What is the broadband speed you are using now? 100M fiber broadband in my area has become popular and is basically free. For example, I use China Unicom mobile phone card, you only need to choose a package of 99 yuan and you can also get 200M fiber broadband. Even 1000M broadband has been opened for application, but the monthly rent is relatively expensive. Judging from what I know, the current broadband popularity in first- and second-tier cities has basically reached this level. In addition, with the evolution of home multimedia entertainment methods, high-definition videos and photos and other large-capacity files are also transmitted between various devices in the home network. These two changes have made us more demanding on wireless router products.
Today I found two "Hot" wireless routers that rank among the top in the market with attention and sales. Through their comprehensive experience, we can see whether these popular products can meet the needs of users, and also see where the differences between the two will be reflected in the case of a certain price difference.
In the 3.15 special topic of "Microcomputer", there was an article specifically talking about the purchase of gigabit routers. Among them, there are mentions the impact of changes in consumer demand on wireless router product selection and purchase. Simply put, it is recommended that you purchase a gigabit wireless router when you purchase it. The three key points that a gigabit wireless router in the true sense are - "WAN port/LAN port gigabit, Wi-Fi gigabit, and processor gigabit". It has been discussed in detail before, so I will not go into details here. Interested readers can refer to the related articles in the previous issue.
Return to the two protagonists of this article - Asus RT-AC86U and Honor routing Pro 2. As a mid-to-high-end wireless router with a price of more than 1,000 yuan and currently stable at more than 800 yuan, the former has a review of nearly 60,000 yuan in JD self-operated stores, making it a well-deserved sales star among products of the same price. The latter's reviews in , JD.com self-operated stores have approached 50,000 in just a few months after it was launched, and the sales volume and online discussion are very high.
▲The two routers have completely different design styles. The Asus RT-AC86U with clear red and black color schemes and body lines should be more pleasing to gamers, while the Honor Router Pro 2 designed by the white square has a typical home style. Before
experience, I first upgraded the firmware of the two products to the latest version. They all support various forms of firmware upgrades, including local uploads and online PC/App updates. I like the latter because generally after opening the app, the corresponding update will be prompted for a better experience.
workmanship and hardware
This article does not cost much money in terms of appearance design. We directly go deep into the interior through disassembly to compare their workmanship, process and key components used.
interface configuration and process
RT-AC86U provides configurations of 4 Gigabit LAN ports and 1 Gigabit WAN port, including two USB ports, one for USB 3.0 and one for USB 2.0. Honor Router Pro 2 has 4 Gigabit network ports, which adopts a blind plug-in design, without distinguishing between WAN port and LAN port. One USB 3.0 interface is located on the side of the body. The extra network port and USB 2.0 interface of RT-AC86U can facilitate users to connect to more wired devices, external storage, network card, , etc., while the network port of Honor Routing Pro 2 is very friendly to "novice" users.
▲Asus RT-AC86U's network port and USB 3.0 interface have a shielding cover design
From the workmanship point of view, the RT-AC86U's network port has a metal shielding cover, which can better ensure that wired data transmission is not disturbed, Honor Routing Pro 2 does not. In addition, since the USB 3.0 transmission line has interference with the 2.4GHz frequency band, it can be seen that both routers are designed with metal shields in the relevant areas of the USB 3.0 interface.
▲The USB 3.0 interface of Honor Routing Pro 2 has a shielded design, but the network port does not.
Internal heat dissipation design
RT-AC86U PCB has metal devices for assisting heat dissipation on both sides of the front and back of the PCB. The back is a metal plate and the front is a heat dissipation fin. Both of them almost penetrate the length of the PCB, covering most of the main chips.The PCB board of Honor Router Pro 2 is less than 1/2 of the size of RT-AC86U. There is a heat dissipation metal plate on the back of the PCB board, but it is not fixed on the PCB board, but is fixed on the bottom shell. Three protrusions and thermally conductive silicone pads are in contact with the corresponding position of the PCB.
▲A list of heat dissipation metal plates (Asus RT-AC86U on the left, Honor Router Pro 2
on the right, Honor Router Pro 2 internal process
RT-AC86U and Honor Router Pro 2 PCB have metal shielding covers on both sides, but the components under the shielding cover are not the same. Under the shielding cover of the front PCB on the RT-AC86U is the main control chip , wireless chip, memory chip and 2.4GHz/5GHz front-end module. The circuit under the back shielding cover corresponds to the front main control chip part. Honor Router Pro 2 Under the shielding cover of the front PCB is the main control chip and wireless chip. The shielding cover on the back corresponds to the front, but the wireless chip and the corresponding front-end module do not use the metal shielding cover.
