Asus ROG GT-AXE16000 review: our full review – Routers

The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 is an all-in-one quad-band Wi-Fi router, packed with the latest technologies and aimed at a very demanding gaming clientele. There are, for example, two 10 Giga Ethernet ports as well as quad-band Wi-Fi broadcast and logical compatibility with Wi-Fi 6E.

The GT-AXE16000 is an exceptional model and doesn’t seem to make half the size with multiple ports, full functionality and a theoretical combined Wi-Fi speed of up to 16 Gb/s. So many features that logically increase the bill approaching 700 euros at the time of its release.

A massive replicator

If we’re more used to testing Wi-Fi Mesh kits trying to be as careful as possible with our interiors, it’s not Asus’ bias with the GT-AXE16000. This new model impresses even before unboxing its big box that immediately sets a record.

Inside, the router cleverly sleeps with its folded antennas that, when deployed, remind us of the good night in front of Stargate SG-1 and the battles with the replicators. The body of the router is particularly impressive and looks like a beveled cube in which eight antennas are combined.

When they are opened, the set is even more impressive and will be difficult to integrate correctly into an interior. It is also impossible to hang it on the wall and therefore it has to be placed on a piece of furniture. However, this impressive chassis leaves room for the manufacturer to equip the GT-AXE16000 with multiple ports.

In fact, there are at least 7 Ethernet ports on the back of the device. Besides the 4 gigabit ports that we usually see, we also benefit from a 2.5 Gb / s port and 2 10 Gb / s ports. Suffice it to say that at this level, this new Asus router is ready for the future.

Aside from the pure networking aspect, the Rapture GT-AXE16000 has two USB ports, one of which is 3.0. These will allow, for example, to use the router as a kind of NAS by connecting a hard drive or a USB key. Finally, we take advantage of two very discreet buttons on the left side, one dedicated to WPS and the other to various customizable functions on the router interface.

His DNA never forgets playing, Asus ROG has equipped its router with an impressive RGB logo with an infinite mirror effect. Fortunately, it’s possible to deactivate it to avoid turning your home into a nightclub come nightfall. Discreet indicator LEDs are also present on the front and allow you to know at a glance the status of the router and its connectivity.

On the power side, it will have to be done in the external block, which at least will have the advantage of not imposing too large a transformer on the power outlets. This power supply is also accompanied by a switch, near the USB ports, to electrically shut down the router.

If it is very similar to the GT-AXE11000, this 16000 model seems to us to be more “heavy”, especially at the level of the antennas. They offer less freedom in their orientation, but they seem more resistant. For the rest, we found a quite similar device although the RGB lighting is more convincing here.

Starting

Getting started with the router is very simple using the mobile application or the web interface. Simply plug in the device and connect the WAN port to your box or existing network. So, all you have to do is connect your smartphone or your computer to the Wi-Fi network or one of the LAN ports on the back.

The initial setup process is very simple and will get the Rapture GT-AXE16000 up and running quickly. The router will be able to adapt its configuration automatically according to the parameters and specificities of the network to which it is connected.

An ultra-complete router

The features offered by Asus routers are among the most complete on the market. ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 is no exception and has a very complete management interface. There are also menus that take graphic charter playing of the brand.

The home page acts as a dashboard and displays the status of the router and its various components. In addition, there are also various graphs that allow you to know the current network load of the router as well as the evolution of the Internet connection performance over time.

At the level of classic network settings, we can more or less do what we want with the router. If it can work without difficulty behind an operator’s box, such a device will logically call to replace the latter and will be particularly interesting for demanding users.

All the usual functions are present: NAT, DHCP, firewall as well as advanced port management with the possibility of link aggregation between different interfaces. So, it is also possible to choose the port to be used for the WAN link, to combine it with another or even to combine several LAN ports for the same device in your local network.

Wi-Fi connection settings are also complete with good customization of different bands that can also be separated into different SSIDs. But the Rapture GT-AXE16000 does not stop there and benefits from a whole host of other more or less interesting features.

The router is, for example, compatible with the AiMesh mesh network solution. It can be integrated into a wireless router network in a transparent way. Logically, there are also many options related to playing with the primary goal of prioritizing games and gaming machine traffic while allowing the use of third-party services such as WTFast.

The router’s USB ports can also be used to further increase the range of functionality it offers. We can turn it into a NAS (or Time Machine) by connecting a hard drive to it, or even use a 4G key as a backup for the classic internet connection. Asus OS also includes a download manager.

Asus maintains its partnership with Trend Micro solution to offer comprehensive filtering and security features. We will not go into the details of the possibilities of this solution, which we have already discussed in our test of the ZenWiFi XD6 kit, which we invite you to consult. Just remember that in addition to being really complete, this solution is completely free.

Finally, let’s not forget the presence of compatibility with the Alexa voice assistant, which will allow voice control of the router’s functionalities as well as a menu dedicated to the configuration of a VPN server. In short, and as indicated in the introduction to this part, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router is quite simply the most complete model that passed through our hands when we wrote these lines.

Finally, although we’ve only discussed the web interface here, some options can be configured using the Asus Router mobile application. Such a device is mainly intended for experienced users, so we prefer to focus on the web interface that they will actually use.

Performance

We will not talk too much about the performance of the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router. On paper, it’s one of the best-performing consumer models around. It is also the brand’s first quad-band router with the possibility to use 2 different bands around 5 GHz. Actually, it would be of real interest in the case of using a mesh network, to have a band dedicated to the backhaul link.

To test its performance, we first used an Intel AX210 network card compatible with Wi-Fi 6E to find out the raw performance of the machine. The following measurements were taken using an Asus ZenBook laptop, Wi-Fi 6 compatible. As a reminder, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E offer similar theoretical speeds, only the use of the 6 GHz band differs at the Wi-Fi level. – Fi 6E. Since the latter provides less coverage than the historical bands, the use of Wi-Fi 6 for measurements far from the router therefore has little effect on the results.

In optimal conditions, our test protocol allows us to get download speeds in excess of 1200 Mb/s. It goes beyond what a classic Ethernet port offers. In uploadperformance remains relatively modest with speeds struggling to exceed 500 Mb/s.

With Wi-Fi 6 (therefore in the 5 GHz band), the speed reaches a very good value of 800 Mb/s in download and is always a mark in upload which ticks at 500 Mb/s. Here we stick to fairly standard values ​​if we compare these results with the various Wi-Fi 6 kits that have already been tested in our columns.

By switching rooms, our laptop was able to maintain a download speed of around 600 Mb/s. This flow logically drops when you go outside and load-carrying walls block the way to 5 GHz waves. In these difficult conditions, the Rapture GT-AXE16000 nevertheless makes it possible to achieve a download speed exceeding 150 Mb/s.

In summary, this new Asus router does not change the speed of Wi-Fi and provides the expected performance for this type of hardware, at least on one machine. Its multiple antennas and the aggregate speed it can offer will be especially significant in real-world use, where several machines will be communicating simultaneously. In our tests, it should be logical to consider that the performance is really limited by the Wi-Fi card used, which satisfied a 2×2 MIMO.

Finally, and due to the lack of compatible hardware, it was not possible for us to test the performance of the 10 Giga port. The power on the router board does not guarantee that they can be operated correctly. On the other hand, the different ports actually deliver a speed of 2.5 Gb/s which we were able to prove in our tests.

Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router price and availability

The Asus ROG GT-AXE16000 router is available at a recommended price of 700 euros.