Reviewing the ASUS RT-AC53 router - What does this affordable router have to offer?

ASUS RT-AC53 is a very affordable wireless router and many people who want to save money and enjoy a reasonably fast network, might consider purchasing it. This router promises to give you all the basics you need for a wireless network in your home, support for the latest MIMO wireless transfer technology, useful features like a VPN server or Parental Controls, all at a very reasonable price. If you are curious to learn whether ASUS RT-AC53 performs well and it is a good match for you, read this detailed review: NOTE: This review does not apply to ASUS RT-AC53U. That device has a very different hardware configuration as well as many different features.

Unboxing the ASUS RT-AC53 Dual Band AC router

ASUS RT-AC53 is one of the most affordable wireless routers made by ASUS and its packaging is simple and straightforward. The box is very similar to that of other ASUS routers, featuring a picture of the device on the top and a list with its most important features. Inside the packaging you will find the router, the power adapter, a network cable, the quick setup guide, the warranty and other leaflets. There is no support disc included. The unboxing experience is basic, quick and easy, just as you would expect from an affordable router.

Hardware specifications and design

The hardware specifications of the ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router are modest: it features a single-core MediaTek MT7620A processor, running at the 580 MHz frequency, 64 MB of RAM memory and 8 MB of storage space for the firmware. The three external antennas are very tall and they cannot be detached from the router. Two of them take care of the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency and one of them of the 5 GHz wireless frequency. We found this a bit strange since most modern routers focus on the 5GHz frequency, because it can offer faster WiFi connections. ASUS RT-AC53 offers support for all the modern networking standards, including 802.11ac and 802.11n. The theoretical bandwidth is of 300 Mbps for the 2.4 GHz frequency and of 433 Mbps for the 5 GHz frequency, leading to a total of 733 Mbps. This router offers 1 Gbps wired Ethernet connections but it has only two Ethernet ports alongside the one for connecting it to the internet. On the back side of the router you will also find the power jack, the Power button, the WPS button and the jack for resetting the device. In terms of size, the router is not very large. It has 12.59 x 7.48 x 1.37 inches or 320 x 190 x 35 mm in width, depth and height. The antennas are very tall though but even so, the overall weight is quite small at 0.62 lb or 285 grams. Users will appreciate the fact that this WiFi router has mounting screw slots on the bottom so that it can be mounted on a wall. If you would like to go through all the official specifications of this router, visit this page: ASUS RT-AC53 Specifications.

Setting up and using the ASUS RT-AC53 Dual Band AC router

Setting up the ASUS RT-AC53 is not a difficult thing to do. You should place it where you want to use it, connect it to the internet, turn it on and then connect it to a computer or laptop from which to run the initial configuration. The setup wizard is easy to use and it starts by asking you to change the default username and password for administering the device. Then, it detects the type of internet connection that you have and asks for the appropriate connection details. Once that is out of the way, you can set the name and password for the wireless networks that are broadcast by the router. At the very end of the wizard, you are shown a summary of your settings. Next, you should access the administration user interface and get into more advanced settings. The user interface looks the same as on all other ASUS routers and it is organized the same way. All settings are organized in a logical manner and you won't have any issue in finding your way. The user interface is available in 14 languages, which you can see below. One useful feature is that help is easily available: if you don't understand what a setting does, move the mouse cursor on top of its name and, if you see a question mark displayed, click the left mouse button. Then, a tooltip is shown with more information about that setting. Advanced users will be pleased by the detailed level of control they get. If you want to, you can set everything about the operation of the ASUS RT-AC53 WiFi router. When you are done setting everything, you should connect all your computers and devices to the network that is managed by the router. We were able to share files and folders over the network, do media streaming, use a wireless printer and more. However, during our testing period, we noticed temporary drops of the wireless signal, that usually lasted a couple of seconds. Unfortunately they were rather frequent, especially in the rooms furthest from the router. Also, while the speed of the wireless network was satisfactory in the rooms closer to the router, in those further away from it, the signal strength was weak and the speed we obtained was very variable. Sometimes the wireless network would perform very well and a couple of minutes later it would barely work. These issues seem to be firmware related. The hardware on the ASUS RT-AC53 is able to deliver stable wireless network connections at satisfactory speeds. Hopefully, future firmware updates will fix these problems. Setting up the ASUS RT-AC53 wireless router is fast and easy. The multi-lingual support is good, help documentation is easily available and advanced users get detailed controls. However, the firmware has some stability issues that affect the wireless network. Hopefully they will be fixed in future updates. To learn more about the real-world performance offered by this router, as well as our final verdict, read the next page in this review.

