Today, we have routers that are not just small boxes with lights on them. Routers are now devices that are almost as complex as a computer itself. They are no longer just a small box with lights on it that allows us to access the internet.

The TUF-AX5400 from ASUS is a small, black router with six antennas on the side and back. It has ASUS Aura RGB lighting, which allows you to change the big LED light on top of the router to any color you like. We’re not sure why you would want to do this, but if it has to be close to your PC at least the colors will match. ..

Design

The Asus TUF Gaming AX5400 is a gaming router that looks like a router, with an angular appearance and six independent antennae. It has four additional Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports to offer a lag-free wired connection for PCs or gaming consoles, as well as one Gigabit Ethernet WAN port for connecting to your existing broadband modem or router.

To ensure that your gaming rig always receives the greatest speed, it is possible to combine one of the Ethernet LAN ports with one of the gaming ports. If necessary, you can even combine the gaming port with a second LAN port to offer 2Gbps speed over Ethernet.

The Asus TUF-AC68U features a USB 3.2 connector for connecting a USB storage device and sharing it with other network users. The Asus Router app makes it simple to get started by allowing you to connect to the TUF router’s wireless network by just scanning a QR code. Weirdly, unlike previous Asus routers we’ve used in the past, this new network does not come pre-protected by a password. As a result, you must rapidly create your own password to keep the network secure. ..

Asus TUF Gaming AX5400 review: Connectivity

The TUF AX5400 offers 44 MIMO at 5GHz and up to 4804 Mbps for wireless connectivity. The TUF AX5400 also supports Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), which is a feature of Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) that enables access points to serve many clients at once. ..

If you are concerned about interference with older WiFi 2.4 GHz, you should know that the routers now provide the finest option for sending data to your devices. The routers now have separate 22 2.4 GHz antennas to lessen interference, in addition to other improvements like beamforming, which concentrates the signal towards each device. ..

Features

The Asus TUF AX5400’s WiFi 6 can manage this kind of scenario and maintain the connected devices’ performance at an ideal level. It matches some of the priciest gaming routers on the market with a connection speed of 5.4Gbits/sec, as promised.

WiFi 6 is a new technology that allows multiple devices to connect to the router at the same time, which is great for sending and receiving data packets. This technology is comparable to having a separate router for each device, and it will help you have a better online experience.

Asus TUF Gaming AX5400 review: Performance

The TUF Gaming AX5400’s transfer speeds were much faster than the ROG Rapture GT-AX6000, which we expected given that the two routers are based on the same chipset. The AX5400 also performed better in our real-world tests, reaching a download speed of 50Mbits/sec compared to the ROG Rapture GT-AX6000’s 34Mbits/sec.

After that, we used Wi-Fi 6 to connect a laptop to the router, moved it around our house, and assessed the average transfer speeds while copying a typical set of 100MB files to and from the Drivestor unit. It should’t come as a surprise that the TUF Gaming AX5400 cannot match the ROG Rapture GT-peak AX6000’s speeds. The more expensive router benefited from a potent CPU and the most recent radio gear from Asus, which allowed it to easily outperform the AX5400 at close range.

The Asus RT-AX82U, while slower than the TUF Gaming AX5400, still managed to maintain an average speed of 11.4MB/sec even in the bathroom at the other end of the house.

Asus TUF Gaming AX5400 review: Speed Test

We used a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B computer server with a client-side to measure the network bandwidth. We configured a MacBook Pro 13 M1 2020 Model and an iPhone 11 Max Pro to test the network. We found that using iPerf 3.1.3 will help us measure the network bandwidth effectively.

Asus TUF AX5400 vs. Huawei HG8245U: -The Asus TUF AX5400 has a maximum speed of 4.48 Gbits/s in our iPerf test (non-network), while the Huawei HG8245U only has a maximum speed of 2.4 Gbits/s. -The Asus TUF AX5400 is faster than the Huawei HG8245U in the iPerf test, but is slower than the current router provided by our Internet Service Provider (PLDT).

We ran our approach and the iPerf command on a number of devices. For high- and mid-range devices, this will send 8 streams per second and max out the amount of data it delivers to the server. The test will last 12 seconds, with the first 2 seconds being skipped in order to exclude the slow-start time from the average computation.

Price and availability

The TUF AX5400 is a high-speed Wi-Fi 6 router that is reasonably priced. It has a price of $199 (£170, AU$369), which is lower than the Linksys Hydra Pro 6 ($249 / £169) and Asus TUF Gaming AX3000 variant, which cost $189 (£127, AU$214). Additionally, the TUF AX5400 offers link aggregation and other gaming features.

Conclusion

The ASUS TUF-AX5400 WiFi 6 Gaming Router is a great choice for gamers who want the best gaming experience. The router’s technology and software have been tailored specifically for gamers, making it easier to stay connected and play your favorite games with the best latency possible.