Asus RT-AC3200 Review

By /

The premium segment of  router market is getting more crowded with the expensive and high performance router. The Asus RT-AC3200 is a new member to this market. It looks very similar to the Asus RT-AC87 but not much more expensive than it.

Asus RT-AC3200 is priced around RM1400 currently. The design isn’t exactly striking like the new Asus RT-AC88U but it certainly looks alright. There are 6 external antennas which are crucial for the Tri-Band wireless. There are two 5Ghz wireless bands and a 2.4Ghz wireless band. The key feature of this router is the intelligent wireless controller which allow a faster wireless and consistent experience.

Quick Specifications:

Wireless Performance Benchmark

Asus RT-AC3200 wireless benchmark.
Wireless benchmark.

The wireless performance of Asus RT-AC3200 is the highest I ever observed. I am getting over 600Mbit/s on my iperf3 test. Definitely no issue with 4K streaming with this router. Unfortunately, the wireless is bottlenecked by the wireless adapter in my laptop which only support up to wireless AC1200.

You get a lot of advanced controls over the wireless network which power users will prefer.

For curiosity sake, I performed a quick Media Bridge test on the Asus RT-AC3200. The figures are quite interesting. I am getting 626Mbit/s on the Asus RT-AC68U and 585Mbit/s on the Asus RT-AC87. The wireless on the RT-AC3200 and RT-AC68U are Broadcom based. The overall performance is great on both routers.

RT-AC3200 Smart Connect

The way Smart Connect works is it intelligently steers devices to the appropriate band with the highest performance at that particular moment. On a conventional router, my devices did not switch to the 2.4Ghz band automatically. On some situations,  the signal of the 5Ghz band got so low until 2.4Ghz performance is faster than 5Ghz. The Smart Connect feature on Asus RT-AC3200 intelligently steers devices to different wireless band depending on the signal strength and throughput. Beside, there’s a load balance option which enable the router to distribute the wireless load to prevent congestion.
On my testing with some fine tuning of the configuration, the router performs quite well. My test device switched to another band with almost no gap between switching. My Facetime call didn’t drop when the switching occurs. Unfortunately, configuring the tri-band system is very confusing and Asus did not include any guidance on the user manual. The stock configuration may not work for properly for everyone. I suggest reading this guide on SmallNetBuilder on how to configure the device properly.

Unifi Compatibility

Asus RT-AC3200 is fully compatible with Unifi with IPV6 and HyppTV is working properly. Sidenote:The premium segment of  router market is getting more crowded with the expensive and high performance router. The Asus RT-AC3200 is a new member to this market. It looks very similar to the Asus RT-AC87 but not much more expensive than it.

Asus RT-AC3200 is priced around RM1400 currently. The design isn’t exactly striking like the new Asus RT-AC88U but it certainly looks alright. There are 6 external antennas which is crucial for the Tri-Band wireless. There are 2 5Ghz wireless and 1 2.4Ghz wireless. The key feature of this router is the intelligent wireless controller which allow a faster wireless and consistent experience.

Quick Specs :

Wireless Performance Benchmark

Asus RT-AC3200 wireless benchmark.
Wireless benchmark.

The wireless performance of Asus RT-AC3200 is the highest I ever observed. I am getting over 600Mbit/s on my iperf3 test. Definitely no issue with 4K streaming with this router. Unfortunately, the wireless is bottlenecked by the wireless adapter in my laptop which only support up to wireless AC1200.

You get a lot of advanced controls over the wireless network which power users will prefer.

For curiosity sake, I performed a quick Media Bridge test on the Asus RT-AC3200. The figures are quite interesting. I am getting 626Mbit/s on the Asus RT-AC68U and 585Mbit/s on the Asus RT-AC87. The wireless on the RT-AC3200 and RT-AC68U are Broadcom based. The overall performance is great on both routers.

