Don’t judge a book by the cover. Don’t judge a router by the name. This predicament is at the heart of the following article. You may have thought that Asus AC3200 is more expensive than Asus AC3100, especially since it is a tri-band router while the other is a dual-band router. But, hey, we have been mistaken! As a matter of fact, Asus AC3100 is actually the one that is pricier than Asus AC3200. Why is it even possible? Which is the router that holds the fullest value for our money? Before you make a hasty decision, continue reading!
More Bandwidth versus More Channels
As mentioned before, Asus AC3200 is a tri-band router. It has one 2.4 GHz and two 5 GHz wireless signal channels operating simultaneously. It indeed has a larger total bandwidth. However, the 3200 Mbps is split into 600 Mbps for the 2.4 GHz, 1300 Mbps for the first 5 GHz, and 1300 Mbps for the second 5 GHz. On the other hand, Asus AC3100 is a dual-band router featuring one 2.4 GHz and one 5 GHz wireless signal channels. The total bandwidth is 3167 Mbps, which is divided into 1000 Mbps for the 2.4 GHz and 2167 Mbps for the 5 GHz. As the effect, Asus AC3100 can actually give higher maximum speeds on either channel if there are just a few devices connected to the network. Nevertheless, if you have to serve a lot of devices in the network, then having an extra channel is indeed more beneficial.
How about the area coverage?
Asus AC3100 and Asus AC3200 also appear quite similar to each other. They are shaped pretty much in the same way. There are two distinctions, though. Asus AC3100 has only four external antennas while Asus AC3200 has six external antennas. The addition is meant to accommodate the extra channel. Both routers have similar coverage area, as each of the has a Wi-Fi range equal to the size of a very large house.
Access to WTFast Gamers Private Network
The primary reason of why you would prefer to pick Asus AC3100, besides the larger bandwidth, is the built-in game accelerator feature. It has built-in access to WTFast Gamers Private Network, a series of route-optimized servers that can provide you ultimately stable and low ping times for the ultimate gaming performance. Asus AC3200 doesn’t have such feature.
Asus AC3100 vs. AC3200
In general, especially for gaming purposes, Asus AC3100 makes the best pick here. However, if you have numerous devices in your network, and you can care less about the game accelerator feature, then Asus AC3200 is the way.
