What Wi-Fi 7 What is a router? If you are familiar with the latest wireless standards, you will know that routers usually have three bands: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz. For the 6 GHz band, 320 MHz channeling is used to improve the overall performance of the network. However, in some parts of the world, the 6 GHz band is not licensed for commercial use, and most consumers do not have much 6 GHz equipment.
To address these market factors, Asus has introduced the RT-BE88U, a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 router that doesn’t have a 6GHz channel, meaning you don’t get the super-fast speeds that the 6GHz band offers, but you can still take advantage of other Wi-Fi 7 technologies like multi-link operation (MLO) and 4K-QAM.
One added benefit of the dual-band setup is that the RT-BE88U is much cheaper than other Wi-Fi 7 routers, with a suggested retail price of $349.99. That’s a good price for the new standard, but does this model do enough to compete with other Wi-Fi 7 routers? Best Router?
Asus RT-BE88U router design
The RT-BE88U has a traditional slim design that is common in dual-band routers. The router has four movable antennas, two of which extend from the rear side of the unit and two more located at the rear, flanking the 2.5 GbE and 1 Gbe ports. The RT-BE88U has an impressive array of ports, including one 10 Gbps WAN/LAN, one 10 Gbps SFP+, one 2.5 Gbps WAN/LAN, three 2.5 Gbps LANs, and four 1 Gbps LANs.
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Additionally, the back of the router has a USB 3.0 port (for adding external storage or enabling 4G/5G smartphone tethering functionality), a WPS button, a reset button, a barrel-type power port, and a power button. On the front of the router are a set of LEDs: WAN, 10G WAN, 10G SFP+, LAN, USB, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and Power.
Asus RT-BE88U Router Specifications
| Wi-Fi Standards | Wi-Fi 7 |
| Wi-Fi Bands | 2.4GHz: 4×4 (transmit/receive) |
| Row 2 – Cell 0 | 5GHz: 4×4 (Tx/Rx) |
| CPU | 2.6GHz quad-core processor |
| Memory | 256MB RAM |
| Wi-Fi Coverage | 3,000 sq. ft. |
| port | 10Gbps for WAN/LAN, 10Gbps for WAN SFP+, 1.5Gbps for WAN/LAN, 3.5Gbps for LAN, 4.5Gbps for WAN/LAN RJ45 10/100/1000Mbps, USB 3.2 Gen1 x1 |
Configuring the Asus RT-BE88U router
To configure the RT-BE88U, I first addressed all the necessary physical connections: I plugged in power to the router, connected the modem to the 2.5 GbE WAN/LAN port, and connected the 10 GbE port of my Windows 11 server to the 10 GbE WAN/LAN port on the RT-BE88U.
Like other Asus routers, the RT-BE88U is easy to get up and running using the web interface or the Asus app. I prefer the web interface because it’s easier to type/navigate using a keyboard and mouse than a smartphone. When I visited Asuslogin.com in the Microsoft Edge browser, I was prompted to create a new wireless SSID and a strong password for the combined 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The setup program also automatically creates a guest network using the primary SSID name with the “-IOT” suffix for the IOT device. Finally, I had to create a username and password for the router.
Once these steps were completed, I was greeted with the familiar AsusWRT 5.0 homepage/status page for the RT-BE88U.
Asus RT-BE88U Software
The RT-BE88U runs the AsusWRT 5.0 firmware that’s standard across Asus’ Wi-Fi 7 routers. Though it doesn’t support the 6GHz band, one of the biggest pillars of the Wi-Fi 7 standard, the RT-BE88U does support other enhancements such as Mult-Link Operation (MLO) and 4K-QAM.
Simultaneous MLO allows the router to combine two bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) to increase peak throughput speeds and reduce latency. Alternate MLO allows clients to dynamically switch between multiple bands based on available bandwidth, potential wireless interference, and traffic conditions. The MLO feature can be found under the main Wireless menu.[詳細設定]You can enable it from[MLO]tab.
