Main features
This new router is aimed at a user who needs a very good high-performance router, but without going for the GT models that are clearly more expensive. This new device is the most balanced Wi-Fi 6E router in features and price, so it will surely be one of the favorite models for users who want to have a model with support for the new 6GHz band.
Another very important aspect to assess the purchase of this new router instead of another model is that it has the Asuswrt 2022 firmware (version 388) by default, so we have the WireGuard VPN server and Fusion VPN functions at our disposal. .
wireless features
The main wireless characteristics of this neutral router are that it has Simultaneous tri-band with Wi-Fi 6E and AXE7800 class. In the 2.4GHz band we can get one speed up to 574Mbpsthanks to its two non-removable external antennas in MU-MIMO 2T2R configuration, the 40MHz channel width and the Wi-Fi 6 standard. 5GHz band we can get one speed up to 4804Mbpsthanks to its four non-removable external antennas in MU-MIMO 4T4R configuration, the 160MHz channel width it supports, and the Wi-Fi 6 standard. Finally, in the 6GHz band we can get one speed up to 2402Mbpsthanks to its two non-removable external antennas in MU-MIMO 2T2R configuration, the 160MHz channel width and the Wi-Fi 6E standard.
This new router incorporates all the Wi-Fi 6E standard technologiessuch as Beamforming to focus the wireless signal on clients, MU-MIMO to receive and transmit data to several clients simultaneously, OFDMA to fully optimize the wireless network with sub-channels, and also Target Wake Time to save energy in the wireless clients.
Regarding security, this model supports both WPA2-Personal as WPA2-EnterpriseFurthermore, if we want to have maximum WiFi security we can always choose WPA3-Personal. A very important detail is that it still does not support WPA3-EnterpriseHowever, we believe that in a few months they will incorporate this feature. The RT-AXE7800 it also has the typical WPS button to synchronize WiFi clients easily and quickly.
Being a router with Asuswrt, it has ASUS AiMesh to form a complete high-performance mesh WiFi network, we have AiMesh 2.0 so we will have the possibility to configure very advanced options such as defining the trunk link and much more. We must remember that ASUS already allows you to use WPA3-Personal as encryption and set up the Mesh network, although we get a warning that there may be problems, the truth is that it works as well as with WPA2-Personal. Therefore, if all your WiFi clients support this type of encryption, then you can use WPA3-Personal with the protected management frames.
In the case of setting up an AiMesh network, we can choose what form of connection we want with the rest of the nodes: 6GHz band (if the other nodes have it), 5GHz band or through Ethernet backhaul. You can also choose the “automatic” mode so that it chooses the fastest automatically.
Wired and USB Features
As for the wired features of this router, it is really complete. We have one Gigabit Ethernet port for WAN/LAN (LAN1 port), we also have a 2.5G Multigigabit port for WAN/LAN. In the Asuswrt firmware in the section «WAN / Dual WAN» is where we can configure which of the two ports we want to use as the Internet WAN port, and automatically the other port will be configured as LAN. Regarding the LAN, we have a total of 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports for LAN.
Today the most common is to have the Gigabit port for the WAN, and leave the 2.5G Multigigabit port to connect a local NAS server. The Asuswrt firmware will allow us configure VLANs on the Internet WANit also supports VLAN per port to provide IPTV services, and we even have the Movistar Triple VLAN FTTH profile. Another important aspect of the firmware is that we can activate the Jumbo Frames In order to be able to make the most of the wired network that we have, we could also configure a Link Aggregation of the LAN1 Gigabit and LAN2 ports. If you are going to carry out this configuration, you should know that the 2.5G Multigigabit port will have to be used as WAN of Internet.
As for the USB port, we have a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port at a speed of 5Gbps. Taking into account that we have a 1.7GHz Quad-Core processor, the reading and writing speed that we will achieve will be very high, easily exceeding 100MB/s in the wired network.
Asuswrt 388 Firmware
The Asuswrt firmware on this new router ASUS RT-AXE7800 is version 388, so we have at our disposal the latest firmware with the improvements that we have mentioned on other occasions. The most remarkable thing about this new version of the firmware are the graphics when it comes to showing the status of the router’s Ethernet ports, in addition, we will have at our disposal the possibility of configuring the VPN server with WireGuard protocol. In case you use VPN services like PureVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark or others, you are also in luck because we now have the completely revamped Fusion VPN feature with more configuration options than ever.
ASUS has always been known for having a very advanced firmware and providing dozens of options, and with this new version 388 firmware this has become even better, especially when it comes to VPNs.
Unboxing and first impressions
This new ASUS RT-AXE7800 router is the most affordable model with the Wi-Fi 6E standard that we have right now in the ASUS portfolio, great news for not having to spend more than €500 on a model like the GT-AXE11000 and the GT-AXE16000 that we have previously analyzed in RedesZone. This model is still high-end judging by the hardware we have, however, it is a couple of notches below the previous ones. For the vast majority of users, the performance that this model is capable of providing will be enough, and it is that it is called to be a best seller due to its characteristics and price.
In the following video you can see the unboxing and first impressions of this router with the new 6GHz band so that you can connect to the wireless network without interference:
Soon you will be able to see a complete analysis of this new router, where you will see the usual wired and wireless tests and speed tests with the USB 3.0 port that it has, in addition, we will also focus a lot on talking about the firmware since the new version 388 of Asuswrt brings many new features that you should know.