▲At the front and rear PCB boards (Asus RT-AC86U on the left and Honor Routing Pro 2 on the right)
▲At the front and back sides of the front and back of the PCB
▲Honor Routing Pro 2 PCB front and back side
▲After disassembly the shielding cover, PCB list (Asus RT-AC86U on the left, Honor Router Pro 2 is the right)
main control chip
On Asus' mid-to-high-end routers, almost all use the complete set of Broadcom solutions, and RT-AC86U is no exception. It uses the main control chip Broadcom BCM4906, which is a dual-core processor with a main frequency of 1.8GHz. It uses a 28nm production process and is based on the Cortex-A53 architecture. It is a high-performance processor. Honor Router Pro 2 The main control chip is from the Hi5651T, the self-developed Lingxiao 4-core processor developed by Huawei , with a frequency of 1.4GHz, and is also based on the Cortex-A53 architecture.
▲Asus RT-AC86U's main control chip comes from Broadcom , model BCM4906.
▲Honor Routing Pro 2. Huawei's self-developed chip Hi5651Th
wireless chip
is used in the wireless chip part. RT-AC86U uses the combination of Broadcom BCM4365E+BCM4366E, which is responsible for the 2.4GHz band and 5GHz band respectively. They all support NitroQAM (1024-QAM) technology, which can achieve maximum transmission speeds in the 2.4GHz band and 5GHz band to 750Mbps and 2167Mbps respectively. The wireless part of Honor Router Pro 2 has two Hi1151s in charge. The maximum transmission speeds in the 2.4GHz band and 5GHz band are 300Mbps and 867Mbps respectively, which is more obvious in terms of wireless performance specifications compared to RT-AC86U.
▲Asus RT-AC86U uses Broadcom BCM4365E to be responsible for the 2.4GHz frequency band, and Broadcom BCM4366E to be responsible for the 5GHz frequency band.
▲Honor Routing Pro 2 is responsible for both wireless bands, Hi1151,
memory
RT-AC86U has a memory capacity of 512MB, using Nanya NT5CC256M16DP-DI particles. The flash memory particles are from Wanghong Electronics, model MX30LF2G18AC-TI, with a capacity of 256MB, which means the router has plenty of room to install various plug-ins to expand functionality. The specifications of Honor Router Pro 2 in this part are exactly half that of RT-AC86U. Hynix H5TC2G63GFR-PBA particles provide 256MB of memory capacity, while the flash memory particles come from SPANSION's S34M01G200TFI00 with a capacity of 128MB.
▲Asus RT-AC86U has 256MB flash memory and 512MB memory
▲Honor Routing Pro 2 has 128MB flash memory and 256MB memory
Usage experience and application test
In this part, we will connect two routers to 200M broadband and experience them in this network environment in network settings, key functions, network delay when playing popular mobile games/cellular games.
Network Settings
Both routers can set up and manage the router through mobile apps and traditional web pages. I focused on experiencing the former network settings on my mobile phone.Setting up a network on their apps basically requires a few simple steps: find the router, set the administrator name and password, select the broadband form, set the Wi-Fi name and password, etc. Most people should be able to complete the basic network settings in 5 minutes.
It should be noted that the app used by Honor Routing Pro 2 is called "Smart Home", which is an app used by Huawei to manage various smart devices in its ecosystem. Before setting up a router, you need to register first, and then bind the router. The time it takes for the first time to set it up will be relatively longer. The app used by RT-AC86U is specially developed for routers, and it will be faster to get started.
▲Asus RT-AC86U
▲Honor Routing Pro 2
Function Quick View
RT-AC86U's App interface echoes the appearance design, mainly black. On the main interface, you can quickly monitor traffic, client, system, etc., and in addition, devices, prompts and home as sub-labels can facilitate users to quickly manage and set up the above parts. In more sub-tags, you can see a lot of functional options, involving bandwidth limitation, network sharing, parental control, security monitoring, backup and other aspects. In addition, it can also realize extended applications such as personal cloud, webcam, online audio and video entertainment through plug-ins and third-party software.
