A Deep Dive Review Into Asus RT-ACRH13

A Deep Dive Into The Asus RT-ACRH13

RT-ACRH13 is a router from the Taiwanese company Asus aimed at the home user market. Designed and built specifically for home users it was originally released in December 2016. Since that time, it has found its place in a crowded market, it is an obvious testament that it has fulfilled the needs and expectations of millions of users across the world, and with it that of the manufacturer. This is why Asus RT-ACRH13 is still in demand today, almost four years after its release.

At the time, it came somewhat of a surprise to see an attempt to include some of the latest networking technologies into an inexpensive device. Before then, ASUS and most of the other main manufacturers had only been producing high-end routers, with a clear focus on the business market.

Instead, Asus RT-ACRH13 is an affordable product designed for home users and small businesses. Engineered, with cutting-edge MU-MIMO technology; which refers to multi-user, multiple-input, and multiple-output technology.
Asus RT-ACRCH13 comes

The ‘AC’ of the router’s name refers to it supporting the latest networking standard, 802.11ac; noting the ‘ac’ at the end of the standard’s name. The number after the AC is the maximum theoretical throughput or speed that the router is capable of. In this case, 1300 Mbps. As a comparison, the previous networking standard 802.11n only has a max of 450. Also, AC can handle up to 100 users compared to N’s 40.

Many home users go for high-end routers, which is really not necessary when we have RT-ACRH13 (Ac1300) router from Asus, which clearly outperforms the most high-end routers such as Ac5300 and Ad7200.

In targeting the average consumer, instead of going for ridiculously high theoretical throughput like 3200 Mbps or 4500 Mbps, Asus instead focused on delivering stable performance at longer distances.

Sure, its theoretical maximum speed of 1300 Mbps doesn’t seem that high, but with actual real-world and time performance requiring much less than that it’s plenty fast enough. Depending on your internet provider’s package of course.

An upgrade from its previous RT-AC66U model, the design of the RT-ACRH13 is similar, with Asus having kept the same case. They did, however, move the back antennas from the middle towards its side, as well as adding one more on each side, for a total of 4. They also added new design features, making it more stylish and unique. So, while the RT-ACRH13 may not be a complete breakthrough in the over-saturated networking world, it may have come just at the right time to encompass technological advancements and meet people’s actual needs.

Asus proudly boasts that the RT-ACRH13 is one of their best in the AC router series. To find out, we tested the router. Is it a worthwhile investment? Below we’ve comprehensively reviewed it, and at the end, we’ll make our final verdict.

Who’s It For?

Asus RT-ACRH13 has great features fulfilling the needs of a diverse range of users, but it’s probably best for medium and large homes where you need an internet signal in all rooms.

With its four 5dBi antennas, you’re no longer tethered to where your router is placed, Instead, your whole home is at your disposal for using the internet. Now, you can stream your favorite sites or the latest movies to the comfort of your bedroom, or wherever suits.

It provides a steady internet that you can rely on for work. So it’s also fantastic for those who work from home all or at least part of the time. You can transfer even large files with ease. While the AC network standard can handle up to 100 users, the router itself doesn’t connect to multiples of devices like those of large offices and buildings. It wasn’t designed to and doesn’t need to. But you can still connect many wireless and up to four wired devices at the same time. This should be fine for the number of laptops and desktops generally present in a domestic, or even small office setting.

With almost no lag or buffering, away from work, it has no problem handling heavy-duty gaming and streaming as well. No matter how advanced your game is, you can rely on Asus RT-ACRH13 for sharp and true graphics, and help enable you to stay ahead of other gamers.

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What We Like About Asus RT-ACRH13

As one of their best routers, Asus RT-ACRH13 comes with some top-notch features. It’s an all-around great router for modern users who want better signal strength. Adding to its appeal, it works as well as it looks.

Asus upgraded the case from its previous RT-AC66U model, adding new features to the design to make it more sleek, stylish, and unique. We love its black matte finish with, on its top, black and grey diamond pattern. All-over it doesn’t retain your fingerprints after handling. On the back, the Asus company logo stands out. And with plenty of vent holes on the bottom and on both the left and the right sides, the case of the RT-ACRH13 provides adequate ventilation so that it remains cool.

The antennas are also arranged well. Instead of being placed symmetrically around the router, they’ve put two in the back, towards its sides, with another two on the actual sides. This means that the front of the router isn’t messy or full of antennas.

And since the USB 3.0 port is on the front, you don’t want anything getting in the way of that: and nothing does. Pretty clever design. As is that the plaid-patterned top extends over and out from the main body of the router. This gives it a little lip to the front and sides, adding a little bit of protection to the USB port as well as to the two side antenna.

