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Asus touts spider-like RT-AC5300 tri-band router

By Gabe Carey Published January 15, 2019

Asus has detailed a terrifying new addition to its expansive family of tri-band wireless routers, dubbed the RT-AC5300. The good news is the premium router sports eight heavy duty antennas, making it capable of 4 x 4 MU-MIMO wireless coverage on three bands; two 5GHz and one 2.4GHz. The bad news? It looks like the machine cousin of the arachnid family.

The eight-legged parasite bolsters support for the latest consumer networking standards, both wired and wireless, and makes use of the AsusWRT firmware. Perhaps adding to its venomous aesthetic, the AC5300 comes in black, accentuated by a narrow red line along the edges. To keep the temperature down, the router ships complete with a mesh surface with what appears to be ventilation on the underside. Additionally, the predatory router packs in five gigabit Ethernet ports — with up to two eligible for WAN configuration — alongside a single USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, and physical WPS, Wi-Fi, and LED power buttons.

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Thanks to a competent Broadcom chipset, The RT-AC5300 bears 802.11ac support in addition to legacy support for N/G/B Wi-Fi standards. And, courtesy of its NitroQAM tech, the two higher-powered 5GHz bands can facilitate speeds of up to 2,167Mbps while the 2.4GHz band maxes out at 1,000Mbps. This is a lofty revision, considering most 5GHz routers can only reach 1,734Mbps while 2.4GHz bands only get up to 600Mbps.

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By using a technology called beamforming, Asus says, all three bands can be concentrated to run at the same time, allowing for a collective speed of 5,334Mbps. Unfortunately, for anyone looking to take advantage of this, most devices connected to the router would be capped off at 2,167Mbps. The router can automatically adjust to the maximum speed of the device based on its unique capabilities and signal strength.

Getting down to wired connections, the router touts four 1Gbps LAN ports, along with 802.3ad link aggregation, allowing two of the four gigabit ports to produce a single 2Gbps connection to devices that support the standard, such as network attached storage, or NAS, as well as workstation PCs.

The Asus RT-AC5300 comprises AiRadar beamforming, AiProtect security, and a WTFast GPN subscription, delivering lower latency and decreased pings for the gamers of the house. While pricing and release information have yet to be announced, if CNET’s reports are to be believed, you should expect to pay $400 for Asus’ monstrous AC5300 router when it inevitably crawls onto the shelves of your local Internet retailer.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

A freelancer for Digital Trends, Gabe Carey has been covering the intersection of video games and technology since he was 16…

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