Routers are something we all have, and very few of us truly take much note of them.
Usually supplied by your ISP and after that, you hardly touch them, unless you are resetting them or having them replaced. So when ASUS sent us the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 router, we thought we would give it a go and see if some routers are truly more equal than others. Is the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 possibly the greatest dual-band router out there right now?
What’s in the box?
The ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 packaging is much like all other ROG branding and packaging. The box is a large black and red box with plenty of ROG and ASUS logos scattered all over. The top is adorned with a large picture of the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 in all its glory. Opening it up you are met with plenty of technical info, apart from the router itself, there are also many items: the power adapter, a network cable, four external antennas a quick start guide, a basic troubleshooting guide, and the warranty card.
In typical Republic of Gamers fashion, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 has a large and bold design and with the four antennas that are all large and thick and all the sharp lines, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 comes across as a very aggressively designed router. Definitely, an item that you would want people to see rather than hideaway. Looking from the top the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 has the usual ROG logo, which is RGB powered, the ROG letters are also featured on the top side of the router but these double as ventilation much as they have done with many other ROG products of which the ROG Zephyrus is the first that comes to mind. This ventilation design follows the bottom of the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000.
Moving to the business end of the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 we are met with many ports. We are met with a WAN port that supports 2.5Gbps, a LAN port at 2.5Gbps, and another 4 LAN ports that are only 1Gbps. Two USB ports, one is USB 3.2 and the other is USB 2.0. The standard power socket and the power switch is a reset switch. Unlike most routers, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 does not feature a WPS button instead, WPS can be controlled via the firmware.
Specifications
- Wi-Fi Standard: Wi-Fi 6 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax
- Wi-Fi Speeds: 4804 (5GHz 11ax) + 1148 Mbps (2.4GHz 11ax)
- Antennas: 4 external antennas
- Wi-Fi Capacity: Dual band
- Wi-Fi Features: OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), Beamforming: standard-based and universal, 1024-QAM high data rate
- Bandwidth: 20/40/80/160MHz
- Working Modes: Router Mode, Access Point Mode, AiMeshnode, Mediabridge, Repeater
- Processor: 2.0 GHz Quad-core CPU
- Memory: 256MB Flash, 1GB RAM
- Ethernet Ports: 4 x Gigabit LAN Ports, 1 x 2.5G WAN/LAN, 1 x 2.5G LAN
- Wi-Fi Encryption: Open system, WPA/WPA2/WPA3-Personal, WPA/WPA2-Enterprise
Setup
The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 can be set up easily in two ways. First is the standard web browser way that we are all familiar with, secondly is the ASUS Router App for IOS and Android. The app does make it simple. Connect your phone to the wireless network, use the app to select the series of routers you have, and give your phone permission to use your location. Choose the internet connection type, provide the login details and give your new wifi network a name and password. Let the app do its thing and you will receive a summary of what it has done, you are now ready to go, or you can customize your RGB settings before you start.
Naturally, the app doesn’t allow you to change as many options as you can when using the web browser although the mobile app is great for the easy and smaller things you might want to do on the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000. Even though the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 has a near-endless amount of features the features are fairly easy to find and navigate thanks to the easy UI.
Performance
Measuring the performance of a router is not the easiest of feats. It is mostly environmentally based because signal strength and reach will be different for everyone as the biggest influences on router signal strength and reach will always be the number of walls and objects the signal needs to travel through as well as other devices giving off signals of their own and how these interact or interfere with each other.
My townhouse is a measly 140sq meters and some change, with my incoming fiber connection being more or less in the middle of the house, therefor a router would have to be rather terrible to not be able to cover the whole floor space of my house. So in that regard, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 smashes it out of the park, much like many other routers.
I also did a simple test, taking my 30/30 internet connection, yes don’t laugh, and switched between 2.4GHz and 5GHz while also testing wifi5 and wifi6 in a few of my rooms, namely, the study, kitchen, and lounge, these being, close, further and farthest away from the router respectively.
For those who didn’t know, with the step from wifi5 to wifi6, the bandwidth expands from 80MHz to 160MHz range which means there is much more bandwidth to use giving wifi6 the ability to really improve delivery.
While using the 2.4GHz I had no issue with range and signal strength throughout my house, i did, however, see that using the speed test I did not constantly get my full 30/30. Switching over to 5GHz saw this improve significantly.
Features
The ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 is crammed full of features that really set it apart from the everyday, run-of-the-mill – router. It does not only feature some nifty lights to impress your friends. It is crammed full of handy tools such as the Gaming Port, a dedicated port that will give any device that is plugged into it, priority on the network over any and all other devices on the network.
ROG First is another built-in feature that allows the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 to detect all ROG devices on the network and those devices will receive priority above other devices. This is great if you have the ROG phone or a ROG motherboard.
Game Boost is an adaptive QoS (quality of service) feature that will once again, prioritize traffic to gaming devices before other devices.
Outfox is a VPN service that is built straight into your ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 router that will help to try to optimize your connection to popular game servers to give you the best possible latency. Included in your router is a 90-day free trial.
Open NAT is a feature that I know all console gamers will rejoice for, an easy way to change your NAT type without having to swear at your console and router repeatedly!
Game Radar is an easy way to check your ping to popular game servers like DOTA2, LoL, Overwatch, and World of Tanks to name but a few.
The features of the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 do not stop there, the above features are all gaming-focused but ASUS takes security very seriously, and therefore the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 is crammed full of security features as well :
AI Protection will protect your network from attacks, malicious sites, and infected devices before they have the chance to run rampant on your network.
Parental Controls is every parent’s dream guardian to protect inquisitive kids from stumbling onto websites they shouldn’t.
Guest Network allows you to set up up to three guest networks, each with its own security and access settings on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz
Dual WAN you can use two separate internet connections at the same time, the second unfortunately has to go into a 1Gbps port.
Amazon Alexa can have you using Alexa to upgrade and use your router without having to lift a finger.
Verdict
With WiFi6 becoming more and more prevalent the push for hardware that is WiFi6 capable is rapidly increasing. Fortunately the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 ticks nearly all the boxes you could possibly have for a gaming router. With a feature list the length of my arm, literally, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT – AX6000 ensures that nearly every possible requirement is met thanks to the tremendous amount of tech that is crammed into an extremely eye-catching and imposing figure. The only scary thing is the eye-watering price…
Special thanks to ASUS South Africa for sending this review product
