find a Mobile Game Mode that boosts mobile online gaming performance and an Open NAT setting that provides a quick and easy way to create a transition rules gateway for online games.

In the Advanced Settings section, you can configure wireless security settings, enable or disable MU-MIMO and beamforming, change channel widths, rename your SSID, and adjust professional settings like Signal interval RADIUS and Airtime Fair settings. Here you can also adjust the LAN, WAN, and Firewall controls. For those who want to use the included virtual private network (VPN), there are controls for configuring both VPN Server and VPN Client settings and enabling Alexa and IFTTT voice control.

Like the RT-AX88U, the RT-AX86U comes with Trend Micro’s AiProtection software to prevent virus attacks, block access to malicious websites, and configure parental controls. Using parental controls, you can restrict access to adult and social media websites, block online media and entertainment content, and prevent access to P2P and file transfer site.

Settings and Performance

The Asus RT-AX86U installs very quickly. To start, I plugged the Router into my modem and connected my desktop PC to one of the LAN ports. I opened a web browser on my PC, typed http://router.asus.com in the address bar, and hit New Network Setup. I separated the radio bands, entered a name and password for each SSID, created an administrator name and password, and updated the firmware.

The RT-AX86U delivered very good throughput in our 2.4GHz proximity (same room) performance tests. Its score was 137Mbps, faster than both the TP-Link AX11000 (133Mbps) and Linksys MR9600 (111Mbps) but only slightly slower than the Asus RT-AX88U (144Mbps). However, our long-range test did not perform well: its 38Mbps score was 29Mbps and 21Mbps slower than the AX11000 and RT-AX88U, respectively.

In our 5GHz proximity test, the RT-AX86U achieved an impressive 831Mbps, the same as the AX11000’s score and 49Mbps faster than the RT-AX88U. The MR9600 takes the lead with a score of 840Mbps. At 30 feet away, the RT-AX86U (237Mbps) surpassed the MR9600 (228Mbps) but couldn’t keep up with the AX11000 (328Mbps) or the RT-AX88U (318Mbps).

To test file-transfer performance, we moved a 1.5GB folder of photos, videos, music, and office documents back and forth between a USB 3.0 external hard drive connected to the Router and a computer to a table to measure, write and read speeds. The RT-AX86U’s score is good but not great: its 52MBps write score is behind the pack and 21MBps slower than the Linksys MR9600. Its 66MBps read score is also the slowest of the bunch and trails behind the 19MBps TP-Link AX11000.

To know the signal strength these Routers can generate, we use the Ekahau Sidekick Wi-Fi diagnostic device and the Ekahau Survey mobile app to generate a heat map showing signal strength 2, 4GHz, and 5GHz routers throughout our test house. The white circle represents the Router’s location on the map, and the colors represent the signal strength. Dark green indicates the strongest signal, yellow is weaker, and gray indicates no signal is received. As you can see from the 2.4GHz map, the RT-AX86U did a good job covering most rooms in the house but got weaker in the farthest corner from the Router.

A reliable choice for gaming over Wi-Fi 6

The Asus RT-AX86U is a reliable choice for online gamers looking to eliminate network congestion. It uses the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology to deliver fast throughput, close range. It offers many features to optimize your network, including multi-gig LAN ports, link aggregation, optimized LAN ports, and game acceleration utilities. It also comes with strong parental controls and lifetime malware protection.

where can you get a Asus RT-AX86U AX5700 online

ASUS RT-AX86U AX5700 Dual Band + WiFi 6 Gaming Router ZAKU II Edition, 802.11ax, Up to 2500 sq ft & 35+ Devices, NVIDIA GeForce Now, Lifetime Free Internet Security, Mesh WiFi, 2.5G Port, Gaming Port: Buy it now