▲Asus RT-AC86U App's main interface and functions list
Honor Routing Pro 2 App is relatively refreshing. On the main interface, you can intuitively see the status of the network environment and the real-time upload/download rate. Users can also easily manage access devices, routing storage and mobile game acceleration. If you view all functions, you can set and function control more aspects. Judging from the richness of functions, the RT-AC86U app is slightly better, but both apps are provided in the functional parts that users are more commonly used and focused on, such as game acceleration, children's Internet management, security protection, etc.
▲The main interface and functions of Honor Routing Pro 2 App are listed
broadband speed test
I am using Unicom
▲Asus RT-AC86U
▲Honor Routing Pro 2
Game Application Experience
I can see related options for game acceleration in both routers, among which Honor Routing Pro 2 is a special mobile game acceleration. Unfortunately, this function currently only supports Huawei phones and the system needs to be EMUI 9.0 or above, and the RT-AC86U game accelerator function does not have this limitation. So when I was using Xiaomi Mobile 8 to play " Honor of Kings " game, the RT-AC86U turned on the game accelerator, and the Honor Router Pro 2 was not turned on.
When both routers are connected to 4 devices at the same time, the results of the built-in network diagnosis of the game are intercepted in about 5 minutes. You can see that the Internet delay of RT-AC86U is 35ms, the community broadband delay is 4ms, the router delay is 2ms, the Internet delay of Honor Routing Pro 2 is 39ms, the community broadband delay is 4ms, and the router delay is 3ms. The former performs better, but the difference in network latency between the two will not bring significant differences to the gaming experience, and both can play games smoothly and without losing frames.
▲Asus RT-AC86U's network delay performance in "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds: Battle Royale"
▲Asus RT-AC86U's network diagnosis score in "Honor of Kings"
On PC, I used a gigabit wired connection to experience "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds: Battle Royale".The WTFast GPN function in RT-AC86U supports PC, Xbox One/PS4 and other game consoles, so enable this function. Through the built-in real-time network latency of the game, we can see that the performance of the two routers is obvious. The network latency of Honor Router Pro 2 is between 368ms and 375ms, while the network latency of RT-AC86U with WTFast GPN function is only 152~157ms, which performs well.
▲Honor Routing Pro 2's network delay performance in "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds: Battle Royale"
▲Honor Routing Pro 2's network diagnosis score in "Honor of Kings"
In order to see how much the WTFast GPN function improves the network experience of this game, I also tested it while turning it off. At this time, the network delay becomes between 338ms and 345ms, which shows the role of the WTFast GPN function in the game.
USB 3.0 Shared Transmission Speed Test
Both routers provide USB 3.0 interfaces, and their biggest use is undoubtedly to connect to mobile storage devices, share data and related applications. I connected a mobile SSD hard drive to their USB 3.0 ports separately and set it to share. Upload and download on a PC connected to the router through a gigabit wired network port to see how the data transmission speed is performed under the USB 3.0 interface sharing. First, it took only 31 seconds to download 4K video files from the mobile hard drive to the PC. The two routers only took 31 seconds, and the transmission speed remained at around 112MB/s. The download capacity is 1.98GB and the folder with 818 photos, it took 41 seconds for the RT-AC86U, while the Honor Router Pro 2 scored 45 seconds. The former performed better in the download speed of scattered files.
▲Asus RT-AC86U transmits data in external devices via wired
▲Honor Routing Pro 2 transmits data in external devices via wired
Let’s take a look at the speed of transferring data from the PC to the mobile hard disk. RT-AC86U took 42 seconds to transfer video files, while Honor Routing Pro 2 is 46 seconds; when uploading photo folders, Honor Routing Pro 2 performed better, only 58 seconds, while RT-AC86U took 79 seconds.
