Wednesday, May 25th 2022
ASUS Previews RT-AXE7800 Router at Computex, 6 Antennas!
As Computex is a hybrid event this year, a lot of companies are showing off their products online and ASUS has shared a whole host of upcoming products. One that caught our eye was the upcoming RT-AXE7800 router, mostly because it resembles a boxy version of a German kaisersemmeln or kaiser roll when the antennas are folded down. Unfortunately, ASUS didn't share too many details about the RT-AXE7800, but it's a tri-band WiFi 6E router and ASUS claims that it supports wireless speeds up to 7800 Mbps, hence the model name. It supports 160 MHz wide channels, although this is pretty common in WiFi 6E routers, as is the 1024-QAM support and the 6 GHz band that ASUS shared that the router will support.
What we can tell from the pictures, is that it'll have a single 2.5 Gbps port that can be used as either a WAN or a LAN port, as well as four Gigabit Ethernet ports, of which one can be a WAN port, or it can be teamed with a second Gigabit port. Keep in mind that teaming doesn't actually give you double the bandwidth to a single client, it requires multiple clients to offer any kind of advantage, as well as a managed switch, alternatively a NAS or a server that supports teaming. Around the back there's a single USB 3.0 port and this is also where the power connector is located. It obviously has six foldable antennas and we'd expect to see more similar designs in the future, as consumer routers with supports for the WiFi channels in the 6 GHz band aren't allowed to have removable antennas. This will also apply to WiFi 7 routers, as it's a regulatory requirement.
Source:
Asus
What we can tell from the pictures, is that it'll have a single 2.5 Gbps port that can be used as either a WAN or a LAN port, as well as four Gigabit Ethernet ports, of which one can be a WAN port, or it can be teamed with a second Gigabit port. Keep in mind that teaming doesn't actually give you double the bandwidth to a single client, it requires multiple clients to offer any kind of advantage, as well as a managed switch, alternatively a NAS or a server that supports teaming. Around the back there's a single USB 3.0 port and this is also where the power connector is located. It obviously has six foldable antennas and we'd expect to see more similar designs in the future, as consumer routers with supports for the WiFi channels in the 6 GHz band aren't allowed to have removable antennas. This will also apply to WiFi 7 routers, as it's a regulatory requirement.
25 Comments on ASUS Previews RT-AXE7800 Router at Computex, 6 Antennas!
Besides, similar routers are in the mid-range these days, not high-end.
I do like that a 2.5Gbps port is available that can be used as a WAN port. I have a 1.2Gbps internet connection, so to get that last 200Mbps, it is necessary, but truth is, pretty much everything is hardlined in my home, even the TV, and about the only things that use wireless are smart phones, so I really don't need a crazy router.
That's exactly why a single 2.5Gb connection is a waste of time and money. If they wanted to cheap out, it should have come with 2, so that you could at least buy a 2.5Gb switch to share that single LAN port. But that would actually be useful, and taken $10 from their profits.
There doesn't seem to be any 5 Gbps only network cards for sale any longer either, except, oddly enough, a few USB dongles for around $70-80.
10 Gbps should be come common once WiFi 7 works, at least based on the SoC designs that Broadcom, MediaTek and Qualcomm has announced.
And even after all that I prefer wired connections but cables are dying. If WiFi can keep up with speed increases I think we’ll see routers with 10Gbit WAN ports with basic 1G/100/10 ports for legacy devices on the back and all the speed dedicated to WiFi.
also Broadcom announced its wifi 7 solution which will have 10 gbps Ethernet.