And in the case of the ASUS RT-AX55, someone could not have enough cash to force a price reduction — by a thousand or two rubles — to make it happen. In a strict sense, if the coronavirus had not affected global production and the supply chain, this is exactly how much it should have cost, or about 5,000 rubles. However, this is where inquiries concerning the gadget should end because its hardware and design were sound. A tiny notch on the glossy top cover helps to hide dust and fingerprints on the casing.
Design
The Asus RT-AX55 maintains a modest profile, measuring 56 x 230 x 134mm and weighs only 374g, just like the TP-Link AX50 Archer. The back of the wifi router has four adjustable antennae that can be pushed back and rotated from side to side. In addition to the standard reset button, WPS switch, and mains adapter port, the antennae are located above four gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and one WAN port. The RT-AX55 lacks a USB connector, making it unable to connect devices like external hard drives. Given the price, that’s understandable, and not everyone needs or wants this feature in the first place, particularly if they already have a NAS drive. The RT-AX55 is a flattened trapezoid with a little aggressive insectile appearance. It has a very conventional form. Any warm air produced by the parts can quickly leave thanks to air vents on the front, back, sides, and bottom. The RT-AX55 cannot be wall mounted, which can be a problem for some people, but given its tiny size and low weight, you should have no trouble finding a place in your home for it.
Asus RT-AX55 review: Features
The app UI has a, dare we say, “cool” appearance, which is maybe not surprising given that Asus produces some of the greatest gaming laptops available. Asus’s router app is richly designed with a lot of sci-fi inspired artwork that wouldn’t seem out of place on a panel in the USS Enterprise’s engine room, in contrast to other router apps, which have simple, minimalistic design. You must connect the Asus RT-AX55 to a modem because it lacks one of its own. In the UK, this entails checking to see if Openreach has provided one or turning on Modem Mode on a device provided by your ISP, like the Virgin Media Super Hub. New users won’t feel out of place in either scenario because the Asus Router app will force you to perform all necessary steps, including turning off the modem before connecting it to the router via Ethernet, turning on the router, and then turning the modem back on. The entire process itself took around two minutes, but after that, we had to wait a long time while a significant firmware upgrade was installed. It’s reassuring to know that Asus isn’t hanging around to make sure its clients have updated the most recent patches, even though we made several cups of tea in the process. Once everything is set up and ready to go, you may play around with different settings on the app. Due to its logical layout, this is actually pretty easy to understand. The Asus Router app provides you with a basic overview of your network and all of the connected devices. You may refresh connections—useful if anything is acting up—or throttle connections—useful if someone is using a lot of bandwidth—by tapping on symbols for each connected device. Parents can use the Family tab to designate specific devices for homework time. The ability to apply age-related content filters to devices is also available, but there is no way to customize these with block or approve lists. Even accessing the desktop control panel does not give you the option to block particular URLs, which is something that many other routers allow you to do.
Connectivity
The Asus RT-AX55 performed admirably during testing and regular use in terms of speed and coverage, especially with Wi-Fi 6 devices. On the Wi-Fi 6 device, in particular, connections on the 5GHz band remained strong even after we moved two or more rooms away from any other device. Of course, once we entered the yard, we had to switch to the slower but more widespread 2.4GHz frequency. also, you can learn our article on Asus RT-AX55 review. While the Huawei didn’t provide us with much success upstairs, it was encouraging to notice that the Realme phone allowed us to utilize a respectable 5GHz connection. Even so, we think we could only just about work upstairs on such a connection, and much like with the Linksys MR7350 and TP-Link AX50 Archer, we’d really want to get a Powerline adapter or even better, an AiMesh satellite so we could integrate the Asus RT-AX55 into a mesh Wi-Fi network.
Asus RT-AX55 review: Internal Hardware
Make sure you really need to open the casing before doing so because you will void your warranty, and keep in mind that this has been the most difficult router to open thus far. Since we ran into some resistance when attempting to pry open the case, we decided to examine underneath the bottom silicone pads as well. It turns out that Asus has secretly put two screws under the front-most pads. There are two screws on the back side of the router, near to the ports. The PCB, which is different from the RT-AX56U, could be seen in this fashion. Two antennae are linked to the board as usual, while the other two are soldered, which is highly unusual for Asus. The issue is that while checking for its components, we also noticed some unusual features, such as the low-quality screws and the flimsy hinges, and overall, the entire board felt as though it might fall apart. This is the first router that has made us concerned that it won’t work after being put back together. We could see a Realtek RTL8367S Ethernet switch chip and a UTG18T01 2019H network transformer on the top of the PCB. Two screws holding the PCB in place could be removed, allowing us to turn the board over and see 128MB of Fudan Microelect NAND flash memory (FM25S01). In order to remove the sizable metallic sink from the top side of the PCB, we had to remove a few screws from this location as well. By doing this, the quad-core Broadcom BCM6755KFEBG chipset, which is also found on the RT-AX56U, has been made visible (M15T2G16128A). The Broadcom BCM6755 b/g/n/ax 22:2 chipset is used by the Asus RT-AX55 for the 2.4GHz band, and the BCM6755 a/n/ac/ax 22:2 is used for the 5GHz band. The RT-AX55 is marketed as an AX1800-class router, which means that it has a theoretical maximum data transfer rate of 1,201 Mbps on the 5GHz band and a theoretical maximum data transfer rate of 574 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band.
Performance
The Asus RT-AX55 is a decent replacement for our office’s outdated Wi-Fi router despite its modest price. The older router can nevertheless deliver reasonable speeds for surrounding devices in the same room, reporting Ookla speed test results of 100Mbps and Steam download speeds of 12.5MB/s, which are the fastest speeds permitted by our workplace broadband connection. However, we also have an office at the back of the building that our old router can hardly reach, forcing us to rely on PowerLine adaptors to give a more dependable wired connection. The Asus RT-AX55 just matches those speeds for close-by devices in the same room. With its 5.0GHz band sustaining top Wi-Fi rates of 100Mbs with Ookla and 12.5MB/s for Steam downloads, the Asus RT-AX55 is the undisputed victor in that back office. Our outdated Dell laptop, which only has 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, can finally go wireless thanks to the 2.4GHz band’s slightly slower speeds of 90Mbps with Ookla and 11MB/s with Steam. Nevertheless, these speeds are still high enough for streaming video and everyday online browsing. also, you can check our article on Asus RT-AX55 review.
Asus RT-AX55 review: Price
For a Wi-Fi 6 router, the Asus RT-AX55 is very reasonably priced at at $129 (£119, AU$189). For the majority of smaller and medium-sized homes who need the increased speed and dependability of Wi-Fi 6, this makes it an excellent upgrade option. In addition, as previously indicated, you can purchase more Asus routers and utilize them in combination as a mesh network system if you ever need to upgrade your Wi-Fi even further or move into a new home. Another option is the Asus RT-AX56U, which costs $149 (£121, AU$229) and offers comparable performance in addition to having a USB connection for connecting a shared network drive.
Conclusion
If you recently purchased a brand-new laptop, smartphone, or tablet for yourself, it may already be equipped with the Wi-Fi 6 standard. If so, upgrading to a new router is probably necessary if you want to get the most out of it. With its streamlined black shell and faster-moving red lines, the RT-AX55 has a modern appearance. It has four additional Ethernet ports in case a wired connection is needed in addition to one Gigabit Ethernet port for connecting to your current modem or router.