Inside, Asus RT-ACRH13 comes packed with a bunch of internal hardware. For starters, it has a Quadcore 717 MHz CPU with Qualcomm Atheros IPQ4018 technology, 128 MB of both internal flash memory, and of RAM; all of which add on to the quality and performance of the router. It also comes with four arranged in 2×2:2 Qualcomm chipsets, and a 2.4 GHz Rich-Wave Power Amplifier, together delivering 5 GHz high wireless performance, making it an awesome dual-band router for gaming.

For residential use, the MU-MIMO technology incorporated in this model will do the job. It lets multiple devices connect with the router at the same time while ensuring a smooth wireless internet connection. This helps increase the amount of traffic to your devices despite their number and helps decrease the amount of buffering while surfing the internet. To avoid any waste of time due to lag, this is a better router.

Asus RT-ACRH13 has beamforming technology that allows it to scan the area and identify the wireless devices. Then, it connects to the identified wireless. The beamforming technology does not transmit signals everywhere. This way, the bandwidth is not wasted.

Turning to its interface, you can easily install and setup Asus RT-ACRH13, through its intuitive and user-friendly AsusWRT interface. Just open your web browser, type https://router.asus.com and hit enter. Once there, you decide and enter the login name and password, ‘admin’, and click the sign-in button to get access to the UI.

Entering the UI, you’re prompted to go through the wizard when you first log in, which allows you to quickly set up the internet. It will automatically detect your ISP connection type. Next, it will ask you to enter SSIDs which you need for both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. Lastly, you need a security key and then click on the apply button to finish the setup.

The full web-app AsusWRT is well designed, being streamlined and compact. It’s simple and doesn’t overwhelm you with too much information. If you’re fairly familiar with router interfaces it won’t be too difficult at all. Access the various menus to choose from network mapping to traffic monitor. You can also access the interface through Android or iOS through the AiCloud mobile app; a very handy feature in today’s fast-paced and ever-changing on-the-go World

It’s in the performance speed of Asus RT-ACRH13 that marks and makes it a router for today. The 5 GHz band offers a speed of 867 Mbps, and the 2.4 GHz one delivers a speed of 400 Mbps. This makes the combined speed of the two bands 1267 Mbps; quite high in comparison to other routers in its class and price range. And it’s certainly enough to enable you to download and upload content from multiple devices at the same time.

Quite often, internet users complain of restricted compatibility of their routers. Many routers either support Android and Windows or iOS devices. Asus RT-ACRH13 wins in this regard, as it has very high compatibility with both of the different systems. If you have devices supporting Windows 10, 8, 8.1, 7, or Android, then it’s great. But it also has impressive compatibility with Mac OS X 10.1, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8.

Asus RT-ACRH13 comes with an excellent wireless connection. In addition to this, there are also super reliable wired connections for other devices, made possible due to the four ports, each of which supports a Gigabit format. The availability of these four Ethernet ports makes it an even more efficient router for gamers. You’ll have no problem at all, connecting any of your gaming consoles for a reliable connection.,

We performed several tests to check the networking reliability and speed of the Asus RT-ACRH13 router.

First, we connected 3 x 3 laptops and began measuring the throughput. At a close range of 5ft, when using the 2.4 GHz band frequency, measured 95 Mbps maximum speed. At 15ft, the speed dropped slightly, but by no means drastically, to 81 Mbps. At a massive 100ft, we measured the average speed of the router measured as 20 Mbps.

We also performed the same way, by switching to the 5 GHz frequency band that is the network standard for 802.11ac. This time, at 5ft close range, the maximum speed measured up to 446 Mbps. Likewise, we measured the speed at 15 ft to be 325 Mbps. Lastly, the speed went down to, a still respectable, 134 Mbps at 100 feet.

A combined speed of 150 Mbps at 100ft is without question, pretty awesome when you think about quite how far away that is. It’s able to deliver and manage those kinds of speeds at that distance, mostly due to its beamforming technology

Overall, Asus RT-ACRH13 is an excellent router with high-performance capabilities at a very affordable and attractive price.

What We Don’t Like About Asus RT-ACRH13

Although it’s a lightweight router with small dimension measurements of 8.14 x 5.85 x 1.39 inches, you’re unable to position Asus RT-ACRH13 upwards as it doesn’t have a stand. You can only position it flat on the surface. Just keep that in mind if you keep it on your desk. The antenna will take up a bit of space, so make sure to account for that.

