ASUS RT-AX86U Pro (AX5700) Dual Band WiFi 6 Extendable Gaming Router, 2.5G Port, Gaming Port, Mobile Game Mode, Port Forwarding, Subscription-Free Network Security, VPN, AiMesh Compatible

I really liked the ease of setup and the signal improvement

This is my third Asus router and I love their app which allows one to make any necessary adjustments, update firmware, see what devices are on their network as well as easy setup. Although I am currently not using this feature, it also includes the Asus Mesh system for larger homes; since my previous Asus router can be used for a Mesh system, I may try that in the near future for even better coverage in the back of my home.

While I’ve only owned the AX86U for a few days it has impressed me. By extension the current maturity of ai mesh and routers that take advantage of the Asus router mobile application has risen to be an excellent customer experience level from previous iterations. So this review is as much about the total experience in setting up an ai mesh household with WiFi 6, as it is the router itself. I had purchased and was also impressed (review coming there too) with the Zen WiFi XT8, an ai mesh two router package. We rent a very large home. There’s no options to run ethernet while renting in our case. Moca adapters would have required fixing and running new coax. Power line adapters were far worse than anticipated. I was ultimately tied to a wireless solution. For quite some time prior to my decision to move to Asus I was rocking three sets of AC3000 Orbi Mesh units to obtain the coverage and throughput needed throughout the home top to bottom. While that solution did work, it was quite expensive and hit and miss issues wise. Many of our issues were in how many nodes were involved and the switching of devices would sometimes lead to odd behavior. There’s still time to evaluate if we’ll run into the same issues but so far the move to Asus and WiFi 6 has alleviated all of those problems. The issues I faced with the XT8 setup was to reach effectively to a lower living area and media room where streaming some 4K content from our plex server would fail miserably. We stream a lot of high bitrate 4K content utilizing plex in the house. Direct play content while easier on the plex server means more bandwidth. With the Orbi setup this was respectable but inconsistent especially if you’re doing a multitude of other activities in this new world of a pandemic. So it wasn’t a surprise that a two node system would lack the coverage necessary for the room that was previously only being blanketed with signal because we had six Orbi nodes. The fact that the two XT8s delivered a usable experience in that room at all was fantastic. In comes the AX86U. My gut said to avoid the dual band as an option for an ai mesh node utilizing wireless backhaul with the XT8s. However in reading about the AX86U it seemed to have all the right features and the price at no more than $250 was palatable. It took all of 10min to setup as a node with the Asus router application and move to the room it would be dedicated to. Since being deployed in service, it has been flawless and zero issues. All problems solved. No wires.

ASUS RT-AX86U AX5700 Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 Gaming Router was plug and play after I entered in the ssid for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. I like you can use the button to shut off the lights on the router. It stands vertical which requires less space. No issues that has required reboots or tech support.

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Good middle of the road router for tech-friendly homes. App interface is helpful for easy network management. Gundam design is a plus. Worth the money!

So lucky we were still in our return window, or else this would have been a massive loss of money! Was working perfectly for 2 weeks, then one day we heard a POP sound and lost internet. The router wouldn’t turn on after that. Super disappointing with how expensive this router is. I will say while it was working the signal, speed, and advanced set up options were good.

The speed this thing has is a pretty large improvement over my last router. The set up on it was really quick and easy as well. I love how the stand is built into it and is very solid. I really like that there is a button to turn off the led lights.

Sent a AX86-S. But was able to send it back for exchange. The AX86U-Pro is amazing.

Installed Merlin and off it went. This is my third Asus router and by far the best yet. Currently seeing internet speeds well over 900 down, a jump 50% from the last router without changing anything except the router. It IS expensive compared to some other routers but you get what you pay for.