A Comprehensive Guide for 5 Best Asus Routers in 2020 (Reviews and Guide)

What the biggest challenge you faced when searching for the best wireless router? This is a question that I get asked so many times, but I won’t beat around the bush. Regardless of your needs, the biggest challenge faced is choosing a brand.

There are numerous brands on the market today, some older than others, each brand promising a router that offers the next-level performance thanks to the use of the latest technologies.

It is confusing to pick one, but I’ve been lucky to find a brand that hasn’t let me down yet, all these years. I am talking about Asus. I have used Asus routers for decades now, and I am happy to note that the performance, design-build, speeds, and the reliability of their routers is something else.

Asus is a leading brand of trusted WiFi routers, and over the years, this brand has continuously come up with incredible options for routers designed to meet the needs of all its customers.

While in competition with a number of other brands, Asus leads the way as the brand offering some of the best-performing and the fastest routers to match different needs. There is literally something for everyone, depending on the size of your home, your budget, and your speed needs, which means that you might be spoilt for choice easily.

To help you make the best choice, this article reviews some of the best Asus routers on the market. Whether you are looking for the most powerful gaming WiFi router, a router for streaming in 8K, or a router that offers the best coverage for large and extra-large homes, as well as smaller homes, Asus has you covered.

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Comparison Table: Best Asus Routers

Best Asus Routers	Best For	Speed	WiFi Protocol	Price
Asus AC1900 RT-AC68U WiFi Router	Best Overall Asus Router	1900Mbps	802..11ac	Check Price
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300	Best Gaming Asus Router	5334Mbps	802.11ac	Check Price
Asus RT-AX88U	Best WiFi 6 Router	6000Mbps	802.11ax	Check Price
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000	Best High-End Gaming Router	11000Mbps	802.11ax	Check Price
ASUS SRT-AC1900 Onhub Google WiFi Router	Best Mesh Router	1900Mbps	802.11ac	Check Price

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Best Asus Routers: Reviews 

1. Asus AC1900 RT-AC68U WiFi Router – Best Overall Asus Router

If you are looking for a good Asus router that offers great value for money and top performance without breaking the bank, then this AC1900 router by Asus might be an excellent option for you.

Sporting a sleek design, this router is designed with a dual-band system that boasts very high WiFi speeds, making it the ideal choice for medium and even some large homes. Like the other Asus routers in the RT series, this is a high-quality router boasting outstanding speeds.

It stands tall, and the black wafer stands upright with three 6-inch antennas that help improve its range and overall performance. Its design makes it very easy to use and control.

Besides the antennas, there are WAN and LAN ports, as well as USB ports, all designed to enhance the performance of the device. There are 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports ideal for wired connections, hence the good performance of the router.

Running on the 802.11ac WiFi technology/ protocol, this router delivers excellent performance, with a great range, and even better throughput.

The dual-band 3×3 design of the router is the reason for the router’s top performance and speeds, while the 1GHz dual-core processor ensures that the router has the power for smart multitasking. This processor allows for separate lanes/ channels for the router, hence its reliability in gaming and streaming.

The other features that enhance the performance of this router include the Adaptive QoS, a function that allows for bandwidth prioritization, meaning that the devices/ systems that need more bandwidth allocated to them get it.

You also have the MU-MIMO technology incorporated to allow for simultaneous data streaming to more than one client, as well as the Beamforming technology, which improves the router’s maximum throughput by shaping the signals, hence an increase in the range and the router’s overall efficiency.

The dual-band system means access to 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, for wide coverage and faster-dedicated speeds, respectively.

You might also like the router for its AiMesh-compatibility, the AiProtection system that’s powered by Trend Micro for the best-level security, and the advanced parental controls.

