Technical characteristics of this WiFi Mesh
This new WiFi Mesh system is aimed at users who need the different mesh nodes communicate via WiFiIf your home is wired, then the ZenWiFi XD6 is probably worth buying, as it will give you the same wireless and wired performance, but at a significantly lower price. This team is ideal if the backhaul network is via WiFisince it has a dedicated frequency band exclusively for it.
The main WiFi wireless features of this new Mesh WiFi system is that we have Simultaneous tri-band with Wi-Fi 6 and class AX7800 (up to 574Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, up to 2402Mbps on the first 5GHz band, and up to 4804Mbps on the second 5GHz band). This equipment internally has a total of 6 internal antennas, we have MU-MIMO 2T2R configuration for the 2.4GHz band and the first 5GHz band, finally we have MU-MIMO 4T4R in the second 5GHz frequency band. This WiFi Mesh system has all the technologies of the Wi-Fi 6 standard, such as OFDMA, the MU-MIMO, Beamforming, TWT and other common features such as Agile Multiband WiFi among others. Although the second frequency band in 5GHz (operating at a speed of up to 4804Mbps) is specifically oriented to the interconnection of Mesh nodesit could also be used as one more band where wireless clients can connect.
Regarding the wired network, we have one 2.5G Multigigabit port for Internet WAN, the firmware supports VLAN in the Internet WAN, VLAN per port to provide IPTV services and also has the Movistar Triple VLAN FTTH. Thanks to this Multigigabit port, we will be able to hire fiber optic connections up to speeds of 2.5Gbps, in order to get the most out of it. Regarding the LAN network, we have a total of 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports For the LAN, an important aspect is that we can configure the LAN1 and LAN2 port with Link Aggregation.
This WiFi Mesh system, just like the ASUS XT8, has one high-performance USB 3.0 port, something that the top-of-the-range models such as the XT12 or ET12 that we have previously tested in RedesZone do not have. Thanks to this USB 3.0 port, we will be able to share files and folders on the local network and the Internet in a simple but fast way, we will also be able to connect a 4G/5G modem and even a printer to use your print server.
With respect to firmware Asuswrt built into this WiFi mesh system, we have exactly the same configuration options, features and services as always. We have guest WiFi, the security of ASUS AiProtection Pro to protect all the devices on the local network, we have a powerful adaptive QoS with the aim of prioritizing certain network traffic over another, we also have the traffic analyzer, advanced parental control that it is time based and also content based, in addition, we also have all the advanced options related to WAN, LAN and WiFi.
Something that has changed in this new WiFi Mesh system is the VPN serverwe now have a complete redesign of the graphical user interfaceASUS has given it a complete facelift, and added official support for WireGuard VPN, so now our VPN connections to the server will be faster than ever. Of course, we have Fusion VPN to be able to redirect network traffic through the VPN server to which the router connects (it has a VPN client), in fact, now it not only supports OpenVPN but also WireGuard and HMA. Finally, ASUS continues to maintain Instant Guard VPN to greatly facilitate the connection if we use the official ASUS Router app.
Now that you know the main hardware features and also the novelties of the Asuswrt firmware, we are going to show you what this new device is like in our unboxing and first impressions.
Unboxing and first impressions
This WiFi Mesh system is physically the same as the ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 model that we have previously tested in RedesZone, in fact, the main difference at the hardware level is that now the first 5GHz band has support for 160MHz of channel width, for this reason we will achieve up to 2,402Mbps theoretical in this frequency band. This is something that we already criticized in the review of the XT8 model, and that is that we really missed this functionality that is so important to achieve double the theoretical speed (and real speed too), and that is that more and more devices support this functionality. It is also true that when the XT8 model came out there were few WiFi clients that supported it, but right now the vast majority of smartphones and tablets that are released on the market incorporate it.
In our video you will be able to see the characteristics of this new WiFi Mesh system, the contents of the box with the documentation and accessories, and also what this new model is like. A very important detail is that we can buy it in both white and black, of course, at the level of specifications they are exactly the same. You can see our full video below:
Soon in RedesZone we are going to offer you a complete analysis where you will see the technical characteristics in detail, and also the real performance that we have achieved in the tests, since we will check the real WiFi performance, cabled and also with its high-performance USB 3.0 port. Taking into account that this XT9 incorporates a fairly powerful processor, we expect a great speed in the USB read and write tests.
