Asus announced three new Wi-Fi 7 products today, including a tri-band ROG Rapture GT gaming router, a dual-band router, and a new Wi-Fi 7 USB adapter.
Asus brings Wi-Fi 7 to its tri-band ROG gaming router
Asus updates its more affordable tri-band ROG Rapture line with Wi-Fi 7.
Asus updates its more affordable tri-band ROG Rapture line with Wi-Fi 7.
The ROG Rapture GT-BE19000 has a familiar ’80s retro-future look shared by predecessors like the quad-band GT-BE98, along with most of the same specs, including two 10Gbps and five 2.5Gbps ethernet ports. It also supports 320MHz channel bandwidth on the 6GHz band, which unlocks much higher throughput (although you’ll need a 2Gbps or higher connection to your ISP for that to shine).
Since the GT-BE19000 uses Wi-Fi 7’s multilink operation feature, you can connect a supported device to the 6GHz and 5GHz band at the same time for increased throughput, less latency, and more stability.
Wi-Fi 7 is the next version of Wi-Fi to follow Wi-Fi 6E. Like Wi-Fi 6E, the protocol works on the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands, and it’s backward-compatible with devices that precede it. Wi-Fi 7 promises higher throughput, with features like 320MHz channel bandwidth (twice what’s offered on Wi-Fi 6E), Multi-Link Operation (which combines bands into one for greater throughput and more stability), and improved interference handling.
More Wi-Fi 7 routers have hit the market and prices are beginning to come down, though it’s still early days. Even if your devices don’t support it yet, you may benefit from Wi-Fi 7 mesh systems, which will be able to take advantage of the features listed above for faster, more stable wireless backhaul connections between nodes.
Asus’ other new router is the comparatively modest dual-band RT-BE86U. It’s Wi-Fi 7, so it can support multilink operation across the 2.4GHz and 5Ghz bands. It also has a 10Gbps WAN port for connecting to your modem or fiber ONT, along with four 2.5Gbps ethernet ports for wiring up your gaming PC and whatnot.
Finally, Asus announced the ROG USB-BE92, an external USB Wi-Fi 7 card. It connects using USB-A or USB-C, and Asus says it should work with Windows 10 or 11 PCs out of the box — just plug it in and go. It’s an easy way to add Wi-Fi 7 to a computer once you’ve upgraded to a Wi-Fi 7 router, unlocking features like MLO for better stability and faster throughput.
Asus didn’t announce any release dates or prices for these devices.
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