Wireless network performance

Before sharing the data from our measurements, let's take a look at the apartment that was used in our testing and how it is set up. You can see that the router is placed in the living room. With most wireless routers, the signal strength is not that great in rooms like the Kitchen and the Medium balcony. Our testing was done using a fast 1 Gigabit Internet connection that's capable of uploads on the internet of up to 500 Mbps. We used a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 for all our measurements and several software tools. To get a better perspective of the performance offered by ASUS RT-AC53, we compared it with Edimax BR-6478AC V2, D-Link DIR-820L and ASUS RT-AC56U. We started by evaluating the 2.4 GHz wireless network and measured the signal strength offered in each room, using a tool named inSSIDer. As you can see in the graph below, the signal strength offered by ASUS RT-AC53 is not spectacular by any means. Then, we used SpeedTest to measure how fast the Internet connection offered by this router is. In the download test, ASUS RT-AC53 was fast in the two rooms closest to it and rather slow in all others. What is not evident from this table is that in the Medium Balcony, we encountered frequent disconnects and sometimes, the wireless network did not work at all. However, when it did work, we measured an average speed of 20.07 Mbps, which is okay for that room, proving that this router has the potential to offer satisfactory speed. In the upload test, the performance improved across the board. Continuing our measurements on the 2.4 GHz wireless network, we used LAN Speed Test Lite to measure downloads and uploads when transferring a 350MB file between two computers connected to the network. When measuring the download speed, ASUS RT-AC53 performed well only in the two rooms closest to it: the Living Room and the Small bedroom. Again, in the upload test, ASUS RT-AC53 performed better than in the download test. The 2.4 GHz wireless network offered by ASUS RT-AC53 suffers from variability and performance drops. The hardware inside this router is able to offer stable wireless connections but its firmware has some bugs which negatively affect your experience. We hope that they will be fixed in future firmware updates. Next, we analyzed the performance offered by the 5GHz wireless network. First, we looked at the evolution of the signal strength, from room to room. The signal strength offered by ASUS RT-AC53 is below what was offered by most of the routers we compared it to. We moved to SpeedTest, to measure the speed of the Internet connection on the 5GHz wireless network. The download speed was good in the rooms closest to the router but it dropped significantly in the other rooms. ASUS RT-AC53 performed better when measuring the upload speed on the internet, managing to be the fastest router in several rooms. Lastly, we used LAN Speed Test Lite to measure downloads and uploads when transferring a 350MB file between two computers connected to the network. Again, the download speed was good in the rooms closest to the router but it dropped significantly in the other rooms. Its performance was similar when measuring the upload speed. When we tested the 5GHz wireless network, we encountered temporary disconnects. In the Medium Balcony, where the signal strength is the weakest, they were very frequent and we couldn't productively use the network. The 5 GHz wireless network offered by ASUS RT-AC53 is suffering from variability and performance drops. The firmware has some bugs which negatively impact your experience. We hope that they will be fixed in future firmware updates.

Wired network performance

In order to test the quality of the wired Ethernet connection, we used a desktop PC, equipped with an Intel Core i5 4460 processor, running at 3.20GHz, 16GB of RAM and a very fast Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD and a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with an Intel Core i5-4300U processor, running at 1.9 GHz, 8 GB of RAM and a fast 256 GB SSD drive from Samsung. We started by measuring the download and upload speeds using SpeedTest. As you can see below, ASUS RT-AC53 managed to offer downloads which are very close to 1 Gbps. Also, it achieved the maximum upload speed possible on our internet connection. The routers we compared it to delivered less than 200 Mbps because, when testing them, our internet connection was capped at 200 Mbps for the upload speed. Now it is capped at 500 Mbps. For the last measurement, we transferred an 883 MB file between the same two computers connected to the network, both of which were using an Ethernet cable. Again, ASUS RT-AC53 was a very good performer, with transfers close to 900 Mbps. ASUS RT-AC53 delivers real 1 Gbps Ethernet connections, as promised in its specifications. It is a shame that it has only two Ethernet ports.

Extra features

ASUS RT-AC53 offers the following extra features:

• Guest Network - you can set up to six guest wireless networks that provide internet access but restrict access to your network. You can enable up to three 2.4GHz guest networks and up to three 5GHz guest networks.
• Traffic Manager Quality of Service (QoS) - a basic QoS service that you can use to set speed limits for individual devices on your network.
• Parental Controls - A basic parental controls module that you can use to set a schedule for the devices that are used by your children. You cannot use it to filter adult content or any other type of content that is inappropriate for children.
• VPN Server - you can set the router to work as a VPN server and you can also use it to turn your network-connected devices into VPN-enabled clients via the OpenVPN and PPTP protocols, without additional VPN software.
• Network Tools - for analyzing the network and identifying what's wrong. They are useful when you need to troubleshoot problems.
• ASUS Router - a mobile app for iOS and Android, which allows you to monitor and manage your wireless router from your smartphone.
• DDNS - a service that allows you to connect to the router from the internet, even if your internet provider gives you a dynamic public IP address.
• IPv6 - support for internet connections using the Internet Protocol version 6.

ASUS RT-AC53 offers a few extra tools, which is great for a router in its price-range. Some of them are useful, like the possibility of turning it into a VPN server.

Pros and cons

ASUS RT-AC53 has the following good things going for it:

• It's priced very affordably
• The firmware is very configurable and easy to use
• It has some useful extra features, including the possibility to make it run as a VPN server
• It has good multi-lingual support
• The Help documentation is well made and easily accessible
• It can be mounted on walls

The are also some important downsides to consider:

• There's no USB port available for connecting external devices to the router
• The wireless network broadcast by ASUS RT-AC53 has stability issues
• The signal strength is not great and it is suitable just for small-sized apartments

Verdict

ASUS RT-AC53 is a basic wireless router, with a very affordable price. It doesn't promise you the world and it doesn't deliver it either. From a hardware perspective, this router is promising and it could be a best buy in its price-range. However, its firmware issues hold it down. ASUS needs to improve the bugs in this device's firmware, so that it can deliver a more stable wireless signal. Until they deliver such fixes, ASUS RT-AC53 is a good choice only for small apartments and for networks which don't include many wireless devices.