Asus RT-AC5300 Review

Posted on by

The Asus RT-AC5300, Gaming, 4K Streaming and Smart Home

The Asus RT-AC5300 is a versatile tri-band router, with three Wi-Fi bands: one band with 2.4GHz and two with 5GHz. Since it comes equipped with the latest Broadcom Wi-Fi chip, all the three bands come with higher bandwidths. In fact, the 2.4GHz band has a Wi-Fi speed of 1,000Mbps, while the each of the 5GHz bands entails a speed up to 2,167Mbps. Thus it has a combined bandwidth of a whopping 300Mbps.

Of course these extremely high speeds are only in theory. The actual speed depends on the specs of the Wi-Fi devices that the users use like phones, tablets and phones. Factors like interference, software/hardware overheads and ranges tend to lower the speed. However, in general terms it offers enhanced real-world performance, making the Asus RT-AC5300 really exciting. Besides, it supports any prevailing Wi-Fi clients also that are obsolete like the 802.11b. In order to obtain optimum benefit, it is necessary for users to support the 802.11ac and also the tier with the same performance that this router provides.

Unusual Design

To look at the Asus RT-AC5300, it sports a highly unusual design, that resembles a dead spider lying on its back. This design is odd because it comes with no less than eight antennas, to impart three different wireless networks, two of which are quad-stream 4×4 802.11ac. It mostly benefits environments that have extremely high wireless traffic, and also for users who require the fastest of wireless speeds, via multiple devices.

Actually it is impossible to find another Wi-Fi router equipped with such a festoon of antennas. Besides, RT-AC5300 is just about the only consumer router that comes with a square design, with huge dimensions as well as odd appearance, something that one doesn’t come across every day.

Connectivity

The Asus 5300 is equipped with no less than eight dual-band antennas that are detachable. This is by far the maximum number of external antennas available with any home router till now. This router comes with two USB ports in the form of one USB.2.0 and the other one USB 3.0, so that it can host a printer as well as an external hard drive. The clients can also make use of these ports to host a dongle, if they feel like sharing either a 3G or 4G connection along with the other devices in the local network. Although the RT-AC5300 is extremely large in size, it still comes with the customary 4GB LAN ports as also 1GB WAN port.

Safety Feature

Keeping in line with recent routers from Asus like the RT-AC87U and RT-AC3200, the RT-AC5300 features an interface that is easy to use, and readily support the company’s AiProtection network security services that is meant to maintain any local network protected from potential threats.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • High speed operation
  • High bandwidth
  • Excellent safety features
  • Unfit for home use

Cons

  • Extremely bulky
  • Quite expensive

On the whole the Asus RT-AC5300 is a massive router that far exceeds the requirements of most homes. However, if you are on the lookout for a high quality router, with a number of 5Ghz Wi-Fi consumers who has to perform highly demanding networking wireless applications, the Asus RT-AC5300 is worth its hefty price tag.