If you are looking for an affordable and fast router that’s really stable, the new ASUS RT-AX53U is worth a look. The new ASUS RT-AX53U which costs RM309 is the company’s latest attempt to produce an affordable wireless router to the mass market after the famous RT-AX55.
ASUS routers are known for their excellent ASUSWRT firmware and this is why they are always sold at a premium price compared to the competitors. The RT-AX53U is an affordable product with the latest WiFi 6 technology powered by the same class-leading ASUSWRT firmware.
The design of the RT-AX53U is very simple but it is certainly well-build with high quality material. I’ve tested it for one week and find that the performance of this product to be decent and it is very stable and consistent throughout my test. Signal strength also exceeds my expectation for an AX1800 device.
The RT-AX53U will be available to purchase in Malaysia with a suggested retail price of RM309 at the time of writing this article. All routers sold by ASUS authorized dealers will come with a 3 years warranty from ASUS Malaysia.
RT-AX53U Hardware and Specs
| Wireless 2.4GHz | Wi-Fi 6 up to 574Mbps (40Mhz 2×2) |
| Wireless 5GHz | Wi-Fi 6 up to 1201Mbps (80Mhz 2×2) |
| WiFi Features | OFDMA, MU-MIMO, Beamforming, WPA3 |
| CPU | Mediatek MT7621 with 256MB RAM |
| Ethernet Ports | 1x Gigabit WAN port + 3x Gigabit LAN port |
| USB | 1x USB 2.0 port |
The RT-AX53U is powered by a Mediatek dual-core chip with 256MB RAM. In reality, the Mediatek chip coupled with 256MB RAM on the RT-AX53U can perform really well and support my Gigabit Internet connection easily.
The ports are pretty standard with a single Gigabit WAN and just 3 Gigabit Ethernet LAN. A standard USB port is included for USB file sharing, printer sharing and some other USB features.
Looking inside the product, it is well-built with two proper heatsink on top and a big heatspreader at the bottom side of the PCB. Despite it is the cheapest WiFi 6 router from ASUS, the hardware quality is on par with the standards set by premium ASUS router.
WiFi Performance Test
Being an entry-level product, the WiFi 6 performance is decent. It can support slightly faster than 700Mbps download speed on short distance with my iPhone. This is tested at around 3m distance to the router without any objects blocking it.
RT-AX53U 5Ghz WiFi 6 Performance
Comparing to other ASUS WiFi 6 AX1800 routers, the performance gap is very small despite the RT-AX53U being based on Mediatek rather than the usual Broadcom chip. However, the gap is bigger when being compared to more expensive model such as ASUS TUF-AX5400 model.
RT-AX53U 2.4Ghz WiFi 6 Performance
The performance of the 2.4Ghz network on the RT-AX53U is still pretty respectable, clocking at 60Mbps after 2 walls.
Extensive ASUSWRT Features
The star of the show will be ASUSWRT and that’s probably the biggest selling point of this product. I’ve tested many routers and ASUSWRT is still the most feature-rich and most customizable consumer router firmware in the market currently.
ASUS RT-AX53U doesn’t disappoint despite being a cheaper product. It still features the full ASUSWRT customization ability such as speed limiter, multiple Guest WiFi network, VPN server, VPN client, ASUS DDNS, USB File Sharing and more.
ASUS is very generous by including their AiProtection security service on the RT-AX53U. It comes with lifetime free security database update for the malicious site blocking function. The latest WPA3 WiFi security is also supported right out of the box of the router.
Security is definitely a big selling-point of the RT-AX53U with the AiProtection enterprise grade security firewall service. Once enabled, it will block website that contain a virus or malware on the Internet from being accessed on your all the devices connected to the router
As for parental control, the RT-AX53U will only let you to schedule the time where Internet will be accessible for selected WiFi devices. It doesn’t come with the content filtering function found on more expensive ASUS routers such as the RT-AX56U.
There’s also an app for the router to show connected devices and perform the initial setup. The app can be accessed remotely even when not at home to see list of connected devices and perform some basic settings.
In addition to the usual features, the RT-AX53U comes with really powerful features below:
- Dual-WAN with WAN Aggregation
- USB file sharing with TimeMachine feature
- USB 4G modem support for connectivity backup
- Device based or Guest WiFi Internet speed limiter
Closing Thoughts
The RT-AX53U is a great entry level product to ASUS router ecosystem. It can povide a fast WiFi performance while maintaining ASUS rock-solid stability with plenty of value-added features. As usual, ASUS routers offer strong security with lifetime free database update to the AiProtection feature.
While the ASUS RT-AX53U is more expensive than the competitors, the higher cost can be justified by the class-leading ASUSWRT firmware that’s really robust. ASUS is also known to provide many years of features update and security improvement to their router.
ASUS RT-AX53U
8.5
Tubi Rating
pros
- Lifetime AiProtection security updates
- WPA3 security supported out of the box
- Easy network expansion with AiMesh
- Stable and consistent WiFi performance
cons
- 3 LAN ports only unlike the usual 4
I am looking for an aimesh to extend my coverage, i am now using TUF AX3000 should i get this or upgrade my AX3000 to AX4200? or should i get xiaomi mesh router to extend the range and my AX3000 be my primary router?
Since you have the TUF-AX3000, just buy the TUF-AX4200 which is a huge upgrade and reuse your old TUF-AX3000 as the mesh node.
Should I go for Asus ax53u or Tp link ax53?
The Archer AX53 from TP-Link is an AX3000 router so naturally it will be faster than ASUS RT-AX53U.
Is the AX55 discontinued ?
this AX53 seems like a huge downgrade.
The RT-AX55 is discontinued and replaced with the RT-AX1800HP.
What abou rt ax1800hp vs ax53u
The RT-AX1800HP is a better product than RT-AX53U.
Can u make detail review ax53u vs ax1800hp?
The difference is the RT-AX1800HP is much faster than RT-AX53U. I don’t have plans to do a detailed comparison.
Same cpu then why ax1800hp is faster?
CPU will only impact the routing performance. The Wi-Fi performance will be determined by the design of the antennas and the specifications of Wi-Fi components such as power amplifier or typically integrated into a Wi-Fi FEM (front-end-module) chip.
So ax1800hp has more powerful FEM and power amplifier? For 9dbi antenna?
I do not have the exact detailed breakdown of the components but based on performance comparison, the RT-AX1800HP’s Wi-Fi performance is faster.
What are the differences between this, the AX54U, AX1800U and AX1800S? The AX1800HP has the high power antennas, but all the others look very similar on paper.
RT-AX53U and RT-AX1800U is the exact same. I do not have the other models to test.
Hi Blacktubi
Is there a chance you could inform the length of the wire on the power supply?
best regards, Marley
ASUS do change their power supply from time to time but the cable is normally 1m in length.
Does the router support wireguard vpn client?
Nope, Wireguard is quite resource intensive so only the high-end ASUS router can support it.