Pros

• Advanced features that make this router a good option for homes and small businesses
• Offers high internet speeds
• Easy to setup
• Excellent throughput
• The firmware is powerful and robust
• Easy file access thanks to the USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports
• 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports for wired connections
• Sleek design
• The management interface is easy to use

Cons

• Not a WiFi 6 router
• The stand isn’t removable, no wall-mounting
• The firmware updates are not automatic
• Cloud syncing is expensive

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2. Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 – Best Gaming Asus Router

This Asus ROG GT-AC5300 is one of the best-performance gaming routers on the market today, and it’s designed to meet all your gaming and streaming need. It boasts a host of features that enhance its performance, and the best part is that you can look forward to dedicated, stable, and reliable connectivity at all times.

Some of its features include its tri-band WiFi system, which means that this router boasts two 5GHz frequency bands and one 2.4GHz band. Together, these bands offer a combined maximum throughput speed of 5334Mbps, which is easily one of the top speeds offered by wireless routers.

But as expected, this router offers more than top speed; it boasts a host of other high quality and performance-boosting features, such as MU-MIMO plus the Beamforming technology. These technologies are designed to ensure that you enjoy maximum throughput all the time.

MU-MIMO is an advanced technology that enhances the performance of the router by allowing for simultaneous streaming to all clients, hence the improved throughputs. Then you have the Beamforming technology, which enhances the router’s throughput by shaping the signal, enhancing its range and efficiency.

While these features mean that you will enjoy the best performance from this router, the real superpower of this router comes from its support for the Gamers Private Network (GPN) function.

GPN is an intuitive function that’s designed for network optimization, hence the best-level of online gaming. It also boasts VPN Fusion that will keep your internet traffic stable, secure, and private at all times, meaning fast and consistent gaming speeds at all times.

The ROG Game Dashboard for this router enhances the performance of this router thanks to the game-centric functions such as Game IPS, Game Boost, as well as the router optimization for lower ping times to servers on the gaming network, hence lag-free and low-latency connections.

The other features that boost the performance of this router include the super-fast WiFi speeds, as well as the 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports for wired connections, as well as the two USB 3.0 ports that ensure fast data transfers and connection to external hard drives.

Pros

• Super-fast
• Boasts the best game acceleration features
• Great and very strong WiFi coverage
• Excellent router for gaming and streaming
• Boasts advanced technological features such as the traffic analyzer, link aggregation, MU-MIMO, and Adaptive QoS, for top performance
• Great Tri-band coverage
• 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports

Cons

• Expensive

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3. Asus RT-AX88U– Best WiFi 6 Router

One of the things that you will come across on the market today is the WiFi 6 technology, which is the leading and the latest technological innovations when it comes to routers.

WiFi 6 is the latest technological feature in the world of routers. It is also called the AX range of WiFi routers, but the one thing that stands out the most from this range of routers has to be the fact that routers in this range boast the fastest WiFi speeds.

Now, you have to pay a bit more for the WiFi 6 routers, but the best bit is that these routers are worth every extra buck. We’ve all seen how fast new tech and protocols sweep over the masses/ markets, and with 5G network in the final phase, investing in a WiFi 6 router might be the next best investment you make.

So, just how fast is this router? Well, the AX88U boasts top speeds of 6000Mbps running on its dual-band frequencies – 1148Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 4333Mbps on the 5GHz band. At such high speeds, this router is capable of handling even the busiest of networks with ease.

The high speeds also make this router an excellent option for 4K/ 8K streaming, as well as heavy gaming. It also boasts Warp-speeds thanks to the dual-band 4×4 design, which means that it has a 160MHz bandwidth, as well as a 1024QAM for the fastest internet speeds.

The other features of this router include its 8-stream system, which means enhanced levels of efficiency, maximum throughput, and reduced congestion on the network. It further boasts 8 Ethernet ports for wired connectivity, which means a higher level of performance.

The other features that boost the performance of this ultra-high-speed router include its multi-device design and the efficiency in the most traffic-dense/ congested environments. These features include the revolutionary MU-MIMO and OFDMA technologies, which ensure maximum throughput for the router.