Asus RT-ACRH13 only has a single USB 3.0 port, which is located on the device’s front. Admittedly, the USB 3.0 port is the latest in the market, and it is 10 times faster than the USB 2.0. It helps in transferring data much more quickly. It even allows you to transfer large files quickly.

Unfortunately, the ASUS RT-ACRH13 only comes with one USB port. So, you can connect only one device at a time when you want to transfer data. This limits you to one such task at a time which can sometimes be frustrating. The other four ports – which are located at the front – are designed only for Gigabit Ethernet connections, which offers no help for other device access.

While even a single USB 3.0 port is a good addition, both on Asus’s preceding RT-AC66U model and over much of the competition, at the same time, its positioning makes cabling untidy and a bit of a mess.

It’s to be expected that the cheaper the product, the functionality it might have and so the fewer users it can serve at the same time. In theory, Asus RT-ACRH13 overcomes the former with the latest MU-MIMO tech, but in practice, there’s a downside. To take advantage of this new tech you need to have devices with compatible wireless adapters. Unfortunately, there just aren’t that many on the market right now. So, while its future-proofing is clear, you may have to wait for a while until this technology becomes more widespread to truly unlock Asus RT-ACRH13’s potential.

What’s Included?

As well as the router box itself, Asus RT-ACRH13 comes with an Ethernet cable, driver CD is included, power supply cable (AC Input – 110V~240V/50~60Hz, DC Output – 12 V with max, 1.5 A current), user guide with separate easy setup information, and a warranty card.

Overview Of Features

Asus RT-ACRH13 is a dual-band AC1300 with the latest cutting-edge 2×2 MU MIMO technology for combined speeds of up to 1267 Mbps. It has 4 external 5dBi antennas for improved Wi-Fi range and multi-device performance. Connected devices must be 802.11ac compatible to achieve the best results.

Setup is effortless with the ASUSWRT web-based interface. Once connected you’re able to monitor and manage your network with ease from your mobile device using the intuitive ASUS Router App.

With this device, you get super-fast dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi along with concurrent speeds of up to 867Mbps (5GHz) and 400Mbps (2.4GHz). A front-facing integrated USB 3.0 port allows you to share external drives and flash drives with your network. It has four Ethernet ports on its rear.

Asus RT-ACRH includes both a Quadcore 717 MHz CPU as well as Qualcomm Atheros IPQ4018 technology. It has 128 of RAM and 128 MB of flash memory provided by the 2×2:2 Qualcomm chipset, delivering 2.4 GHz high wireless performance.

OS support is provided for Windows 10, 8, 8.1, and 7, as well as for Mac OS X 10.1, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8. It has three modes: operation mode, wireless router mode, and access point mode. For encryption, it supports 64 bit WEP, 128 bit WEP, WPA2 PSK, WPA PSK, WPA Enterprise, and WPS.

There are 6 LED indicator lights, minimalist and hidden in the plaid design of the router for power indicator, WAN, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, USB device, and LAN connections.

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Review Summary

Asus RT-ACRH13 is not a fresh router product, but that after nearly four years, it still holds a significant position in a networking world of cutting-edge technological advancements This is a testament to its all-around excellence of performance and reliability.

So, it has clearly been fulfilling users’ needs since its release in December 2016. RT-ACRH13 is declared by Asus to be one of the best in the AC router series. And for sure it’s a great router for modern users who want better signal strength. It comes with so many excellent features that it is hard to resist choosing it as the solution for your home or small business.

Overall, the ASUS RT-ACRH13 is a great entry-level router, offering a nice interface with lots of features, with a sleek and stylish design in a good looking case. It has some of the latest technologies implemented, with excellent wireless performance on both the 2,4 and 5Ghz radio bands, all at a surprisingly low price.

It’s an affordable router designed for home users and small businesses. It knows what you need and delivers it in a small package at a great price. With its MIMO and beamforming technologies, it has four 5dBi antennas, which help you get an even supply of the internet throughout your house. This makes it ideal for gamers.

ASUS RT-ACRH13 offers impressively fast speeds at long ranges, even compared to higher-end models. Moreover, it has high-compatibility for both PC and Mac and with both 100-volt and 220-volt electricity formats.

In summary, if you’re on the lookout for an inexpensive router, packed with features, suitable for home or small business use, then you can’t go wrong with ASUS RT-ACRH13. As one of the best routers currently available on the market, its impressive speed at an average of 867 Mbps, ensures a great rate of downloading and uploading data.

ASUS RT-ACRH13 delivers this in a very attractive package. Its compact size is just right for today’s user who wants to keep their home or small office neat and practical. It has a design aesthetic that not only looks cool but at the same time blends in with the background. On top of that, it’s packed with features and it looks great too. It looks as great as it performs.