RT-AC3200 Smart Connect

The way Smart Connect works is it intelligently steers devices to the appropriate band with the highest performance on that particular moment. One issue with conventional router is my devices didn’t switch to the 2.4Ghz band automatically. On some situations,  the signal of the 5Ghz band got so low until 2.4Ghz performance is faster than 5Ghz. The Smart Connect feature on Asus RT-AC3200 intelligently steer devices to different wireless band depending on the signal strength and throughput. Beside, there’s a load balance option which enable the router to distribute the wireless load to prevent congestion.
On my testing with some fine tuning of the configuration, the router perform quite well. My test device switched to other band with almost no gap between switching. My Facetime call didn’t drop when the switching occurs. Unfortunately, configuring the tri-band system is very confusing and Asus did not include any guidance on the user manual. The stock configuration may not work for properly for everyone. I suggest reading this guide on SmallNetBuilder on how to configure the device properly.

Unifi Compatibility

Asus RT-AC3200 is fully compatible with Unifi with IPV6 and HyppTV is working properly. On a sidenote, Maxis Fibre is working too.

Features

Asuswrt

This router come with the full suite of ASUSWRT including the latest AiProtection. Due to availability of 3 wireless radio, I am able to form up to 9 guest network. The usual stuffs such as AiDownload and USB sharing are there.
As for Quality of Service, Adaptive QoS was there and the traditional manual type of QoS is available as well. Dual WAN is interesting where you can switch to other internet connection when your main internet is down. It takes around a minute to switch and it works pretty well in overall.

The Verdict

Asus RT-AC3200

The Asus RT-AC3200 is a router for the power users which demand consistent performance. This is an expensive router and it is definitely not for people running on a tight budget. It is very powerful and even with many devices clogging up my home network, it don’t lag at all. The smart connect wireless work properly if you get it right, Asus disabled this feature on default.  Setting up this router is very simple and it is fully compatible with Unifi and HyppTV.

In conclusion, the RT-AC3200 is an impressive router for the techie modern household. It is very powerful with amazing wireless range. I highly recommend this router if it is within your budget.

Maxis Fibre is working too.

Features

Asuswrt

This router comes with the full suite of ASUSWRT including the latest AiProtection. Due to the availability of 3 wireless radio, I am able to form up to 9 guest network. The usual feature such as AiDownload and USB sharing are there.
As for Quality of Service, Adaptive QoS was there and the traditional manual type of QoS is available as well. Dual WAN is interesting where you can switch to other internet connection when your main internet is down. It takes around a minute to switch and it works pretty well in overall.

The Verdict

Asus RT-AC3200

The Asus RT-AC3200 is a router for the power users which demand consistent performance. This is an expensive router and it is definitely not for people running on a tight budget. It is very powerful and even with many devices clogging up my home network, it don’t lag at all. The smart connect wireless work properly if you get it right, Asus disabled this feature on default.  Setting up this router is very simple and it is fully compatible with Unifi and HyppTV.

In conclusion, the RT-AC3200 is an impressive router for the techie modern household. It is very powerful with amazing wireless range. I highly recommend this router if it is within your budget.

11 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

hi, is this device support Time Fibre?

Reply

Yes

Reply

Hi,

How do you input google dns? I tried but doesnt seem to get it right as I tried on known blocked sites :p

Reply

Go to the WAN page and check the select DNS manually section.

Reply

Hi, where best to buy this router in KL or PJ? Thanks for your reply

Reply

You can try shopping at Lowyat Plaza or any online stores.

Reply

tq for your replyjoe

Reply

Please can u advise how do I replace the router from TM Unifi to AC3200. I tried doing it recently but am not able to get it connected is it possible to just use WPS then amend the other configurations on the Ac3200. I have the username and the password for the unifi connection but it is not working. please advise

Reply

Have you read this post?

Make sure it is connected properly. Contact TM if it still do not work, they may give the wrong password and it requires a reset at their system.

Reply

Hi,

Can you share your smart connect configuration for ASUS RT-AC3200. Thanks

Reply

I recommend you just leave it on the stock configuration.

Reply
11
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
Scroll to Top