These technologies work with the 802.11ax protocol to provide up to 4X the network efficiency and capacity offered by the previous version (for example, WiFi 5/ 802.11ac). OFDMA technology further boosts your WiFi signal’s range/ coverage, and it does this by subdividing the eight channels into smaller sub-channels for faster internet connectivity.

The Target Wake Time (TWT) is the other feature of this router, and it enhances your devices’ battery life by scheduling specific intervals for your devices to transmit data.

As one of the best online gaming routers, it features Adaptive QoS, which pretty much means that the router will prioritize game packets to ensure the smoothest gaming experiences. It does this by choosing the shortest path between the game server and your gaming device, using WTFast, hence minimization of lags and game pings.

And to ensure that your network and devices are secure at all times, it makes use of commercial-grade and reliable system – AiProtection Pro that’s powered by Trend Micro.

Pros

• Ultra-high internet speeds
• It’s AiMesh compatible
• It makes use of the Next-gen WiFi system, hence the best performance
• It boasts 8 LAN/ Ethernet ports for wired connectivity
• Adaptive QoS for data prioritization
• Backward compatible
• Easy setup
• It boasts the best security functions
• Greater capacity, speeds, coverage, and efficiency
• 8-Stream system

Cons

• It is expensive

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4. Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 – Best High-End Gaming Router

If money isn’t an issue, then this high-end router with all the latest bells and whistles might be the best option for you.

For starters, this router runs on the WiFi 6/ 802.11ax protocol, and it’s one of the fastest 12-stream tri-band routers on the market with a maximum speed that stands at 11000Mbps. It boasts an impressive beasty design featuring eight external antennas, and like other high-speed Asus routers, it is AiMesh-compatible.

The primary reason for the undefeated performance of this router lies with its powerful 1.8GHz quad-core processor, the 2.5 Gigabit port, as well as the 1GB RAM, plus 256MB storage. These work in tandem with the gaming functions of the router, leaving you mind-blowing internet speeds.

If you are a serious gamer, you will be happy with the Triple-Level Game Acceleration function, which offers access to higher game traffic, reducing the ping rates, and the game latency for the best gaming experience.

The other gaming feature is the GameFirst V for the optimization of ROG devices, Game Boost for analysis, and prioritization of network traffic and gaming packets, as well as the Gamers Private Network, which allows you access to optimized internet connections while minimizing latency and pings.

But that is not all that this router has to offer – you will be happy with its Tri-Band network, which is designed with one of the 5GHz networks dedicated to gaming. This is made possible by the dynamic frequency selection/ DFS function, which allows this router to systematically unlock 15 channels on this decongested 5GHz channel.

You might also like the easy-to-use ROG-themed gaming center’s interface, not to mention the fact that this router is one of the most powerful whole-house WiFi systems.

Pros

• Excellent VPN connection
• Best gaming performance
• 8 Ethernet ports for wired connections
• Dedicated 5GHz channel for gaming
• 12-stream gaming
• AiMesh compatible
• Powerful processor
• AiProtection for advanced security

Cons

• It’s pricey
• WiFi 6 is still new, and few devices are set up for this technology

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5. ASUS SRT-AC1900 OnhubGoogle WiFi Router – Best Mesh Router

The sleek and subtle design of this router is the first thing that I was sold on by this router, but before I could take it home, I needed to make sure that it came with all the bells and whistles of a good router, and you will be happy to know that it does.

For starters, this router boasts a high-level of performance and allows for comfortable and un-buffered streaming throughout the house, thanks to its top speed of 1900Mbps and the smart, top-performance antennas arranged all around the interior of the router’s shell in a circular pattern.

Its dual-band design means that this router is always working to optimize the WiFi connection as it is on the regular search for the least-crowded WiFi channel, switching to these channels for the best connection.

