This AC does more than cool you down, it speeds you up. We’ve seen many of the 802.11ac
products ASUS currently has on offer, and soon this new addition will be joining the family.
This is the
RT-AC56U, a mid-upper range networking device that’s loaded with goodies to make
the most of the latest in Wi-Fi. Just to recap quickly, 802.11ac takes over from 802.11n as the
fastest and most powered Wi-Fi standard. You can check out the official protocols on the IEEE site.
And get excited about the
RT-AC56U…
The
RT-AC56U is quite the looker, maintaining the black diamond design previous performance
routers from ASUS showcased. Of course, the antennas are internal, which means a sleeker
device, less interference and, in my case, nothing for headphone cables to get snared on,
reducing the likelihood of mishaps.
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In terms of speed, the
RT-AC56U has two bands (2.4GHz/5GHz) that concurrently top at 1167Mbit/s.
While not the fastest in the ASUS networking arsenal, this is more than enough to cover you even
if you’re on a rare true Gigabit connection. Inside we find a fifth generation Broadcom chipset that
is at the heart of 802.11ac optimisation.
You can see quite clearly that the
RT-AC56U has both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, so connect away:
printers, external storage, even 3G/4G adapters. This is more than a router, it can easily become
a server to share resources, something ASUS networking products are very keen on doing.
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The internal antennas are supported by ASUS AiRadar signal amplification and shaping technology,
which we’ve talked about before as well. This nifty touch has an intelligent algorithm built into the
CPU that modulates signal power based on how many devices you have paired with the
RT-AC56U,
how far each one is, how much bandwidth each requires at any given time, and what letter of the
alphabet the device name starts with. Just kidding about that last one. On a serious note, ASUS
engineers tell me in real world test conditions AiRadar can extend Wi-Fi coverage 150% compared
to an exactly-specced router that doesn’t have it, though of course your results may vary.
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Naturally, the ASUS AiCloud app is bundled and supported, so you can use your iOS and Android
devices to access the
RT-AC56U from pretty much anywhere, share stuff from external storage
hooked to it with other people. You can also access, stream, upload, and download content, but
remember you do need external storage for this – that’s why the USB ports come in so handy.
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The
RT-AC56U should be launching in the very near future, with more details forthcoming.
We’ll keep you posted, so watch this space and our Twitter feed!
