Another great gem—Asus RT-AX86U AX5700—from Asus promises high-end features and is ready to take your gaming to the next level. However, what do I think about the router? Does it a good option for gamers and homes? Let’s Review it!
The RT-AX86U is the latest wireless standard supported (Wi-Fi 6) router. Asus designed this router primarily for home and gamers. Therefore, you have multiple high-speed connectivity ports, such as a WAN/LAN port(2.5Gbps), a dedicated gaming port(LAN), USB ports Etc, on the back of the router.
Now, dive straight to the pros & cons of the Asus RT-AX86U.
Verdict: Review Asus AX5700
The Asus AX5700 gives you fast connectivity options, such as Multi-gig LAN or Link aggregation. The router has gaming-optimized settings suitable for gamers. Moreover, you get malware protection and robust parental controls.
I tested the router for the close-range throughput; it performed flawlessly and gave solid results.
Another good thing about the router is that it comes under $250. It’s not an expensive Wi-Fi 6 router compared to the competition.
Pros & Cons: Asus RT-AX86U
What I like:
- Fast connectivity, Multi-gig LANs
- Link Aggregation supported
- Highly secured, Powerful Malware protection
- Perfect close-range data rates
- Easy to install with simple management options
What I don’t:
- You can’t mount it horizontally.
- Long-range performance is average.
Price: Asus RT-AX86U’s Price
Asus RT-AX86U is not a cheap Wi-Fi router; you still pay around $270. Therefore, I can’t put this Wi-Fi router in the budget Wi-Fi 6 wireless router category.
Check The Latest Price On AmazonDesign, Features & Hardware: Is Asus RT-AX86U good-looking?
Design & Features
Regarding RT-AX86U’s design, you can’t put this model horizontally. Asus has designed it for vertical use only. However, it’s not new for Asus users, as they have already seen its many other popular wireless ‘ac’ standard routers with the same design, such as Asus RT-AC86U.
If you ask me, I liked the design and found it more appealing when clicking pictures.
If you examine the router, you’ll see three external antennas on the top edge of the router. You can easily remove and adjust these antennas as per your comfort. Furthermore, its black matte enclosure has a bottom edge with red grillwork. Above this red Grill, you have ten LEDs.
From left to right, the first indicator is responsible for power. The next two are for ratio bands, then four Gigabit LAN ports, then two WAN ports (2.5 Gbps & 1 Gbps), and one for WPS.
On the back side of the router, you have eight ports, including Four Gigabit LAN ports, a 2.5 Gbps LAN/WAN, one Gigabit WAN port, and two USB ports (3.2). Besides, you have a power On/Off switch, a typical power jack, and a physical button for resetting.
If you’re a gamer, you can use one of these four LAN ports for the fastest internet. It will automatically give bandwidth priority to the connected device. Besides, you can use two LAN ports for link aggregation to enjoy up to a 2 Gbps LAN connection.
This router also houses buttons on the left and right sides—A WPS button is on the left, and an LED On/Off button is on the other.
Hardware
When it comes to the router’s hardware, you’ll find a powerful quad-core processor with up to 1.8GHz clock speed. Moreover, it is powered by 256 MB of flash memory and 1 GB of RAM.
Speed: RT-AX86U’s speed
Since the router has two bands, the 2.4GHz band can reach up to 861Mbps, and the 5GHz band can achieve the maximum (theoretical) data rate of up to 4804Mbps.
Note: I used my Verizon Fios Internet for the test. Also, I picked it as the best budget gaming Verizon Fios Wi-Fi 6 router.
Wireless Standard & Other Latest Technologies
The Asus RT-AX86U uses the latest Wi-Fi 6 802.11AX technology. The router is still backward compatible; it can serve older wireless standards without issue. Besides, for high-end streaming devices, it supports 160MHz bandwidth, TWT (Target Wake Time), OFDMA (orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access), MU-MIMO (Multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output), and beamforming (direct-to-client signal). This router also supports modern WPA3 encryption for better password security.
Mobile App & Web Console: Asus Router Mobile App & ZenWiFi System
Mobile App Management
Management of any wireless router has always been a boring task. However, Asus has taken this seriously and worked well on its mobile router app. For Asus RT-AX86U, you’re allowed to manage it using Asus router mobile app.
Unfortunately, compared to the web console, there are limited options on the mobile app. Therefore, it’s highly recommended that you switch to the router’s web console regarding advanced options, such as ZenWiFi.
Web Console Management
As with most router web consoles, Asus’s web console also welcomes you with a dashboard showing you all the connected devices with their internet and security status, such as active bands (2.4GHz & 5GHz) and connected USB devices.
On the left side of the console, you’ll see menus showing General, Quick Internet Setup, and Advanced settings. While the General settings are there for Guest networking, accessing the Analyzer of the traffic, configuration of storage settings connected via USB, QoS (Quality of Service), and of course, game settings.
