Test results
The Asus Networking Division offers routers for just about every application and environment. Whether you’re looking for an affordable WiFI router or as an avid gamer, you can’t do without RGB LED lighting. The same is true if you need to cover a larger area, for example a house, for which Mesh solutions are already needed, and it is the AiMesh function that is one of the main strengths of this manufacturer’s routers.
Before we look at the charts, we can make a short prediction based on the specifications, which will be very brief. Considering the 160 MHz frequency support in the 5 GHz band in the case of the GS-AX3000, this piece can be expected to perform the best. The RT-AX55 and ZenWiFi AX Mini should again be very similar given the similar specs. Let’s see if these assumptions are confirmed in the tests.
In the immediate vicinity
The first part of the prediction was only partially confirmed in the short distance test, as the gaming router had the best upload, but surprisingly the ZenWiFi AX Mini achieved a significantly better download, even when retesting both routers, which is really interesting. However, the rest of the predictions came true and the RT-AX55 as the weakest representative of the model range took the last ranks. Considering it only supports 2×2 connections, it is also seen that the wired connection offers higher speeds than the wireless.
From a distance of ten metres
At greater distance, the upload is almost identical with the only difference being that the RT-AX55 drops to the very bottom. In downloading, the situation repeats itself with the higher AX Mini numbers, which should no longer be a coincidence. It’s also interesting to see how almost all the other figures stick around 350 Mbps, which just speaks to how similar the routers are.
Wired transfers
In the wired transfer tests between the two devices, we see that the similarity in performance appears here as well, and the RT-AX55 does not fall behind significantly for the first time. Given that the ZenWiFi AX Mini only offers one LAN port, wired transfers were not tested.
Power draw
We measure the power draw with a new methodology using a UNI-T UT71E multimeter. We compared the power draw at both idle and full load during the speed tests. The RT-AX55, which consumed 3.5 W in idle mode, had the lowest power draw. After connecting the LAN cable and WiFi tests, the power draw increased to a maximum of 4.7 W. ZenWiFi AX Mini achieved virtually identical power draw, i.e. from 3.4 to 4.7 W. Last is the GS-AX3000, which hovered around 4.1 W, and when the RGB backlight was turned on, the power draw increased by about 1.2 W, reaching a maximum of 5.3 and 5.4 W.
