Are we entering a kind of arms race with high-end routers? If we go by recent news, that seems to be the case. Google fired the first missile with its OnHub device, and anticipated that we would soon see similar hardware from other manufacturers. Now, the new Asus RT-AC5300 has nothing to do with the OnHub, but it easily claims the title of the world's fastest router, thanks to its astonishing specifications.
How much speed do you really need?
How fast should a wireless router be? If the idea is just to access the internet through mobile devices, the strictest limits come from other sources (provider, device WiFi module), but honestly, what we want first from a router is stability, especially when several systems connect at the same time. It is also necessary to recognize that demands have changed. The idea of a media center or a server on a local network distributing music and movies to all terminals is very good, and it can be done with a relatively low investment. The main challenge is to respond to high-definition demands. 1080p movies and 4K video have the ability to put most routers in trouble, and this forces the big names in the market to take action.
The Asus RT-AC5300
IFA 2015 opens its doors to the public today, but that does not prevent several manufacturers from presenting their news in advance. One of them is Asus, who revealed the router RT-AC5300. At first glance, I think anyone could mistake it for a spider robot, but it actually has eight antennas, divided equally for reception and transmission, with a coverage of 500 square meters. If necessary, the user can remove each antenna individually, although it would be a waste given the maximum speed the router offers. The Asus RT-AC5300 is capable of delivering up to one gigabit per second on the 2.4 GHz band, and 2.16 gigabits per second on both 5 GHz bands. The combined performance reaches 5.33 gigabits per second, a number we can only dream of.
The AiRadar technology applies beamforming to optimize the WiFi signal directed to each device, the Tri-Band Smart Connect system automatically determines the best band, and its Link Aggregation support allows it to combine two gigabit LAN connections, forming a two-gigabit-per-second superlink. If we add to all this the AiCloud 2.0 service for storing content in the cloud and AiProtection security managed by Trend Micro, Asus seems to have a true winner here, and at least for a while, it will be able to say that it sells the fastest router on the planet. Price and release? A mystery.
