Test
ASUS EA-AC87 Pricing (UK) from £111.92
We have a M1 Fibre Broadband running at 300Mbps wired speed for up and down link. In the test, we used a ASUS RT-AC87U connected to the ONT. It serves as the wireless router for the entire location. Using the USB-AC56 we could connect to the router with no issues. The speed obtained was around 200Mbps for downlink which is not bad at all. In fact, on the HTC One M9, we are able to achieve 150Mbps+ on the average.
Although the speed is reasonably fast for a wireless network, the speed drops if the USB AC56 is connected the USB port behind the PC. The speeds also vary differently on the 802.11ac capable smartphone on the upper floor.
We hooked up the EA-AC87 and set it as a media bridge and extended the network for the upper floor. Results shows that the speed improves reaching 250Mbps closing to the LINE speed of 300Mbps. Wireless devices supporting 802.11ac also get more consistent speeds.
Conclusion
The EA-AC87 is definitely one good option if you need to extend your existing network wirelessly using the media bridge mode. With this mode, it also enables non wifi capable network devices to be connected to the wireless network through the ethernet ports.
With the bridge mode, you can now move your set top box (non WiFi capable) to other parts of the houses than to watch it only in the living room.
In Conclusion, the ASUS EA-AC87 is definitely worth considering if you need that extend your network or to complement your old wireless router to support more devices.
ASUS EA-AC87 Pricing (UK) from £111.92
