Asus RT-AC52U Review

The ASUS RT-AC52U can be an eye-catching router. It includes a carbon fiber-like crosshatch patterning that catches the lighting so that it sparkles as you stroll past it.

There are many glowing blue LEDs that shine through the crosshatch intersections, appearing only a small amount of glowing crosses.

The Asus RT-AC52U B1 (RT-AC52UB1) router was released in 2017. It really is driven by MediaTek MT7620A @ 580 MHz chipsets, 64 MB RAM, and 16 MB flash.

The AC750 router works with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac standards, and the utmost velocity that you could get with RT-AC52U B1 is 300 + 433 Mbps.

Asus RT-AC52U B1 Check Price

The AC52U’s diminutive size is the first thing that impresses us when we look at it. When measured in terms of dimensions and weight, it’s even more compact and lighter than a Nexus 7. Asus has managed to incorporate the power supply into a little bulge on the mains socket, making it even more compact and lightweight. It’s on the point of being portable.

Despite the fact that its dimensions have been reduced, the AC52U retains the aesthetic appearance of a member of the company’s elegant router series. It does away with the external antennae, but it retains the same elegant textured crosshatch surface that performs a fantastic job of repelling fingerprints and other marks. The AC52U has its ports shifted to the side, however, this is due to the fact that it is also wall mountable.

There is one area where we have a gripe: the slide-on stand. It is difficult to put together and is of poor quality. The fact that it is the first apparent evidence of cost reduction does not diminish the fact that considerably more significant savings have been realized inside.

Design

The router’s black and grey color palette is understated and smart. It comes with a detachable stand so that you can place it upright, which includes the positive aftereffect of positioning its three inner antennas vertically and really should help with cellular reception. It is possible to otherwise choose to lay the router smooth or mount it to a wall.

To put it mildly, the AC52U’s specifications are lacking. Despite the fact that it is an 802.11ac device, Asus claims just 433Mbits of bandwidth for this channel due to the fact that it only has a single 5GHz antenna.

We’ve seen three-antenna wireless-AC routers with theoretical maximum speeds of 1300Mbit, and two-antenna versions with potential speeds of 833Mbit, but this is the first time we’ve seen a single-antenna device.

Because it is less than the 450Mbit associated with triple antenna 802.11n 5GHz routers, reducing to one antenna appears to be a waste of time. To make matters worse, the AC52U only has two 2.4GHz antennae, which means wireless n bandwidth is restricted to 300Mbit as a result.

The cutbacks keep coming as well because the AC52U is the only 802.11ac router we’ve seen that doesn’t include a single Gigabit Ethernet WAN or LAN port to speak of.

Due to the fact that the AC52U is limited to (the now infamously called) 10/100 Fast Ethernet, it is unable to enter data at the speed at which it would want to output it and cannot support Fibre broadband connections faster than 100Mbit in transmission.

The fact that Virgin now offers 120Mbit and that BT plans to grow much beyond 100Mbit in the coming year makes this a highly troublesome bottleneck.

Given the low incidental cost of Gigabit Ethernet ports these days, reducing the number of WAN ports, in particular, is a poor decision in terms of cost-efficiency.

The existence of only a single USB 2.0 port is less of a source of contention. However, despite the increasing use of USB 3.0 ports, USB performance over a network has not yet caused any issues with the bandwidth of this standard, and having only one USB port is to be expected at this price range.

Nonetheless, all of these cutbacks are a tragedy because there is plenty to enjoy behind them. The AC52U is equipped with WPS, WPA, and WPA2 security protocols, and it can function as a router, bridge, or access point.

It is also compatible with Asus AiCloud file syncing service, and it supports 3G and 4G dongles. Surprisingly, Asus also includes an 802.11ac USB dongle, but it is only a single antenna 433Mbit version, which is still impressive.

Specifications

Brand

Asus

Name

RT-AC52U B1

Type

RT-AC52UB1

BODY

Dimensions

189 x 129 x 36 mm

Weight

270 g

SYSTEM

The router’s memory (RAM) cannot be expanded. By default, the router’s flash memory is used to store the Asus operating system.

Chipset

MediaTek MT7620A @ 580 MHz

RAM

64 MB

Flash

16 MB

OS

Asus

Power supply

12 V / 1 A

NETWORK

The latest firmware supports IPv6 protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet.

The RT-AC52U B1 comes with OpenVPN support. OpenVPN is a full-featured SSL VPN solution that implements OSI layer 2 or 3 secure network extensions using the industry-standard SSL/TLS protocol.

Protocols

IPv4

IPv6

LAN ports

4 x 10/100/1000 Mbps

WAN ports

1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps

Mobile network

yes, with USB dongle

VPN support

PPTP

L2TP

OpenVPN

WIRELESS

The RT-AC52U B1 is compatible with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi networks. 2.4 GHz is the most widely used frequency and in some cases may be overcrowded.

The RT-AC52U B1 supports the 5 GHz band. The 5 GHz band offers better noise immunity, less interference, and more available channels.

Antennas

2 x 5 dBi

RP-SMA

2.4 GHz

yes

5 GHz

yes

60 GHz

no

Standards

IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac

Class

AC750

Speed

300 + 433 Mbps

Transmit power

18.5 dBm

Security

WEP

WPA

WPA2

WPS

Guest network

yes

CONNECTIVITY

You can attach a compatible USB printer to the Asus RT-AC52U B1 device. It has built-in NAS functionality.

USB ports

1 x USB 2.0

Print server

yes

File server

yes