4K-QAM offers a 20% increase in data rates compared to the 1024-QAM used in Wi-Fi 6 due to improved spectral efficiency.
The rest of the web user interface is largely the same as that of the previous RT-BE96U. The RT-BE88U supports virtual SSIDs, like the aforementioned IoT network, and there are familiar standbys like a Guest Network and a Kids Network, allowing you to provide dedicated access for minors with parental controls.
One of my favorite features, which the RT-BE88U also has, is the ability to tether the internet from your smartphone using the USB 3.0 port. This means you can use your Android or iOS smartphone as a “modem” for the router in the event of a major outage with your Internet Service Provider. The tethering option on your smartphone can be accessed from the USB application menu.
The Asus router’s smartphone app is nearly as feature-rich as the Web interface, though we had difficulty finding certain functions (though there is an option to access the traditional Web interface directly from within the app). However, the app is feature-rich enough to support your network without having to reach for your laptop, and it even supports remote connections for logging into your router while you’re out and about.
Asus RT-BE88U performance
I am testing the router in my home office, which is on the second floor near the center of my house. My wireless clients are Acer Swift Edge 16 A Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 Wi-Fi 7 wireless adapter is used to connect to the RT-BE88U at distances of 6 ft. and 25 ft. Ping and iPerf3 tests are run with uncongested and congested traffic to provide both best- and worst-case scenarios for network performance.
In the congestion test, six wireless clients pump six 4K YouTube streams into the wireless network, while a seventh client adds further chaos by downloading a 63GB game file from a roughly 600Mbps Internet connection.
Wi-Fi throughput is performed with iPerf 3.16, and ping tests leverage the built-in tools included in Windows 11. A desktop with an integrated 10 GbE network adapter on its motherboard is used as the server and connected to the 10 GbE LAN port of the RT-BE88U.
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iPerf performance on the 5GHz band was fantastic, outperforming the 5GHz performance of “true” Wi-Fi 7 routers such as: ASUS RT-BE96U and ROG Rapture GT-BE98 ProAt 6 feet, it topped out at 1.2 Gbps, dropping to 958 Mbps at 25 feet. For comparison, the ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro was only able to deliver 1.1 Gbps at 6 feet, and dropped in half to 528 Mbps at 25 feet. With heavy traffic, the RT-BE88U’s throughput dropped by 50% to 606 Mbps at 6 feet, and then halved again to 302 Mbps at 25 feet.
The RT-BE88U performed significantly worse than its more expensive 2.4GHz WiFi 7 router sibling in both congested and uncongested iPerf throughput tests, although the drop in performance from 6 feet to 25 feet was less steep.
In most tests, ping times were around 17ms to 18ms at 6ft and 25ft across congested and non-congested traffic.
Conclusion
The Asus RT-BE88U is a maverick in the world of Wi-Fi 7 routers. For those who live in areas where the 6 GHz band is unavailable or heavily restricted, it’s a viable, modern solution. However, in areas where 6 GHz traffic is allowed, like the United States, things get more complicated. Wi-Fi 6E introduced the 6 GHz band to wireless routers, and Wi-Fi 7 expanded channel width to 320 MHz. The RT-BE88U can’t take advantage of that band, which puts it at a performance disadvantage.
Sure, 5 GHz performance is strong, but keep this in mind if you have Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 clients and want to take advantage of all the performance benefits the new standards bring. The RT-BE88U offers some advantages, including an abundance of 1 GbE and 2.5 GbE ports, as well as two 10 GbE ports (one of which can be enabled via SFP+). And with an MSRP of just $349, it’s a steal compared to the $699 and $799 prices of the RT-BE96U and ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro, respectively.
However, the price advantage of Wi-Fi 7 routers is not guaranteed. For example, TP-Link Archer BE800 Its MSRP is $599, but it was dropped to $350 during Amazon Prime Day, meaning bargain hunters can get a full-featured Wi-Fi 7 router without compromising for the same price.
