If you are looking for a dual-band wireless network router under three hundred dollars, then most probably you are now torn between Asus AC3100 and Asus AC88U. As a matter of fact, Asus AC88U is a little bit more expensive than Asus AC3100, though the price gap does not extend far beyond a few tens of bucks. Quite interestingly, though, you may find the two products share a lot of similarities and resemblances to each other. Hence, you are now wondering about the differences between them. Find the answer below!
An Asus ROG Router
One thing that you may or may not have noticed is that, while Asus AC3100 is marketed as a regular wireless router, Asus AC88U comes to the market as one of the Asus ROG router models. If you haven’t heard of the series yet, Asus ROG is a series of computers and peripherals that are designed specially for gaming. The abbreviation ‘ROG’ actually stands for ‘Republic of Gamers’.
Just like the other Asus ROG products, Asus AC88U comes with the distinctive red hues on some parts of its black body. At the contrast, Asus AC3100, which shares a nearly exact copy of design and layout with Asus AC88U, is entirely black in color. Each of them has four external antennas.
See also : Asus AC3100 vs. AC3200.
Extra Ports
However, if you observe the two products side by side carefully, you can then notice that Asus AC88U comes with more ports than Asus AC3100. Whereas the cheaper model comes with the ‘standard’ configuration of 4 LAN and 1 WAN Gigabit Ethernet ports, the slightly pricier contender boasts 8 LAN and 1 WAN Gigabit Ethernet ports. Having more ports means that you can connect more units using cables. In addition, both of these routers also support Link Aggregation, a feature that allows a unit to use two Ethernet ports simultaneously to increase the reliability and aggregated data transfer rate.
Performance and Features
Asus AC3100 and Asus AC88U are famous for their excellent wireless performance. Both are dual-band routers that are armed with the latest MU-MIMO technology and 1024-QAM Wi-Fi technology. Powered by a 1.4 GHz dual-core processor and 512 MB RAM, they each promotes an unrivaled wireless connectivity in the class with 1000 Mbps of bandwidth for the 2.4 GHz signal channel and 2167 Mbps for the 5 GHz signal channel.
However, Asus AC88U comes with an additional feature that Asus AC3100 lacks: a built-in game accelerator. It has built-in access to the WTFast Gamers Private Network, a group of servers that function to serve ultra-low ping times for the best gaming performance.
Asus AC3100 vs. AC88U
Especially if you are a gamer, Asus AC88U makes the best choice. The WTFast game accelerator is awesome. Another reason to choose Asus AC88U is if you need the extra ports. Otherwise, you can save some bucks with Asus AC3100.
