Asus RT-AX88U

One of the first Wi-Fi 6 routers to hit our labs, the Asus RT-AX88U ($349.99) ushers in the next generation of Wi-Fi technology. Armed with the latest 802.11ax circuitry, this pricey router delivers speedy 160Mhz throughput and fast file-transfer speeds in our tests, and its regular 802.11ac performance, while not record-breaking, is also solid. It’s a great choice if you want to future-proof your home network, but you’ll need the latest client devices to take advantage of all of its performance-enhancing features, and they are hard to come by right now.

A Word About Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi 6, also known as 802.11ax or High Efficiency (HE) Wireless, is the latest Wi-Fi protocol. An evolution of 802.11ac technology, 802.11ax promises increased throughput speeds (up to 4.8Gbps), less network congestion, greater client capacity, and better range performance courtesy of several new and improved wireless technologies. Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) improves overall throughput by breaking Wi-Fi channels into sub-channels. This allows up to 30 users to share a channel at the same time. Target Wake Time (TWT) is designed to reduce power consumption by allowing devices to determine when and how often they will wake up to begin sending and receiving data. The use of Target Wake Time is expected to extend the battery life of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets as well as battery-powered smart home devices such as security cameras and video doorbells.

Wi-Fi 6 also takes advantage of previously unused radio frequencies to help boost 2.4GHz performance, and it uses refined uplink and downlink bandwidth management to provide enhanced QoS (Quality of Service). It also offers uplink and downlink MU-MIMO streaming (802.11ac only supports downlink MU-MIMO). 802.11ax is backward compatible and will work with devices that use older 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi tech, but only 802.11ax clients can take full advantage of its enhanced performance and features, and they are few and far between right now.

Familiar Looks

With its beveled top, angular front and sides, and matte black finish, the RT-AX88U looks nearly identical to the RT-AC88U. It measures 2.4 by 11.8 by 7.4 inches (HWD) and has four removable antennas (two in the back and one on each side). Toward the front of the router are a USB 3.1 port, a Wi-Fi on/off button, an LED on/off button, and a row of LED indicators for power, 2.4GHz and 5GHz band activity, WAN activity, LAN activity (one for each port), USB activity, and WPS activity. The rear panel holds 8 gigabit LAN ports, a WAN port, a secondary USB 3.1 port, a WPS button, a reset button, a power button, and a power jack.

The RT-AX88U is powered by a 1.8GHz quad-core processer, 1GB of RAM, and 256MB of flash memory. It’s a 4×4 AX6000 router capable of data rates of 1,148Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 4,804Mbps on the 5GHz band when connected to Wi-Fi 6 clients. In addition to the above mention Wi-Fi 6 technologies it supports 160MHz channel bandwidth, MU-MIMO simultaneous data streaming, direct to client signal beamforming, and Smart Connect, where the router automatically chooses the best radio band for optimal throughput. It also supports Asus AiMesh technology which lets you use multiple Asus router models to create a whole home Wi-Fi system with seamless roaming and one network ID.

You can control the RT-AX88U using a mobile app or the more advanced web console, both of which are also used to control the Asus RT-AC86U. The web console main screen contains a network map that shows all connected clients, internet and security status, connected USB devices, and Wi-Fi information for both radio bands. On the left side of the screen is a menu containing General and Advanced settings….