Asus RT-AC87 Dual-band Wireless-AC2400 Gigabit Router Review (2024)

The next generation of wireless routers is here. These routers, which the industry refers to as "Wave 2," have new internal hardware that can provide theoretical Wi-Fi speeds of over 2Gbps. The first to market is the Asus RT-AC87 Dual-band Wireless-AC2400 Gigabit Router ($269.99). It's a big, bad, fast router, but frankly it's not more impressive than the last Asus router I tested, the less-expensive Editors' Choice-winning RT-AC68U Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router ($157.77 at Amazon) , at least a far as speeds and range go. Where the RT-AC87 shines is with several new features and an enhanced user interface.

Specs
Part of what makes the RT-AC87 a next-gen router is Quantenna's 4x4 MIMO chipset. This means that instead of the triple transmit/receive signal stream of dual-band routers, next-gen routers send and receive four streams. The component is also designed with enhanced, multiuser Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), which allows for the multiple data streams. This is engineering with the goal of delivering faster throughput and better range at the 5GHz band.

Asus's newest router also has a 1GHz, two-core Broadcom BCM4709 processor.It supports up to600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, 600Mbps at 5GHz in 802.11N mode, and up to 1,734Mbps at 5GHz in 802.11ac mode.

This is the largest Asus router I've ever tested. Its dimensions are 2.0 by 11.5 by 5.5 inches (HWD), and it weighs 1.97 pounds. The RT-AC68U Dual-band Wireless-AC1900 Gigabit Router is representative of previous Asus routers that have crossed my bench, measuring 6.0 by 8.0 by 6.3 inches (HWD) and weighing 1.4 pounds. Another difference is that the RT-AC87 has four external antennas, whereas previousASUS models have had three.

This new, larger router, unlike prior Asus routers, is meant to operate exclusively horizontally. Cooling vents run along the sides and bottom. The housing has the same sharp design of other Asus routers, with the company's signature diamond pattern. One difference from prior models: the Asus logo is silver rather than gold. Overall, it's a large, stately looking device—at least as far as routers go!

Setting up the 'Next-Gen' Router
Asus has adopted the current setup method of other router manufacturers—shipping the device with the wireless network and admin credentials already established. The information for connecting to the network and the admin account credentials are printed on the bottom of the device.

After I wirelessly connected to the RT-AC87 from my Windows laptop, I fired up a browser and was redirected to the router's browser-based setup wizard. I love the fact that any Asus router I've tested forces you to change the default admin password—other companies, take note!

The wizard breezes you through basic setup, making it a snap to make aWAN connection, set awireless name, and creating a passphrase. It even rates the strength of the password you create. After finishing these settings, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the interface automatically notified me that a new firmware update was available. This auto-notification of new software was a part ofany of the previous Asus routers I tested, but it should have been.

Features: Familiar and New

Features: Familiar and New
Asus has always been one of the more feature-generous router manufacturers. It delivers a good balance of basic features and advanced ones that make it suitable for small businesses. I was happy to see all of my favorite Asus router capabilities in the RT-87, including a full VPN server, great IPv6 support, firewall, and parental controls. Asus still offers AiCloud for remotely accessing data stored on connected USB drives via the AiCloud app for iOS and Android devices. You can also use it to stream and share files, access your home PCs, and more.

What I wasn't so thrilled about was that to use some of the capabilities of AiCloud, you need to go through the hassle of setting up port forwarding to access your network from the outside. According to the company's website, a simpler means of remote access, Private IP AiCloud support, is coming. Requiring advanced tasks like port forwarding or configuring a DMZ to remotely access your home network puts Asus a behind competitors such as Linksys and Netgear, both of which allow remote access via easy (and secure) cloud connections. Asus networking devices tend to attract more technical customers, so perhaps the company doesn't feel pressure to quickly create an easier remote access solution.

Asus fans will be eager to hear more about two new features: Adaptive QoS (Quality of Service) and AiProtection. The latter is the result of Asus partnering with Trend Micro. AiProtection provides extra layers of security beyond the native router firewall, including security scans, intruder prevention, and infected device blocking. I haven't tested these security features in this router, but in PCMag'stesting, Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus+ 2014 , proved effective at blocking malware and malicious URLs, alerting users to phishing scams, and blocking attempts to exploit system vulnerabilities.

