This new ASUS WiFi 6E router is perfect for gamers living in apartments

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ASUS is always down to put RGB and gamer features into its WiFi routers, and their latest behemoth is no exception. The ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 was just announced at CES 2022, and the official word is that it’s “the world’s first quad-band WiFi 6E gaming router.”

That’s mostly true, it is the first quad-band WiFi 6E router to target gamers specifically. We’re not quite sure why, as most gaming hardware is using WiFi 6 or earlier, so it can’t take advantage of the higher speed.

If you need a little explainer on WiFi 6E, we’ll let How-To Geek do the honors. The short version is that it adds the 6GHz band to your router, with the aim of reducing congestion. That’s good news for apartment dwellers, at least until every router uses 6GHz and clogs the airwaves again.

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The quad-band means ASUS’ new router broadcasts four bands of WiFi into your home. One at 2.4GHz, two at 5GHz, and one in the new 6GHz band. That has a huge theoretical throughput when using more than one band, but those are almost never reached in real use scenarios. All you need to know is that your WiFi should be faster, and more stable.

It’s not just speedy WiFi that the Rapture can put out. It’s got two 10Gbps LAN ports and four 1Gbps LAN ports. With more PC motherboards including the speedy 10Gbps LAN option, that’s a good thing to see.

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The WAN port is rated at 2.5Gbps, so it can take advantage of almost everybody’s Gigabit internet fully. Oh, and there’s a couple of USB ports, for attaching printers or external hard drives to turn it into network storage.

The thing with any WiFi 6E router, quad-band or otherwise, is that you probably don’t need it just yet. Only a scattering of devices has WiFi 6E capability, mostly in mobile phones.

For $649, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 is a beast that can stay caged for now. It is expected to release in the second half of 2022.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.