ASUS ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro Quad-Band WiFi 7 Mesh Router (1 Pack), up to 4000 sqft, 2X 10G Ports Each, Smart Home Master with Multi-SSID, VPN & Parental Controls, Subscription-Free Security, AiMesh

I’ve been using the ASUS ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro for about 6 months and it’s been amazing. The biggest difference for me is speed—I’m on a 2 Gbps connection and I can actually get the full bandwidth over Wi-Fi 7 on compatible devices, which I did not expect. It’s the first setup I’ve had where wireless doesn’t feel like a compromise. Although it's a mesh router, I only needed a single unit as it blankets my entire 2500 sq ft home with a very strong signal. The other thing I didn’t fully appreciate until I set it up is how much customizability ASUS gives you. There are tons of settings and options (multi-SSID / smart home network options, VPN features, parental controls, etc.), and it’s clearly built for people who like to tinker. That said, the settings definitely come with a learning curve if you’re not familiar with networking. It’s not “plug it in and forget it” if you want to take advantage of everything it can do. But once I got it dialed in, it’s been totally worth it. It also has two 10G ports on the unit, which is great if you’re building around multi-gig internet or faster wired backhaul. If you want very fast Wi-Fi 7 and you like having a lot of control over your network, this router is a beast. If you hate dealing with settings, expect a little setup time—but the performance payoff is real.

Can't give full review as this was delivered with a US-style power brick. Maybe it's a grey import? If so, what about warranty? As a general comment re connectivity: I have a BQ16 that had dropout problems while connecting via PPPoE to my fibre provider. This was solved through a combination of disabling IPv6 to the outside world (still enabled internally in our building to allow Home Assistant/thread to work) and by changing WAN/Internet Detection to PPP Echo, PPP Echo Interval to 30 and PPP Echo Max Failures to 5. Update: Mea culpa. I had not found the US to UK adapter in the packaging. Supplier has immediately offered to take back the router with refund hence the change in rating. Correspondence with them easy and timely. Their support merits a 5-star rating.

As a tech dork who tries to find what works well without sacrificing bells and whistles, I found a product that hits the sweet spot. I have a fairly connected house running on a couple of bands. My previous router, the Eero 6, serves its niche. No digs. However, we had departed from that specific niche a long time ago. The band conflict among all my connected bulbs, outlets, Alexa's, iphones, tablets, laptops, TVs, game consoles, door locks, door bells, kitchen appliances, etc., drove the family nuts. We'd have routine outages where I had to shut off categories of appliances just to try to get kids online for homework. After a few years of this madness, I decided to hunt for a solution enabling tri-band connectivity, dedicated 2.4 channel for IoT devices, multiple networks for ease of management of devices across 5 Ghz kid internet access, parental access, and the (currently) holy grail of consumer-based high speed 7 Ghz band for capable devices. The dashboard is simple to navigate and apply settings. The router was simple to setup out of the box. Reprogramming all devices for the correct network took the most time, and could not have been more simple. The range offered by this device covers all three levels of my house. I am tickled that I no longer have to worry about our network. For the cost, this upgrade was an incredible investment back in my time and my family's uptime.

I was very excited about this product as, on paper, it is about the best-spec'd wireless device around. Unfortunately, the reality was an absolutely awful experience for me. I spent hours and tested every possible configuration, but it was unable to outperform a wifi 5 router from years ago. Factory resets, firmware upgrades/downgrade, each band tested individually. MLO/WiFi 7 enabled or disabled. Router mode, AP mode. Nothing I tried could achieve download speeds greater than 500mbps on my 1gb/1gb connection. And that was from two feet away. Upload speeds were often almost normal though! Performance fell off with any distance. The connection would often drop repeatedly during use, sitting 6 feet from the router. I tried testing with multiple wifi 7 and 6 clients that all performed in excess of 1gbps on other wifi networks, but ALL of them ran terribly when connected to the BQ16. Asus support could not offer any solution. If it were not for all the other complaints I've found in forums, I'd suspect my device was simply defective, but there seems to be widespread issues with this model.

Have owned a couple of ASUS routers in the past. I never had to contact support until this model! I went through 2 units before I requested a refund. Asus support is non-existent. Yes they will answer the phone but they will not resolve your issue. I worked as an network engineer when I was in my 20s. First, when you connect to the management interface the screen immediately reads "connection failed". I was unable to check or uncheck certain boxes! I have 5gig FiOS connection. Sometimes I would get speeds over 700mb later I would get no better than 20mb. ASUS gaming routers seem to have a more robust & stable firmware. This Asus ZenWiFi model is a pass big time...