![]() ![]() Gaming aside, it's one of the best Wi-Fi 6 routers you can buy, period.Īlong with offering fast, consistent speeds, the RT-AX86U did a better job at managing latency than any other router I tested it against, and it comes with a full suite of tools for optimizing your connection while gaming, including an adaptive quality-of-service engine and an Open NAT database of game- and platform-specific port forwarding rules. The Asus RT-AX86U is actually one of the more understated routers in that mix - it doesn't include color-changing lights or an oversize, ostentatious design - but it's still one of the best gaming routers you can buy. That makes the Deco W7200 a flat-out unbeatable value, and a better, more noticeable upgrade for most homes than splurging on a high-powered standard router.Īsus is one of the top names in the gaming router category, boasting the best variety of fast, flashy routers that promise elite performance, low latency, and advanced controls for your connection. In fact, of all of the mesh routers that I've tested at home, only two averaged faster download speeds - the first costs more than $200 more than the Deco W7200, and the other costs more than three times as much. Sure enough, the performance was outstanding when I tested the system out. Tri-band mesh routers like those will often cost you $400 or more, but the Deco W7200 gets you there for hundreds less. That dedicated backhaul is the key to unlocking the best mesh performance, because it keeps those system transmissions separate from your regular network traffic. What's great about the Deco W7200, along with its full support for Wi-Fi 6, is that it's a tri-band model with the usual 2.4 and 5GHz bands plus an additional 5GHz band that the system uses as a dedicated wireless backhaul connection between the main router and its satellites. With multiple devices working like a team of routers to spread a faster, more reliable signal across a larger area than a single router can, it's a fantastic pick for large homes - and one that won't set you back very much. There's also the TP-Link Deco W7200, which cruised through my speed tests to earn a spot as my top-rated mesh router of the year. It's also a cinch to set up, thanks to TP-Link's Tether app for Android and iOS, which also offers quick access to basic network settings without bombarding you with ads like some other router apps will.Īll of that makes the Archer AX21 an extremely worthy pick for small- to medium-size homes, and one of the best value picks you'll find that supports Wi-Fi 6.Ģ021 was a very good year for TP-Link, and it wasn't just because of the Archer AX21. That level of performance was strong enough for the Archer AX21 to beat out similar models from Netgear, Asus and D-Link, and it even kept the pace with fancier routers that cost significantly more. In 2022, I retested the AX21 after upgrading my home network to gigabit speeds - it isn't powerful enough to top out a connection like that, but it still delivered fast, consistent speeds, with my downloads averaging in at 441Mbps. That includes triple-digit download speeds in the very back of my house, a common dead zone where a lot of the routers I test struggle to stay connected at all. ![]() At the end of multiple days of tests across five spots in my house, the Archer AX21's average download speed on a 300Mbps fiber network was a near-perfect 299Mbps. The Archer AX21 did an outstanding job in my at-home speed tests. That's true even with the budget-priced value picks - and among those, the one that performs the best is the TP-Link Archer AX21. When a router supports Wi-Fi 6, that means that it's capable of using new features like OFDMA and 1024-QAM to deliver faster speeds and lower latency to busy networks with lots of connected devices.
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