AC performance and signal strength test
In the performance testing process, I used the Asus PCE-AC88 wireless network card for testing. This network card uses the BCM4366 chip based on 802.11ac WAVE2, with the maximum speeds of the 2.4GHz band and 5GHz band being 1000Mbps and 2167Mbps respectively, which can fully utilize the wireless performance of the two products. During the test, the two routers and a laptop were connected through a gigabit wired cable, and the Asus PCE-AC88 network card was installed on the desktop PC to connect the wireless signals in the 5GHz band of the two routers. Fixed the desktop's location, while the router followed the laptop to switch the test site.
test platform main information at a glance
platform 1 desktop PC
processor: Intel Xeon E3-1230
motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H
memory: Kingston DDR3 1333 4GB × 2
hard disk: Seagate ST2000DM001 2TB
network card: Asus PCE-AC88
platform 2 laptop
processor: Intel Core i7-4720HQ
memory: DDR3 1600 4GB×2
Hard disk: Samsung SSD 256GB
Network Card: Realtek Gigabit Wired Network Card
In the accessible near-field environment at point A, the speeds of PCE-AC88 connecting RT-AC86U and Honor Routing Pro 2 are 1.7Gbps and 866Mbps respectively. In IxChariot, it can be seen that the RT-AC86U score has basically exerted the maximum energy of this test combination. At this time, the bottleneck of the speed is not on the wireless side, but on the wired connection part.
▲Asus RT-AC86U upload speed at point A
Honor Routing Pro 2's actual test results are mainstream among similar products. However, compared with the small gap between upload/download speed of RT-AC86U, its upload speed is much slower than the download speed. In terms of signal strength, both performances are pretty good. Among them, the settings of Honor Router Pro 2 include standard mode and wall-through mode. You can see that after turning on the wall-through mode, the signal strength in the 5GHz band has increased significantly.
▲The upload speed of Honor Router Pro 2 at point A
at point B, which is 4 meters away from the straight line between 1 wall. The wireless transmission speed of the two routers does not drop much. The upload/download speed of RT-AC86U remains above 800Mbps. The upload speed of Honor Router Pro 2 is very small compared to point A, and its performance is good. In terms of signal, the signal strength of 5GHz has dropped a lot, but the impact is not much from the perspective of transmission performance. Like at point A, the Honor Router Pro 2 in wall-through mode has more obvious improvements in signal strength at 5GHz.
▲Asus RT-AC86U upload speed at point B
▲Honor Routing Pro 2 upload speed at point B
at point C, 6 meters away from the straight line between the 2 walls. Although the signal strength has dropped significantly, the attenuation of wireless transmission speed is acceptable. The wireless transmission speed of RT-AC86U remains above 500Mbps, and the upload speed of Honor Router Pro 2 is even faster than the download speed. In terms of signal strength, we can see that at more wall-passing and farther distances, the strong signal coverage of RT-AC86U is more obvious. The 5GHz signal strength of Honor Router Pro 2 is also different from the former even in wall-passing mode (the 2.4GHz signal strength of Honor Router Pro 2 is better in wall-passing mode).
summary
completes the all-round experience of the two routers, and it is not difficult to see that the principle of "you get what you pay for" is still valid. The RT-AC86U, which is more than twice as expensive, is ahead of the workmanship and materials. The larger PCB board leaves more space for components; the larger area and covers more components to ensure the heat dissipation effect; the complete chip solution of Broadcom , plus large-capacity memory and flash memory, provides better performance.
Secondly, in terms of functions, RT-AC86U provides quite a variety of choices, covering multiple aspects such as gaming/e-sports, multimedia, data backup/sharing, USB 3.0 application, security protection, home management, etc. In the end, its performance is excellent in both wired and wireless, and 200M broadband is just a small case for it. With the corresponding wireless network card, wireless transmission can also have speeds comparable to wired networks. If the comprehensive performance gives RT-AC86U the keyword "geek" and "professional", then the family-based attributes of Honor Router Pro 2 are more obvious. The appearance is just the most intuitive aspect. It is not difficult to see from the "smart home" app that controls it that Huawei's positioning of it is more of an integral part of the smart home in the era of the Internet of Things.
has this attribute regardless of interface design or simplification of functions. Its functions are not as rich as the RT-AC86U, but it is not absent from the parts commonly used by home users - data sharing, security, control, etc. At the same time, in terms of performance, it can also fully "squeeze" the performance of 200M broadband, and wireless performance can also meet the needs of ordinary consumers. At the same time, the increase in signal strength of the 5GHz band in the wall-through mode is also impressive.
ASUS RT-AC86U mobile game routing is suitable for consumers with high requirements for network efficiency and performance, whether in terms of gaming experience, high-definition drama watching, NAS network disk, network security, etc., Honor Routing Pro 2 is a cost-effective choice for consumers who do not have particularly high requirements for network applications.
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