Asus ZenWiFi AX review: This Wi-Fi 6 mesh router hits the sweet spot

Quickly speeds all through your complete dwelling. Especially powerful effectiveness at array. Easy set up. A continuous, reputable mesh that quickly steers you from band to band and routes your relationship without dropping it. A tri-band design and style that includes a devoted backhaul for transmissions among the router and the satellites. A long run-proofed, multigig WAN port. Total guidance for Wi-Fi six, the latest, quickest model of Wi-Fi.

These had been all factors that the two-piece, $seven-hundred Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi six mesh router earned a powerful critique here on CNET. But I could say all of the same points about the Asus ZenWiFi AX, as well — and that two-piece method only expenditures $450. On top of that, the ZenWiFi AX features better array for every unit and a better array of application-centered controls and customizations for your community, and it allows you use both unit as router or extender (the Orbi will not). It even comes in your decision of white or black.

Go forward and read through that initial paragraph yet again. If it truly is describing the $seven-hundred Netgear Orbi six mesh router, then it truly is detailing a extremely powerful method, albeit an costly one particular. But if we use individuals same factors to the $450 Asus ZenWiFi AX, then we’ve found the sweet location for a mesh router up grade, with that same superior-finish effectiveness at a value which is a large amount easier to swallow. That can make the new ZenWiFi method my top-rated mesh router to day, an uncomplicated Editors’ Alternative Award winner, and the initial method I might advocate for any one looking for a router value splurging on.

Set up and design and style

The initial matter you are going to discover as you unbox the two-piece ZenWiFi AX method is that the two items are equivalent. Possibly unit can serve as the router or as the array-extending satellite unit, which can make for set up which is primarily foolproof.

To get started, you are going to just plug one particular of the devices in and join it to your router with an Ethernet cable. Then, open up the Asus application and observe the directions to get your community up and operating. You are going to have to have to plug in the satellite unit inside of three meters of the router in get to pair the two alongside one another (prior to presumably unplugging and relocating it to where by you really want it), but apart from that, the process is about as easy as it will get, and only took me about 10 minutes from start off to finish.

The moment your community is dwell, you are going to be able to use the application to monitor speeds and tweak options. The method defaults to placing out a solitary Wi-Fi community that quickly steers your relationship among the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, with the next, a lot more capable 5GHz band serving as a devoted wi-fi backhaul among the router and its satellites. If you want to, you can break up individuals bands into different networks, which is a wonderful touch.

Even nicer: You can personalize that backhaul relationship as you see suit. If you would somewhat share its bandwidth with devices on your community, you can switch to a nondedicated strategy — or you can switch the two 5GHz bands entirely, making use of the initial as the backhaul and the next, faster band for your ordinary community website traffic. And, if you have bought Ethernet cables operating via your walls, you can wire the satellites back again to the router and use all a few wi-fi bands for your community website traffic.

As for the components alone, it truly is the same design and style as the Wi-Fi five model of ZenWiFi, but the aesthetic is properly superior-finish without drawing as well a great deal notice to alone. With the tall-but-not-as well-tall design and style and antennas concealed inside, some may slip-up the points for clever speakers, alarm clocks or other this sort of tech that generally sits out in the open up in people’s houses. That’s fantastic for a router — they are going to complete better if you you should not feel compelled to stash them out of sight in a closet or a drawer somewhere.

You are going to obtain a multigig WAN port on the back again of every single unit that supports incoming wired speeds as superior as 2.5Gbps, which is a wonderful, important piece of long run-proofing for a router at this value. You are going to also obtain 4 spare Gigabit Ethernet jacks, and a solitary color-altering LED position gentle on the entrance. I like the way that gentle turns amber in color when a firmware update is ready for obtain, but it took me a moment to recognize which is what it meant, as the application can make no point out of amber in its LED color guide.

Regardless, the method can make an superb initial impression — but how effectively does it complete? Effectively…

Community nirvana?

The Asus ZenWiFi AX was not always a runaway standout in our lab-centered pace tests. With a top pace of 825Mbps at a close-array distance of five ft, it truly is easily faster than Wi-Fi five routers like the Eero, the Nest Wifi and the dual-band, spending budget-priced model of the Netgear Orbi, all of which top out at close to 600Mbps. But it isn’t really capable of top speeds that are pretty as rapidly as individuals of the fancier Wi-Fi six mesh routers like the AmpliFi Alien, the Arris Surfboard Max Pro or the tri-band model of the Netgear Orbi, all of which value a couple of hundred bucks a lot more than the ZenWiFi AX.

Even a lot more of an eyebrow-raiser: the ZenWiFi AX bought beat at all distances by the Netgear Nighthawk mesh router. That’s a spending budget-priced Wi-Fi six method that expenditures about $two hundred less than the ZenWiFi AX.

Even now, our top pace tests leave the array-extending satellite devices out of the equation, and they also you should not include any walls or obstructions in among the router and our examination laptop. The two of individuals variables will make a huge effects on the way these programs complete in a serious-environment natural environment. So, I took the ZenWiFi AX dwelling, established it up on my 300Mbps fiber net community and then clocked the speeds all through my smallish, shotgun-style dwelling in Louisville, Kentucky.

