ASUS announces THREE new networking products – Targetting serious gamers and lifestyle aficionados
ASUS announced three new networking products today focusing on serious gamers and those who are critically selective about their premise’s interior. Introducing the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC5300, ASUS Lyra and ASUS Blue Cave. I’ll run through each one quickly to give you a brief idea of what these products are all about.
ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC5300
The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 looks very similar to the ASUS RT-AC5300, but it carries several differences. The outlook is a shined black and orange instead of red and black found on the RT-AC5300 and the ROG emblem sits gracefully at the top facade of the beast.
Much like it’s predecessor, it’s a tri-band (2.4GHz + 5GHz + 5GHz) router with 5334 Mbps total data rate (1000 Mbps + 2167 Mbps + 2167 Mbps) and has 8 detachable dual band antennas. Significant and noticeable differences are 8 LAN ports on the GT-AC5300 at the back as opposed to 4 on the RT-AC5300, a 1.8GHz quad-core processor instead of 1.4GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM instead of 512MB RAM, 256GB flash memory instead of 128GB and 2 USB 3.0 ports instead of 1 USB 3.0 and 1 USB 2.0 ports. That’s quite an upgrade, if you ask me. The CPU itself claims to have 28% increase in performance.
Hardware is not all that is new here. ASUS has also included a totally revamped ROG UI compared to the conventional interface. Even the mobile application for monitoring the router will be ROG themed. Now, the UI that was presented today was still not the final phase, so we hope to show you more on this when we get our hands on one of this. IF we ever get it :P Here’s a full comparison table for the GT-AC5300 vs RT-AC5300
[table style=”table-bordered”]
| Item | GT-AC5300 | RT-AC5300 | |
| Hardware | Data Rate (Mbps) | 1000 + 2167 + 2167 | 1000 + 2167 + 2167 |
| LAN Port (10/100 Base) | Gigabit LAN * 9 | Gigabit LAN * 5 | |
| Antenna Type | 8 x detachable Dual Band antenna | 8 x detachable Dual Band antenna | |
| USB 3.0 port | 2 | 1 | |
| USB 2.0 port | – | 1 | |
| 256-QAM | NitroQAM | NitroQAM | |
| Unversal Beamforming | Yes | Yes | |
| Chipset | Brand | Broadcom | Broadcom |
| CPU | BCM4908 | BCM47094 | |
| Clocking | 1.8GHz Quad-core | 1.4GHz Dual-core | |
| 2.4GHz Radio | BCM4366E | BCM4366 | |
| 5GHz Radio | BCM4366E | BCM4366 | |
| Switch | BCM53134S | ||
| Memory | RAM | 1GB | 512MB |
| Flash | 256MB | 128MB | |
[/table]
The price of this monster is RM2529, a difference of RM300 from the RT-AC5300 and will be available in Septermber 2017.
ASUS Lyra
The ASUS Lyra is a powerful extender that also looks beautiful. Smeared in white with colorful LEDs on top, its marks a fashionable statement while solving Wi-Fi blind spots around your home. Setting up the Lyra is very easy using a mobile application. Not only it guides through the setup process, it even assists you in detecting the blind spots to position the hardware accordingly.
Harnessing tri-band, it uses IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac protocols and has 2.4GHz + 5GHz + 5GHz wireless bands for fast connectivity. An AC2200 device, it churns out max speeds of 400 Mbps + 867 Mbps + 867 Mbps for uninterrupted wireless network in your home. Inside the Lyra are 7 antennas and each package comes with 3 units of Lyra, one of which have to be hooked to the main router using RJ45 LAN port. The rest of the Lyras will inter-connect wirelessly among themselves sharing the same SSID for continuous connectivity.
The ASUS Lyra will be priced at RM1999 for a package of three and will be available in September 2017.
ASUS Blue Cave
Finally, we have the ASUS Blue Cave which obviously got its name from its looks. The Blue Cave is a dual-band AC2600 Wi-Fi router/extender that uses IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac protocols with 2.4GHz + 5GHz bands. Max speeds are faster than the Lyra with 800Mbps + 1734Mbps making it suitable for large homes with fast internet. The Blue Cave has 4 internal antennas and transmits data over MIMO technology.
The Blue Cave has 128MB flash memory and 256GB of RAM, proving that this is not just another wireless router. It also utilizes white finishing with blue LED touch, making it a beautiful piece to have around your home. There are 4 Gigabit LAN BaseT ports at the back for wired connectivity.
The ASUS Blue Cave price and availability is to be announced soon.
Pokdepinion: It’s cool to see how ASUS does not only cater to gamers, but also consider lifestyle aficionados in designing their products. These devices are not just good looking, they are definitely more powerful than the standard router that we get from our ISPs.