What I did test was Adaptive QoS. This feature allows you to set upload and download bandwidth priority for the type of network traffic that's most critical on your network. It's quite easy to set these priorities. By default, there are preset rules for gaming, video, file transferring, and other typical kinds of traffic. You set priority by dragging and dropping boxes labeled with the various types of traffic. The boxes are aligned vertically on-screen, with the upper-most box in the position of highest bandwidth priority; the second box, the next highest; and so on.

In the QoS screen, the Gaming box was set as highest priority and Video was second. To change the order, I simply I dragged and dropped Video to the top of the listing. This almost seems too easy a way to set QoS!

In fact, in my testing, enabling and configuring Adaptive QoS definitely did not reduce the time it took to buffer a Netflix video. Before I enabled QoS, the time to buffer was 16 seconds. After I enabled the feature, that time actually lengthened to 25 seconds. In all fairness, QoS has more effect if you have a lot of activity going on in your network, which I did not. Still, I have seen QoS shorten the time to buffer in the same test with the Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 Smart WiFi Router (R7000) from 21 to just 4 seconds.

Another new feature is the wonderful Web history you can use to keep track of which sites clients are accessing on your network. It's a good tool for parents or for anyone who wants to keep track of which sites may have slowed down the network or caused other issues.

Performance Testing
The RT-AC87 is on par with the excellent performance of the stellar RT-AC68U. That's actually a problem. With the newer specs (and the higher price) I was expecting better throughput and range, especially in 802.11ac mode.

At the 2.4GHz band (in Mixed mode), the RT-AC68U did slightly better than the RT-AC87: 90Mbps versus 89.5. It's not much of a difference, but it's still a difference. The RT-AC87 did better in terms of range. Its throughput drop when I moved my laptop from 5 feet to 30 feet away from the router was 7 percent, as compared with the RT-AC68U's 9 percent. There's not much difference between the two at the 2.4GHz band, which doesn't surprise me, because they pretty much have the same 2.4GHz hardware.

The RT-AC87 is our new top performer at the 5GHz 802.11n mode, averaging 170Mbps. But another Asus router, the older AC66U, is close behind with an average rate of 170.5Mbps. In range, the RT-AC87 rated 10th best, dropping throughput by 10 percent as I moved testing from 5 feet to 30 feet.

I expected better performancein 802.11ac mode,which is boosted by that 4x4 chipset. An important note: I tested with a 3x3 wireless adapter and the vendor's own 802.11ac adapter, as I do all routers. For this test I used the Asus Dual-band Wireless AC1200 USB Adapter (USB-AC53). Neither of these adapters are 4x4, which means they can't leverage the throughput capabilities of the router. There just aren't any 4x4 adapters out there, yet. My only option would have been to set up another RT-AC87 as a bridge.

However, I like to be consistent in testing. Also, the fact is, we have predominately 2x2 wireless clients and a few 3x3 clients in some high-end laptops here at PCMag Labs. Testing even with only 2x2 and 3x3 adapters still gives me a good baseline on performance, however. And I usually see better performance even at 802.11ac in routers with beefy specs, even using slower adapters.

In 802.11ac mode, the RT-AC68U remains the top performer, beating the RT-AC87 with an average throughput of 290.5Mbps versus 284.5. The RT-AC87, unfortunately, also had a bigger signal drop at greater distance than the RT-AC87: 6 percent. The RT-AC68U actually gained throughput at greater distance by 5 percent.

2.4GHz Signal Drop or Gain, Moving From 5 to 30 Feet

5GHz 802.11nSignal Drop or Gain, Moving From 5 to 30 Feet

5GHz 802.11ac Signal Drop or Gain, Moving From 5 to 30 Feet

So, despite the excitement of 4x4 technology, the RT-AC87 did not blow me away. It's about on par with the RT-AC86U in 802.11n mode, and a bit worse in 802.11ac mode.

The Next Wave Hasn't Broken Yet
Until we have an abundance of mature 3x3 and 4x4 wireless clients on the market, the true potential of Wave 2 routers can't be recognized. Still, the RT-AC87 is first of its kind to market, and it's still an new technology. This is an excellent router, but, besides the new automated firmware update notification, extra bundled security, and questionable QoS, nothing but a price tag that's $70 higher sets it apart from the RT-AC68U, which remains current Editors' Choice for 802.11ac routers.