The Asus method shone in these serious-environment tests. Over various times and across dozens of pace tests, the ZenWiFi AX never ever at the time dropped my relationship or stalled out as I moved from place to place. In the finish, it completed with an total, full-dwelling common obtain pace of 271Mbps, or about ninety% of what my net relationship is capable of. That’s next only to the $seven-hundred Netgear Orbi six mesh method, which completed with an total common of 288Mbps in the same spate of tests.

What’s a lot more, when I eliminated the array extender and reran my tests with just the router, the ZenWiFi AX jumped up to initial position. In my back again lavatory, the farthest place from the router and a prevalent useless zone for solitary-point routers in my pace tests, I was continue to averaging speeds just over 250Mbps, which is superb. Subsequent best was the AmpliFi Alien, which averaged back again-lavatory speeds of 132Mbps with the array extender unplugged. On its own, the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi six router averaged a back again lavatory pace of just 82Mbps. The two of individuals competitors returned faster top speeds in an open up-floorplan lab, but the ZenWiFi AX router looks to be the a lot more capable piece of components at the time you acquire obstructions into thing to consider.

Look at your facts, as well

One particular of the wonderful options in the Asus application is a High-quality of Support engine that allows you prioritize website traffic to distinct devices on your community. It is really a handy device that you you should not constantly get with mesh routers like these.

But when you go to convert the characteristic on, the application alerts you to the fact that making use of the High-quality of Support engine needs you to concur to the phrases and disorders for a third-occasion business identified as Trend Micro. That business operates the computer software that powers the Asus QoS engine, and “your info will be collected,” Asus claims.

“Asus is not accountable for neither the agreement among you and Trend Micro nor any articles of the support furnished by Trend Micro,” the statement reads (presumably the double unfavorable is accidental). “You should refer to the privacy-linked statement issued by Trend Micro or contact Trend Micro for a lot more details.”

Fantastic print directing you to read through a lot more wonderful print, and from a business you have very likely never ever listened to of. Excellent.

At any rate, I made positive to give that Trend Micro privacy policy a read through. It is really 21 internet pages prolonged, but the component that looks to use most to ZenWiFi end users begins on Web page 9. 

When you use Trend Micro merchandise like the Asus QoS engine, the plan reads, Trend Micro collects personal facts that may perhaps include your name, cellular phone number, email address and unit ID.

“We use this personal info to be certain that the applicable customer’s license to our solutions is legitimate, and to contact our shoppers pertaining to renewals, specialized issues and new item info.”

The plan goes on to get a lot more granular about the styles of facts Trend Micro collects, and it hyperlinks out to a different facts disclosure document (yet again, wonderful print directing you to read through other wonderful print). That facts disclosure lists five distinct uses for which Trend Micro collects consumer info, and the distinct styles of consumer info that every single goal collects. I asked Asus which of the five features on the list utilized to the QoS engine. For each Asus, it was really 4 of them — and among them, the facts collected incorporates resource and desired destination IP addresses, URLs, file names and file paths.

This is where by I jumped back again over to the Trend Micro privacy plan:

Trend Micro does neither want to get nor have to have any sensitive personal info, i.e. personal info revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, genetic facts, biometric facts, facts relating to overall health or facts relating to a normal person’s sexual intercourse daily life or sexual orientation.

To me, which is all but an admission that sensitive facts is, in fact, finding scooped up by Trend Micro’s processors. And even if the business claims it will not want or have to have that style of info in distinct, it continue to needs your info as a full. Significantly of that may perhaps be for legit uses, like checking community website traffic for likely threats — but the plan also admits to making use of personal info for marketing and advertising: “We may perhaps also use personal info for other business uses, including keeping existing and previous Customers informed about our Products and solutions, Companies and promotions.”

I am going to also point out that Trend Micro’s legalese retains points pretty obscure when describing how it retains consumer facts secure, mentioning only “ideal safety steps” that prohibit accessibility to “approved personnel only.”

I give Asus some credit rating for alerting you to the privacy implications in a quite easy method as quickly as you test to convert the QoS engine on. Even now, I would not advocate executing so until you happen to be specific that you have to have it (and most practically absolutely will not).

The verdict

Privateness gripes apart, the Asus ZenWiFi AX is an superb mesh router. It feels each individual bit the component of a superior-finish up grade, and just about managed to match the best-in-class effectiveness of the Wi-Fi six model of the Netgear Orbi inspite of costing hundreds less than that method. The ZenWiFi AX method was a cinch to established up and use, it provides a a great deal more robust diploma of customization than you typically get with a mesh method and it performed like a champ, keeping speeds superior all through all corners of my dwelling and never ever dropping my signal as I moved from place to place.

At $450, this is continue to a splurge, no doubt about it. But the Asus ZenWiFi AX is effectively value the income if you happen to be looking for the best benefit probable from a superior-finish, Wi-Fi six mesh router method with a devoted backhaul band. If you happen to be looking for an up grade, place it right at the top of your list.