ASUS RT-AC68U Dual-Band Wireless-AC Router - A New Flagship

ASUS' Latest & Greatest Yet?

Taiwanese hardware giant ASUS has made significant progress in recent years expanding its product portfolios and improving upon the quality of its products. Today, not only does ASUS continue to maintain a dominance over the components industry (motherboards and graphics cards), it is also a key player in the notebook, smartphone and tablet markets too.

However, it is only the past three or so years that ASUS has really come into its own in the networking market too. Back in 2010, ASUS released the formidable RT-N56U which won our coveted Editor’s Choice award thanks to its outstanding performance and attractive design. They then followed up with the equally stunning RT-N66U and most recently, the RT-AC66U. Thanks to this string of hits, ASUS is now recognized by many enthusiasts as amongst the top brands for routers.

ASUS recently released their latest and fastest router yet, the RT-AC68U. This is a dual-band router capable of a combined dual-band data rate of 1900 Mbps. Let’s see if it can build on ASUS’ string of recent successes.

Hardware & Design

Under the hood, the RT-AC68U uses Broadcom’s second-generation BCM4708A SoC, which features a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor. This speedy processor, coupled with its 256MB of RAM, helps the RT-AC68U efficiently handle multiple transmissions and connections. In addition, this Broadcom SoC also features Broadcom’s own TurboQAM technology, which increases Wireless-N 2.4GHz throughput from 450Mbps to 600Mbps with devices featuring compatible Broadcom receivers.

The new RT-AC68U shares many design elements from ASUS’ previous flagship routers. The checkered pattern on the front panel is perhaps the most distinctive and recognizable. Like its predecessors, the RT-AC68U also features massive external antennae, which, presumably, improves its range and performance.

One thing to note is that, unlike its predecessors, the RT-AC68U can only be positioned upright and cannot be laid flat. And because of its massive antennae, users would need to ensure that the router has enough headroom.

On the bottom right corner of the front panel is a string of LED indicators, which is useful for determining if the router is working properly. Should you find the incessantly blinking and flickering too distracting, there is a button behind the router to turn these indicators off.

Behind the router is also where you will found the two USB ports (one USB 3.0 and the other USB 2.0) which can be used for wireless printing or backups, and also the single WAN port and four LAN ports. The WPS button is located on the right side of the router. And below it is a button to instantly turn off Wi-Fi.

Setting Up

The RT-AC68U uses ASUS’ familiar ASUSWRT user interface that has been consistently upgraded and improved over the past couple of years. It is straightforward, easy to use and also very quick, thanks to the router's dual-core processor. It took us only a couple of minutes to connect to the Internet and setup the wireless networks.

Crucially, it is also easy to upgrade the firmware, which is important for receiving new updates. For instance, the latest firmware update (Version 3.0.0.4.374.291) to the RT-AC68U enables the router to read and write to HFS+ drive formats, thus allowing it to be used as a wireless "Time Machine" with Mac systems. It also enhances performance with drives that are formatted in FAT32.

That aside, the ASUSWRT user interface also dishes up options such as QoS (Quality of Service), the ability to create and maintain multiple wireless SSIDs, and a rich variety of security options. Add to this is also ASUS' AiCloud functionality, which lets you create a personal cloud by attaching any external USB storage device to the router. Once setup, you can access your content on the drive using your Android or iOS device.

Test Setup

Our routine test setup includes a desktop PC, the reviewed router, and a laptop to simulate a wireless home network. The desktop system takes on the role of a host machine, while the router acts as a gateway. And lastly, an external 802.11ac adapter attached to the notebook is used to fulfill the role of a wireless remote client. We'll be using Netgear's A6200 802.11ac USB adapter for our throughput tests to reduce the number of variables involved.

Here is a graphical representation of our network test setup.

The router is locked down in N-only mode for the 2.4GHz band, and 802.11ac for the 5GHz band, mainly to prevent the use of varying 802.11 standards. Typically, a channel bandwidth of 40MHz is selected where applicable, while 80MHz is used for the 5GHz AC band. The QCheck application measures wireless throughput (TCP) and streaming (UDP) speeds between the host and client endpoints based on a 1MB data packet. On the other hand, NetIQ's Chariot benchmark offers a more detailed account with average throughput and response time readings recorded over 30 seconds, based on a High Performance throughput script.

Performance

Looking at the results below, there is both good and bad news. The good news is that the RT-AC68U is generally quicker than its predecessor, especially on the 2.4GHz band. The bad news, however, is that despite the improvement, the RT-AC68U continues to trail behind its competitors on the 2.4GHz band. While it is appreciably faster than its predecessor, it still loses out to older routers like the Linksys EA6500, D-Link DIR-865L and Netgear R6300. That said, you would really not be maximizing the full potential of this high-end router if you were not on its 5GHz band.

Middling 2.4GHz band performance aside, we felt that it sufficiently redeemed itself with its performance on the 5GHz band. Uplink and downlink throughput speeds are among the highest we have seen and in our file transfer test, it managed to complete it for the first time under the 30 seconds mark. Not only was it fast, it was able to maintain its performance over range too. On top of that, its performance in our UDP streaming benchmark also showed that it was able to maintain a stable connection, crucial for intensive workloads like HD video streaming and gaming.

The graphs and charts for this performance overview is listed below.

Chariot and QCheck Performance Results - 2.4GHz Band

Chariot and QCheck Performance Results - 5GHz Band

A Decent Follow Up

ASUS has made significant leaps and strides in their router business in the past couple of years, rising from a newcomer to an industry veteran in just a short span of time. Past hits like the RT-N56U and the recent RT-AC66U have cemented ASUS as a serious player in the high-end consumer router space. The RT-AC66U is a hard act to follow up on, but we think ASUS has managed reasonably well.



However, we cannot help but feel that ASUS missed out on a chance to rectify some of the problems that plagued the RT-AC66U, the most pressing being its middling 2.4GHz band performance, which was its Achilles heel. Looking at our performance charts, the RT-AC68U did offer improved performance on the 2.4GHz band, but it was still some ways off its rivals.



As for design, the RT-AC68U can only be positioned upright, unlike its predecessors. Furthermore, it cannot be mounted to walls. Along with its massive antennae, this can make the router a bit difficult to position around the house and also makes it very conspicuous. Fortunately, it is quite a futuristic and good-looking router.



These gripes aside, the RT-AC68U has a number of pros going for it. For one and most crucially, its performance in AC mode on the 5GHz band is nothing short of blistering. If you thought that the older RT-AC66U was fast, this new router improves upon that appreciably. Of course, you would need a compatible device to be able to take advantage of this speed. On top of that, it was easy to setup and the ASUSWRT utility does offer lots of options, customizability and also ASUS AiCloud for setting up a personal cloud drive effortlessly.

In addition, we also like how ASUS continually improves upon its firmware. The latest firmware updates offers improved drive performance, HFS+ compatibility and Time Machine functionality with Mac systems, enhancing overall performance and usability.



ASUS products have typically commanded a premium and the RT-AC68U is, unfortunately, no different. Its list price of S$359 makes it one of the priciest routers in the market right now. But for the price, you do get a smart-looking router with blazing AC performance and rich features.

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