Yes, I know that the idea behind the RT-AX55 was to make as affordable as possible, but, considering that there isn’t a huge price difference between it and the RT-AX56U (at the moment of writing), I do feel like they needlessly stripped the device from some useful features – a USB port could have found its way to the back of the router. Further to the right, there’s a Power connector (still compatible with the universal adapter, just like the RT-AX86U), the Gigabit WAN port and four Gigabit LAN ports. If you switch the RT-AX55 on the other side, you can see the four antennas which, unfortunately can’t be removed (there’s no way to upgrade them) and underneath the two central antennas, rest the ports and the connectors.įrom the left, there’s a recessed Reset button (press and hold it for about 10 seconds to set the router to its default settings) which sits next to the WPS button and the Power switch. That being said, you do get a Power LED, an Internet LED (lights solid red when there is no proper connection), two LEDs for the WiFi bands and a single LED for all the LAN ports (one for each would have been better). Indeed, the five status LEDs sit on the front section immediately underneath the protruding top area and, while I do appreciate the minimalist approach, it’s a bit counterproductive since I had to take the router in my hand to check the LED lights (the icons are also barely visible). On the left and right side, there are no openings or ports (just a ribbed pattern) and Asus has positioned the LEDs in a way that they’re barely visible. There are ventilation cut-outs found on the front side and a few more at the bottom area (next to the four silicone feet) to keep the internal temperature low and they do a good job considering that the router barely gets warm while functioning. I get it with the vertically positioned routers, such as the RT-AX86U since it’s difficult to pull it off due to the way the case is designed, but the Asus RT-AX55 should have had mounting holes. Unfortunately not, since Asus had decided for some unknown reason not to put any mounting holes on the bottom of the router. The good news is that it’s just as compact as the RT-AX56U, measuring 9.1 x 5.3 x 2.2 inches (or 23.0 x 13.4 x 5.6 cm), so it shouldn’t take that much space from your desk, but if your office is crammed, you do get to mount it on the wall, right? Furthermore, I know that the manufacturer usually uses red to show that we’re dealing with a gaming router, but that’s not really the case with the RT-AX55. It’s a nice effect and I do like that it’s nowhere near as flashy as the other WiFi 6 Asus models. While in terms of design, the Asus RT-AX56U was almost identical to the RT-AX58U, the RT-AX55 has a completely different look and yes, it’s still a plastic case that sits horizontally, but the router sports a glossy textured black finish with a couple of red bands that divide the top in three parts. UPDATE : I have added a couple of long-time throughput graphs and a comparison with the Asus RT-AX56U and the RT-AX68U. But, if you can take advantage of some of the WiFi 6 technologies, then the RT-AX55 is an attractive solution, so let’s have a look whether it’s a solid value for the money or if you should just go with the RT-AX56U. And that’s really the talk of the hour: should you even bother with WiFi 6? Asus really wants you to give it a chance since it has almost fully renewed its 802.11ac line-up (most recently, it has also released the RT-AX68U) and yes, the WiFi 6E routers are also becoming available this year, but the price is high and the client support is pretty much non-existent – not that the WiFi 6 clients are that wide-spread either. It’s true that going for a cheaper AX router may seem like a no-brainer, but it can actually backfire if you don’t have WiFi 6 clients, since you can see a worse WiFi performance with clients from the previous generation. I have recently tested the Asus RT-AX56U and if the RT-AX55 performs in a similar manner (as it should considering that the price tag is not as different as you may expect), it’s definitely an interesting option for those that want to check out the WiFi technology, but are more budget-constrained. Everything else is mostly there, so the WiFi 6 (draft) features are there to help improve the WiFi performance and the network stability – there’s OFDMA (on both bands, ul+dl), MU-MIMO (2×2), BeamForming and TWT, but the channel bandwidth goes only up to 80MHz, so no 160MHz support.
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