Asus RT-BE58U router review

How much do you want to pay to futureproof your home network? The answer to that question will likely determine the budget required to access cutting-edge networking features like WiFi 7 and multi-gigabit Ethernet. And if you plan to upgrade every feasible device in your home to take full advantage of those speeds, get ready to add some zeroes to that budget. Conversely, for those who want a taste of the speedy networking of tomorrow, today, there are more reasonably priced entry points like the Asus RT-BE58U router.

If money is no object, you can pay upwards of $4,000 to pimp your home network with the Netgear Orbi BE27000. On the cheaper end of the scale, the TP-Link Archer BE230 costs $249 to dip your toes in the WiFi 7 waters. And at $299 RRP, the Asus RT-BE58U is a competitively priced entry point to WiFi 7 with a 2.5Gbps internet port for a cost-effective solution to NBN 1000 and the impending NBN 2000 plans. Consider it a big tick on the price front for the Asus RT-BE58U, more so given the tendency for Asus products to feature premium RRPs.

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Outside of a 20-minute setup (about twice as long as the fastest modern routers), my biggest initial configuration gripe with the Asus RT-BE58U is it commits the old faux pas of having a QR code printed beneath the router. To avoid having to deal with this after you’ve connected the power and Ethernet, I highly recommend downloading the Asus Router companion app ahead of installation (as is the case with all relevant networking gear).

I did my RT-BE58U setup via the companion app, which is very intuitive. Just tap ‘Setup’, select ‘Asus WiFi routers’, and enable any relevant permissions to get going. Practically speaking, the Asus router should be turned on before getting too far into the app steps, so do yourself a favour and power off your modem for at least 30 seconds, then connect the power for both modem and router. I suspect the companion app initially uses Bluetooth to detect the RT-BE58U, so stick within reasonable range of the router during setup.

I did hit a hurdle while (correctly) choosing the PPPoE network protocol as the WAN Type—yeah, there’s a bit of jargon to bypass here—for my Exetel connection. But when I shifted to ‘Automatic IP’, I was online without having to input my Exetel username and password. I was then guided to create a WiFi network name and add a password for admin access to the router, both of which are appreciated steps during the setup phase.

There are then some optional steps for enabling remote access, bandwidth prioritisation by task—gaming, media streaming, work from home, learning from home, web surfing, and file transferring—as well as some basic and appreciated guidance around how to use mobile tethering from a smartphone to the RT-BE58U via USB. Doing this enables mobile data backup in the event of an internet outage, which is a great feature typically relegated to pricier models.

I do internet speed tests right after initial hardware configuration to gauge speed potential, not just overall but also relative to wired and wireless performance in different parts of my apartment. While the front part of my apartment typically never has WiFi issues, the back part has problems with any networking equipment that can’t penetrate thick walls. While it has a 2.5Gbps internet port, the other Asus RT-BE58U Ethernet ports are relegated to ageing gigabit. Similarly, the dual-band WiFi 7 speeds offer up to 3,600Mbps shared speeds, which is plenty for all home internet technologies in Australia, but not as fast for local transfers as pricier models. Still, I recorded 760.3Mbps local file transfer speeds from a gigabit Ethernet PC to a Steam Deck OLED, so it’s not exactly slow.

All of my router internet speed tests are conducted with an Exetel NBN 100/20 FTTC apartment connection, using Ethernet for the first test then a Google Pixel 7 Pro for the WiFi tests (via WiFi 6). All of the tests below were done in the evening. Lower numbers are best for latency (measured in milliseconds), while larger numbers are better for download and upload speeds (both measured in megabits-per-second). Use the top line of results in the tables as an idea of best-case speeds at that time of day, then every line below as comparative. Signal strength according to Google is ranked from best to worst as excellent, good, fair and poor.

As a baseline, I ran speed tests with my go-to Synology RT6600ax, which is an older WiFi 6 router.

And then immediately after completing setup, I ran speed tests in identical spots for the Asus RT-BE58U.

Most of those results for the RT-BE58U are good, but there are some standout exceptions. For starters, both tested routers failed their respective speed tests at the garage location, which shows difficulty penetrating external walls. But while the RT6600ax handled every other test location admirably (and at 5GHz frequency), the RT-BE58U struggled in parts. In terms of wins, it did record better speeds in the downstairs lobby test location.

But the RT-BE58U struggled in the back part of my apartment. WiFi is effectively unusable in the study with 2.7Mbps download speeds and no recorded upload speeds. The bathroom was slightly better with 28.7Mbps download and 7.64Mbps upload speeds, but both of those are big drops from the 89.7Mbps download and 18.3Mbps best-case speeds registered at the TV (within half a metre of the router). My bedroom is in the back part of the apartment, but it ‘only’ has a single wall to bypass, so those results were much more encouraging than the dual-wall bypass required for the bathroom and study. Admittedly, I did have dropouts in the bathroom during longer sit-down tests.

Outside my apartment, though, the results were also poor with massive hits to download and upload speeds at the property fence and across the road, albeit with perfectly acceptable latency. All of those slower speeds were using the 2.4GHz wireless band with good signal strength, too, which suggests the RT-BE58U struggles on this band. That’s unfortunate given 2.4GHz’s contemporary function is to work well at range and, technically, it should be better at tackling WiFi dead spots, but that’s not evidenced here.

I recommend sticking to the companion app for monitoring and tweaking the Asus RT-BE58U. You can also access settings via a web portal, but I had to click my way past HTTPS warning screens just to log in. When I switched from the default router IP address to my typical alternative—handy for maintaining access to static IP devices like a NAS—it was a straightforward process that automatically updated the DHCP range, which is a nice touch.

For an affordable router, there are a lot of features to dig into, including parental controls, some supposed AI applications (cloud, protection and mesh), as well as adaptive Quality of Service (QoS). I like to dig into QoS functionality with networking equipment because it’s a practical feature that helps invisibly manage finite internet data while multiple devices are using the internet. The RT-BE58U has a simplified approach by letting you drag and drop internet use cases in terms of priority in the app; but in the web portal, you can do it on a per-device basis.

While highlighted as a mobile backup option, the USB port also offers device-free downloading, backup, shared storage, and network printing. About the only problem I had settings-wise was how slow the RT-BE58U was to tell me about a firmware update, which took multiple taps of the ‘check for update’ button to even offer an installation option. In terms of versatility, though, the RT-BE58U offers straightforward expansion capabilities via compatible Asus router mesh products.