ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 WIFI6E router review - Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

If you're desiring to upgrade to the fastest Wi-Fi 6E router available, you've come to the right place. This router nails nearly every element to the point that any criticism I can muster feels trivial. However, there is absolutely no way around the fact that the router's pricing is roughly 2-3 times what the vast majority of consumers should spend either. Having said that, this router performed well over the week I spent testing it. If the ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 is any indication of what the next generation of Wi-Fi will bring, I for one cannot wait. Realistically though, with the small adoption of 6G compatible devices, honestly Id'sit it out and wait a bit longer on more affordable models that come with WIFI 6E. 

Proper features

The GT-AXE11000 features a variety of ports that provide certain functionality not present on lower-end routers. To begin, there are four Gigabit local area network (LAN) ports and one Gigabit wide area network (WAN) port. Then, this router takes things a step further by including a 2.5G WAN/LAN port, which offers flexibility and is meant to give data delivered over this port 'first priority.' Additionally, Link Aggregation may be used to combine the Gigabit WAN port and the flexible LAN/WAN port to create a second Gigabit port for higher-bandwidth WAN. This router is equipped with a 64-bit, 1.8 GHz quad-core CPU, 256 MB of flash memory, and 1 GB of RAM. It almost is a small server.

One point worth mentioning is energy usage. The device does deliver, but it certainly requires energy to do so. Expect 15 Watts of power use under typical settings; however, we've observed it peak at nearly 20 Watts. Given that these are always-on devices, we recommend turning off RGB to save a few watts.

Performance

This router is among the fastest available, with a wide AXE11000 connection that supports both 5GHz and 6GHz devices at full Wi-Fi 6 speeds. Additionally, you receive excellent gaming features, such as a Quality of Service feature and device priority ports. The GT-AXE11000 also offers features like priority game packets, the ability to use a private network, VPN options, server routing options and very strong diagnostic and monitoring options all are present in this four-core CPU beast. It has a Broadcom BCM4908 @ 1.8 GHz processor, 1024 MB RAM, and 256 MB flash. The AXE11000 router is IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax compliant.

AX Wifi range is good, really good - every little corner of my house got coverage, I was able to pick up plenty of AX signal to stream, say, Netflix in Ultra HD on my Smart TV. Range wise this puppy is excellent, but I do need to say it, not exponentially better than, say, the competing MIMO Multi-band AC routers from names like Dlink, Netgear, and TP-Link. What is worth some extra dough though, is the level of support. The routers are getting firmware updates pretty actively, and that's great in these vulnerable times. There is a second comment I need to make as well, I like the admin interface, which does offer extremely advanced network settings. The GUI, by the way, needs an aesthetic overhaul. Nice to see are the USB 3.2 ports for which you can make a UPnP / SAMBA network share with a flash disk or external storage.  Perhaps the one thing that did disappoint a notch was the 2400 MHz band, we did not pass 150 Mbit/s whereas with other routers we reach 250 Mbit/s quite fast. 

Concluding

The GT-AXE11000 is a tri-band router, albeit it operates on a different frequency spectrum than previous tri-band routers. These normally operated on a single 2.4 GHz and dual 5 GHz band. The GT-AXE11000 operates at 2.4 GHz for up to 1148 Mbps throughput, 5 GHz for 4804 Mbps, and 6 GHz for a further 4804 Mbps. Add them all together and, with the normal rounding that occurs in networking, we arrive at the round figure in the name of the product, of 11,000 Mbps total throughput. Before we could even connect to 6G we had to go through a myriad of firmware updates and on the desktop client-side, Windows 11 Updates, and Intel WIFI6E driver installers. In the end, it worked though and it impressed the hell out of us. The ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 indicates that early adoption of a new standard, in this instance Wi-Fi 6E, is not without issues. Also, your 6G range will be much more limited once passing through walls.  We appreciate the incredibly fast overall Wi-Fi throughput, the ease of setup, the integrated security, and the wired ports' versatility, which allows for link aggregation, among other things (yes you can even combine two WAN inputs).

The ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 is a proper alternative to consider for people prepared to pay for cutting-edge networking equipment, both in terms of money and problematic firmware. However closing in at 600 EUR, we doubt very much it is actually worth the money at the time of writing. It did, however, deliver some of the fastest throughputs we've seen from a router thus far. Most users, on the other hand, should look elsewhere or wait until more Wi-Fi 6E devices become available in homes before entering the world of 6E routers. If you're comfy and keen on 6GHz networking, this router could be a good fit. Just keep in mind that 6GHz is most effective when used within the same room or at a relatively short distance plus on the client side you need to be OS (Windows 10 with the available latest driver, Windows 11 complete up-to-date) and Network (Intel AX210 or AX211) compatible. 

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