Asus RT-AX55 Review
If you’ve bought yourself a shiny new laptop, smartphone or tablet recently, it might have the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard built in. If so, and you want to make the most of it, you probably need to upgrade to a new router. Asus’s RT-AX55 is one of the most affordable ways to do this. Read our Asus RT-AX55 Review.
Table of Contents
“More than enough for most typical home broadband needs”
Its quoted top speed of 1.8Gbps is relatively modest compared with some of the more expensive Wi-Fi 6 routers around – this is because it’s dual-band rather than tri-band. However, this is still more than enough to handle most typical home broadband needs, providing fast, reliable web browsing, music- and video-streaming, as well as the occasional casual gaming.
The RT-AX55 has a sleek design, with a streamlined black casing and go-faster red stripes. It features one Gigabit Ethernet port for connecting to your existing modem or router, with four additional Ethernet ports to provide a wired connection if required (pictured below left).
There’s an easy-to-use app to help you get started. To make an initial connection to the router, you need to scan a QR code that’s hidden on its base, then set up a password. We were also pleased to find that the app gives you the option of creating a single network that combines the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands or put the bands on two separate networks. For advanced users, there’s also the option of opening up a web browser interface, which provides more detailed control over the network settings.
In our tests, the RT-AX55 proved to be a good upgrade to the ageing router in our home office, which had to rely on powerline adapters to get any kind of Wi-Fi signal from the main router. At short distances the RT-AX55 matches the speed of our current router.
However, it delivers a huge improvement at longer distances, with its 5GHz band maintaining top speeds of 100Mbps and 12.5MB/s for Steam downloads. The 2.4GHz band is a little slower, dipping to 90Mbps, and 11MB/s with Steam, but that’s still fast enough for streaming video and routine web browsing.
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SPECIFICATIONS
Dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz • Wi-Fi 6 • 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports • 1x WLAN Gigabit Ethernet port • 280x276x184mm • 374g • One-year warranty
VERDICT
An affordable way to bring Wi-Fi 6 into your home, though it isn’t the fastest option we’ve tested
8/10
Best Asus RT-AX55 prices ?
ALTERNATIVE
Netgear Nighthawk RAX80 £ More expensive, but remains the fastest Wi-Fi 6 router we’ve seen