The dual-band 2.4GHz and the 5GHz frequencies further enhance its performance, while its design and sleek technologies incorporated into the router allow for device prioritization for the best performance where it is needed the most.

And thanks to its companion app, Google On, this router communicates in the language you understand, which means enhanced ease of use and easy solving of network problems.

Some of the technological features of this router include next-generation tech like Bluetooth Smart-Ready Design, Weave, and it makes use of the latest WiFi technologies, 802.15.4, all designed to ensure the support and connections for smart devices.

Its use is enhanced by the Wave Control OnHubsystem which will respond when you wave your hand over its top. For example, you would wave your hand over the router to find out if the bandwidth is adequate or not when you are streaming.

Pros

• Good range
• Adding another one of these routers will boast the WiFi range significantly
• Easy installation and management
• It allows for bandwidth prioritization for different devices
• Regular firmware updates in the background
• The OnHubs are compatible with the new Google Routers, meaning that you can configure them with other mesh networks then use them together.
• No dead zones

Cons

• A few issues with connectivity

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Buying Guide for the Best Asus Router

With the world becoming more and more connected by the day via smartphones, smart TVs, and other home products, mobile or not, it is important for you to make sure that you have the right devices installed.

At the heart of these devices is the best wireless router, something that will handle your ever-increasing demand for the best WiFi connectivity. But knowing your options available on the market is not enough, you also need to know what features make the best WiFi router, specifically, an Asus Router.

Below are some of the considerations you need to keep in mind.

Range

The biggest mistake you could ever make in your adult life is to purchase one of the top-of-the-line WiFi routers on the market, only to find that the device isn’t designed to adequately meet the needs of your home.

So, while blistering-fast internet speeds are a great function, you need to make sure that the router will offer coverage for the entire house. So, check out, ask, and read reviews about the router’s coverage before you place your order.

Speed

Now that you have a router that will provide excellent coverage for your home and with no dead zones, it’s time to determine the best speeds from the router. The speed you settle for will be guided by your internet needs. If you play video games, stream HD content (4K or 8K), you need to make sure that the selected router boasts rocket-fast speeds.

That said, bear in mind that the AC routers are among the fastest routers on the market, but if you are looking for more power/ speed, then you might have to settle for the next-generation AX (WiFi 6) routers. The latter is quite expensive, but they are worth the extra bucks, especially if you are a heavy gamer.

Smart Features

Routers are among the most intelligent devices in our homes today, something made possible by their design using some of the smartest features and technologies available.

When buying a router, look out for one with features like Dynamic QoS, MU-MIMO, Beamforming, parental controls, as well as built-in firewalls and other security protocols. These features enhance traffic prioritization and offer maximum throughput while ensuring that your devices and network is secure.

Number of bands

Always opt for a dual or a tri-band router because this means access to a 2.4GHz band for browsing and coverage throughout the house, plus a 5GHz (or two) band that allows for bandwidth prioritization for the internet-heavy uses.

Other considerations include

• The type of antenna – Internal or external
• Multi-role USB – USB 3.0 or 2.0
• Ethernet performance – 1 Gigabit or 10Gigabit Ethernet ports

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FAQs

What is QoS?

QoS or Quality of Service refers to a function that’s used for the enhancement of the performance of your network, ensuring that the router offers the desired level of performance to its users.

What is WiFi 6?

This refers to the latest, high-speed WiFi protocol, also called 802.11ax or High-Efficiency Wireless. This protocol promises the fastest connectivity, an increase in throughput speeds, a higher client capacity, less congestion in networks, and an improvement in the range performance.

What is OFDMA?

OFDMA or Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access is one of the latest WiFi Router technologies that improve the router’s throughput by breaking down the WiFi channels further into sub-channels, hence an increase in client capacity and router’s performance.

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Conclusion

The Asus routers above are among the best routers on the market today. Asus offers routers that meet different needs and budgets, and you only need to weigh your needs against the features of the router before you settle on one. Just make sure that the router offers all the features you need.