ASUS RT AC55UHP AC1200 Router Review

Revised Verdict – 6/10

They have a very poor firmware no matter how good is the hardware specially when it comes to compatibility with Chromecast. It gets so irritating that I had to revise the review. Their Customer support is not very helpful specially in India.

Verdict – 8/10

If you’re looking for a new router, you should definitely go for a AC  Wireless standard router and ASUS RT AC55UHP is a  good choice.  It fits right into your budget if you need a good reliable wifi connection in a medium/large size apartment. It offers very good speed and a stable range over a large area across multiple walls.

With the 2 9dbi high power antennas it works flawlessly within a area of around 900 sqft ( Tested ) and penetrates well enough across 3 concrete walls on 2.4 GHz band. Internet speed over 5GHz wifi band is amazing considering the drop in speed is only 22% against LAN port, which easily varies from 30-50% for other expensive routers.

The highest speed you get on 5GHz channel is around 70 Mbps over wifi against the 92 Mbps over LAN/Ethernet port and the Upload speed goes upto 93 Mbps, which is same over ethernet port.

Cons: Over 2-3 day usage, nothing so far, just that the signal drop is significant If I put the router in a bit of corner, which is definitely same with all the routers because of interference.

Detailed Review:

I had to replace my old Netgear WNDR3400v3 – N600 Dual Band router, as I got a new 100 Mbps connection. The main reason for the upgrade was the poor speed and wifi range, I was ready to adjust a bit with speed, but the low wifi range made it totally unusable.

I tried Netgear WN3000RP-200INS wifi extender, but it was a total let down with multiple devices ( 5 ) connected to it, in terms of speed and range. After a lot of research I came down to 2 routers:

Asus AC1900 RT AC68U ( INR 13.5K, $208 approx.) and
Netgear R7000-100INS Nighthawk AC1900 ( INR 12k, $185 approx.)

but both of them were bit too costly.

ASUS RT AC55UHP, was recommended by a friend, who was using a similar model.

WIFI Range

Let’s come down to the coverage map of the router, I’ve tested it over a area of around 900 sq ft.

For my old Netgear router, the wifi range was quite low just across the first wall, Asus outperformed with a good wifi range across 3 concrete walls offering a speed of upto 20 Mbps on 2.4 GHz, where 3rd wall being thicker in comparison to other two walls.

Here is a screenshot, comparing the wifi performance of 5Ghz band in same room, across first wall and across 2 walls.

5GHz Band: For 5Ghz band, wifi range drops significantly after two walls, but still I was able to get a download/upload speed of upto 40 Mbps.

2GHz Band: Wifi Range is quite good across 3 walls, and drops significantly after 4th wall.

Speed Test

LAN

ASUS RT AC55UHP offers a good speed over LAN port, I was getting a maximum of 87 Mbps over my existing router and Asus outperformed with a speed of 92.80/93.68 Mbps with a ping time of 2ms.

WIFI

With ref to the coverage map, here are the speed test results for 5GHz band across same room, single wall and multiple walls.

Here are the speedtest results for 2.4 GHz band, the drop in Upload speed is because of the ISP and not the router:

Looking at the screenshots, speed over 5GHz in same room went upto 70 Mbps / 93 Mbps, and it dropped with each wall being introduced between the router and the device. With upto 2 walls, the Internet is reliable.

The lower band 2.4 GHz, offers a good range over speed, and the drop in speed is adjustable, considering, I was getting a 20Mbps speed in region 4 i.e across 3 walls.

* Seq. 1,2,3,4 in screenshots refers to the Speed Tests areas marked in wifi coverage map.

Router Placement

Make sure to keep the router in an open area and not a complete corner, and it should be 3-4 ft. above the ground, to get a better range. Because the signal drops rapidly if the router is in a complete corner. Antennas should be pointing in different directions.

That sums up the wifi coverage and speed of the router.

Inside the Box

You’ve your Asus Router, 2 9Dbi long Antennas, Ethernet cable, Power Adapter, support for Antennas to align them properly, Installation CD.

You won’t need the installation CD, unless you’ve to troubleshoot and re-install the firmware for some reason.

 

Setup

Setting up this router is fairly easy, it automatically checks for type of Internet connection and prompts you for ISP login details, if required. You’ll need to update the firmware as soon as you get the Router, the latest one is 3.0.0.4.380.4180 released on December 29th, 2016.

 

Hardware

Asus RT-AC55UHP have  a Qualcomm chipset, with 128 MB Flash and 128 MB RAM.

For further ref: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_RT-AC55UHP

Custom Firmware

As of now there is no custom firmware available for Asus RT-AC55UHP, but OpenWrt does have a build for Asus RT-AC55U

Apart from that, there a lot of other features like AiCloud, Firewall, support for VPN and a USB 3.0 port. I haven’t played with any of those yet.

Just make sure to register your product at Asus online, to avail the warranty.

* Coverage map image is designed by Ganesh Kerkar