For those who’re unaware, QoS is used to configure bandwidth prioritization. Using QoS, you can prioritize different devices based on their bandwidth usage. You can also use the same application-specific bandwidth-prioritization setting in the Game Setting dashboard.
This gaming setting dashboard can also control your mobile gaming. It has the option to boost your mobile online gaming performance. Moreover, using NAT settings, you can create port forwarding rules.
Now the advanced settings of the router let you handle security settings. For example, enable/disable MU-MIMO, edit your SSIDs, beamforming enable/disable, and change channel width. Moreover, you have options to adjust professional settings, such as Airtime Fairness and Beacon Intervals RADIUS. You also find options for ports, such as WAN and LAN, and settings for Firewall.
VPN users can use VPN and configure VPN servers and enable voice control services, such as Alexa and IFTTT.
Security & Safety Features: AiProtection on The RT-AX88U
As with most routers of Asus, the RT-AX86U also has Trend Micro’s AiProtection to handle virus attacks. This protection software takes care of viruses and lets you configure parental controls and block malicious sites.
Other safety settings include:
- Restrictions on adult websites.
- Preventing access to social media.
- Blocking various other harmful websites.
- Restricting access to file transfer and P2P websites.
Installation & Performance: How does Tp-Link Archer AX86 perform?
The Asus RT-AX86U does take much time to install. It’s straightforward enough, even for a non-techy person.
To begin the installation, I made some essential connections, such as connecting the Asus AX86U to my modem and connected laptop to the LAN port via an Ethernet cable.
Since I prefer the Web console to the Mobile app, I opened Google Chrome and put the URL http://router.asus.com in the address bar. On the loaded page asking to set up a new network, I put the password and names for both the ratio bands—2.4GHz band and 5GHz band, separately.
Once the SSIDs created, I set a name and password for the administrator. Then, it was to update the firmware, which took almost 2 minutes and 45 seconds to update completely. And then, I started my testing process.
Test: Asus RT-AX86U’s
Since Asus RT-AX86U was a mid-range router, I had to test it for mid-range tasks first. My test was to check the router’s close-range throughput performance. It performed as expected and scored pretty well. However, Long-range throughput performance was not up to the mark and turned in bad or average scores.
Performance: How does the Asus RT-AX86U perform on the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz band?
RT-AX86U’s performance on the 2.4GHz band
The RT-AX86U’s performance on the 2.4GHz band was up to the mark. It scored very well on the close proximity performance tests. I wrote down around 139Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. Compared to AX11000, there was a noticeable difference; AX1100 was struggling to go beyond 131Mbps.
On the other hand, its slightly high-end sibling delivered better throughput on the same band. Its score of 149Mbps was excellent and unmatchable.
Then, it was time to test for the long-range, where the RT-AX86U couldn’t do its job perfectly. The router was struggling to achieve good marks on my long-range test.
RT-AX86U’s performance on the 5GHz band
The RT-AX86U’s performance on the 5GHz band was impressive. It scored 831Mbps on my close proximity test. Compared to the AX11000, I found similar results; both scored almost the same. However, the higher model, the RT-AX88U, was 52Mbps slower.
I also tested the router at a 30-feet distance; the Asus RT-AX86U could reach 241Mbps. However, it could not beat the ASUS RT-AX88U with a score of 318Mbps, which was obvious.
RT-AX86U’s File Transfer Performance
To begin this test, I used a 2GB folder containing all types of files, such as music, video, documents, Etc, and stuffed a USB 3.0 flash drive with them. Once the drive was ready, I plugged it into the Asus RT-AX86U and, of course, my laptop to check the read and write speeds.
The file transfer performance had been average; its write score was 54Mbps. On the other hand, its read score was 66Mbps.
Gaming Performance: How does the RT-AX86U perform for gaming?
Since the RT-AX86U belongs to the gaming category, it doesn’t disappoint gamers. The router is well-suited for gamers who face serious problems like network bottlenecks.
Competition
Compared to the previously reviewed Tp-Link Archer AX11000, which I declared the best gaming Wi-Fi router, Asus RT-AX86U fails the overall performance and gaming controls. Besides, you have more ports on AX11000.
However, on the close proximity performance test, The Tp-Link Archer RT-AX86U performed better and scored better on the 2.4GHz band. The score was 139Mbps, whereas the AX1100 was around 131Mbps.
Therefore, I still consider Tp-Link Archer AX11000 the best gaming router for under $300.
Conclusion: Asus RT-AX86U AX5700 Review
In short, This Asus RT-AX86U is a good Wi-Fi 6 router for home and gamers because of its high-speed connectivity options, such as its dedicated gaming LAN port, 2.5 Gbps WAN port, and Link aggregation feature to provide you up to 2 Gbps speed. It’s enough for your lag-free streaming and gaming.
If your budget is around $250, this is your Wi-Fi 6 router.