ASUS ZenWiFi Pro XT12 (2 Pack) - AX11000 Wi-Fi Mesh System: up to 557 Square Metres of Coverage, Security Functions, Parental Controls and Two 2.5G Ethernet Ports

Product Information

Each node has four Ethernet ports: 2.5GbE WAN, 2.5GbE LAN and dual 1GbE LAN. The later can be aggregated for a 2GbE connection which is great for attaching things like NAS boxes. Each node also has WPS and reset buttons, plus a power switch. Note that there are no USB ports.

Alas, connecting to the 5Ghz-2 band didn’t fare too well in our testing, as we saw a reduction in speeds vs 5Ghz-1. Perhaps this is a frequency not utilised yet by many devices, but perhaps this is part of the future-proofing ASUS has built into the XT12 system. ASUS ZenWiFi Pro XT12 includes ASUS RangeBoost Plus — the latest, most powerful version of RangeBoost — which improves coverage for all WiFi devices including legacy devices. In combination with ASUS RF technology and other exclusive ASUS technologies, RangeBoost Plus dramatically improves WiFi signal range and coverage by up to 38% [i] . The two-node configuration supplied should be sufficient for coverage up to approximately 6000 square feet. Coverage can be extended even further for larger homes using any ASUS AiMesh-compatible router. Futuristic design The WiFi 6E-enabled ET12 uses a dual-band 4×4 antenna array to provide top-end speeds across the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and a dedicated 4×4 antenna array to 6GHz spectrum. In select markets, it can also access the recently opened 5.9GHz band for premier speeds in this coveted slice of the spectrum. All told, it can provide an aggregate data rate up to 11000Mbps. The XT12 offers a double dose of 5GHz throughput with a 4×4 antenna array devoted to that band and a dual-band antenna to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Dual 2.5G Ethernet ports on both models let you take full advantage of the bandwidth potential of WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E. Plus, it helps that the XT12 units are easily the most aesthetically pleasing networking devices we have ever seen. The cuboid design with the Perspex top really makes them stand out (but in a good way this time) and they are something you wouldn’t need to have hidden away. Our Wi-Fi connection speed using an iPhone 13 Pro Max and MacBook Pro M1 Max next to the main node/router was around 700 Mbps, which is pretty much standard for the many systems we’ve tested. However, when we connected to the second node, we noticed that the speeds dropped by just 25-30%, compared to the 40-60% on the other mesh systems. This was measured on the 5Ghz-1 band exclusively. Meanwhile, devices on the 2.4Ghz will give you more distance in coverage, but far less speeds.The 2.4GHz band offers excellent range and broad compatibility, and the 5GHz band provides higher performance, but both are increasingly crowded with devices and can be prone to interference. The WiFi 6 technologies on the ZenWiFi Pro XT12 can alleviate congestion when it’s managing a network of compatible WiFi 6 devices. Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) allows the router to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously by dividing slices of the frequency spectrum into sub-channels. OFDMA is complemented by multi-user, multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO), which uses multiple transmit and receive antennas so that the router can talk to many devices at the same time. On the other hand, as a Wi-Fi 6E device, the Zen Wi-Fi Pro ET12 has a 2.4GHz band, a 5GHz band, and a 6GHz band. The ZenWiFi Pro XT12 is traditional Tri-band hardware. As such, it works great in a fully wireless mesh setup. You should get it if you live in a large home and are too lazy to run network cables. Technically, we’re supposed to be able to use the XT12 and ET12 hardware together in a single mesh system, per the way AiMesh works. And eventually, that likely will be the case. The message I got when adding the ZenWiFi Pro XT12 to my GT-AXE16000 Wi-Fi 6E (or the ZenWiFi Pro ET12). While this might change, it’s not a good idea to mix Wi-Fi standards in a mesh system, anyway. Additionally, on the 5GHz-2, the XT12 supports the latest UNII-4 portion to have a third 160MHz band which is free for DFS channels. By default, the ET12’s 6GHz band doesn’t have to deal with DFS.

ZenWiFi Pro XT12 vs ZenWiFi Pro ET12: You must turn them on and look at the front lights to know which is which. It can be hard to get the wireless performance you expect in today’s hyper-connected homes. The ZenWiFi Pro ET12 and ZenWiFi Pro XT12 let all your devices enjoy the stable, high-performance wireless internet you demand. As mesh networking systems, these wireless routers make it easy to deliver that bandwidth to every corner of your home.

More Privacy, Anywhere

In terms of speed, the 11,000 Mbps on the marketing material was nothing more than wishful thinking but also because in Singapore, the common standard offered is 1 GBPS (1,000 Mbps), which is decent but a far cry from the 4,804Mbps ASUS mentions for its 5Ghz band. The ZenWiFi Pro XT12 is a traditional Tri-band with an additional 5GHz band (the 5GHz-2). So it has 2.4GHz and two 5GHz bands (5GHz-1 and 5GHz-2). For now, in my trial, that was not possible yet. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t link them together. The AiMesh setup process would just fail every single time. And I tried many times.