So far, asus released five models of wifi routers based on wifi 6e technology, two of them are mesh wifi 6e products and the last three models are based on enhanced wifi 6e technology. Let’s take the middle tier segment asus rt-axe7800 and see how valuable this product is compared with other competing product offered by netgear?
Asus wifi 6e products
In addition of two Rog rapture series, asus rog rapture axe11000 and the latest one is rog rapture axe16000 that are based on wifi 6e technology, asus released rtaxe7800 wifi 6e router in the middle network segment.
There are few models of asus wifi 6 routers in the middle network segment, and the most popular one with unusual number of ethernet ports is asus ax6000 rt-ax89u that comes with 10x ports. What do you recon between this rt-ax89u and asus rtaxe7800, which one gives you better value?
Asus axe7800 vs asus ax6000
There will always be a question whether to choose wifi 6 or wifi 6e router products for home wifi network. It is therefore, we will compare which one provides better value between asus rtaxe7800 and the asus rtax89u. Table 1 below provides spec comparison between the two products.
Wifi network
In the future, the wifi technology is 7th generation (wifi-7) of wifi with multiple higher speeds than today’s wifi-6 technology. The enhanced wifi-6 technology is wifi 6e that comes with 6GHz radio band in addition of 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz radio bands in general. The future of wifi-7 technology is also coming with 6ghz radio band like today’s wifi 6e products.
Asus rt-axe7800 is wifi 6e router that also supports 6ghz band and total bandwidth is wider than asus rt-ax89u. Asus ax89u is only dual band ax6000 and doesn’t support 6ghz band. So investing asus axe7800 with wifi 6e technology gives you better value than wifi 6 routers in general that do not support 6ghz radio band.
So far asus and netgear do not introduce new wifi-7 products. On the other hand, tplink has showcased its future products based on wifi-7 technology, tplink deco be95, deco be85 and deco be65 mesh wifi 7 series. Will tplink be the first vendor to release wifi 7 products on the market ahead of the other big asus and netgear vendors? We’ll see how quickly tplink releases the wifi 7 products to the market.
Port Interfaces
What kinda cable modem you have today in home and how fast the ethernet port is? So far the fastest cable modem today (Dec 2022) is up to 2.5Gbps such as arris surfboard s33 and netgear cm2000. If it is meant to connect to cable modem, so why asus rt-ax89u comes with 10Gbps wan port? Personally speaking, this multi-gig 10Gbps is to welcome the new docsis 4.0 cable lab technology that can delivers multi-gig tens of gigabit internet speed.
However, this 10Gbps is not just for cable modem but can also connect to fiber optic internet. Moreover, you can also configure this as multi-gig LAN port instead of WAN port. So you can use the other 1Gbps WAN port as the internet port. See also new deco xe200 axe11000 that also comes with the same configurable 10Gbps port.
What about asus rtaxe7800?
It comes with 2.5Gbps wan port or can also be configured as multi-gig lan port. With asus rtax89u when you use the 10Gbps as high speed LAN port you only have option to use 1Gbps wan port to connect to the modem, the internet plan is limited up to 1Gbps.
On the other hand with asus rt-axe7800 when you configure 2.5Gbps port as LAN port you still have option for multi-gig internet plan by configuring aggregated wan port. Aggregated wan port can be used by combining 1Gbps wan port and port lan # 2 as teaming port and connect to cable modem that also supports two ethernet ports as well as aggregated link such as netgear cm1100 or cm1200. You see that arris surfboard s33 also comes with two ports, however they do not support port teaming (aggregated link).
When it comes to choose which one is better value, you need to assess your requirement regarding the high speed internet plan. When you require multi-gig 10Gbps internet plan, asus rtax89u is preference, however this router is dual band and doesn’t support 6ghz band.
When you choose asus rt-axe7800 you still have two options of deploying multi-gig internet plan either using 2.5Gbps or aggregated 2-gbps ports. The good thing is that rtaxe7800 is ready with 6ghz radio band same as the upcoming wifi7 technology.
Take a look at table 1 below for more details spec comparison between asus ax6000 (rt-ax89u) and asus axe7800.
Table 1 Asus axe7800 vs asus ax6000
| Asus model | Asus RT-AXE7800 | Asus RT-AX89u |
| Wifi technology | Tri-band axe7800 Wifi 6e 8-streams | Dual-band ax6000 wifi 6 12 streams |
| Signal rates | 574Mbps @2.4GHz + 2×2 / 4,804Mbps @5GHz + 4×4 / 2,402Mps @6GHz 2×2 | 1200Mbps @2.4GHz + 4×4 4804 Mbps @5GHz 8×8 |
| Antennas | 6 x External antenna (non-detachable) | 8 x external antennas |
| Ethernet Ports | 1 x 2.5G Mbps for WAN/LAN 1 x RJ45 10/100/1000Mbps for WAN/LAN 3 x RJ45 10/100/1000Mbps for LAN | 1 x RJ45 for 10Gbps BaseT for WAN/LAN, 8 x RJ45 for 1Gbps BaseT for LAN, 1 x RJ45 for 1Gbps BaseT for WAN |
| USB Ports | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Port | 2x USB 3.1 Gen 1 |
| SPF Port | N/A | Yes 1x SPF+ |
| Processors | 1.7GHz quad-core processor Memory: 256 MB Flash and 512 MB DDR4 RAM | 2.2GHz quad-core processor Memory: 256 MB Flash, 1 GB RAM |
| Price | $329.99 | $409.99 |
See that the price difference between the two models is not too much, asus rt-ax89u is still a bit more expensive than the newer model asus rt-axe7800.
Now, let’s compare this asus rt-axe7800 with netgear raxe300 which looks like the same.
Asus rt-axe7800 vs Netgear Raxe300
One of competing products for this asus axe7800 is netgear raxe300, one of netgear wifi 6e products offered to the market today. Raxe300 is the lower version model than the premium one netgear raxe500 axe11000 wifi 6e router.
Both of these two products are designed with the same axe7800 wifi 6e technology. Technically both of these products are almost the same as shown in the following table 2 down below. See that both use the same axe7800 network segment, so what is the different?
Most recent asus wifi routers support aimesh technology. You can combine asus rtaxe7800 with other asus aimesh products such as asus rt-ax86u to create whole home wifi network like most common mesh wifi products.
Internet Ports
Asus rtaxe7800 gives you more flexible internet port options as opposed to netgear raxe300. As discussed above asus axe7800 gives you either 2.5Gbps, 1.0Gbps or aggregated wan port for internet plan. You can either configure aggregated wan port by combining 1gbps wan port and lan port #1, or aggregated lan port when you use 2.5gbps port as wan port.
With netgear raxe300 you have option either using 2.5gbps or 1.0gbps as wan port. So when you configure 2.5gbps as lan port, your option for wan port is only 1.0Gbps port, no aggregated wan port feature like asus.
Security protection
Most recent asus wifi routers come with free asus aiprotection network protection and parental control powered by trend micro. Mostly folks are not so aware with network security in home network; even many small businesses will think that security protection is the last thing to assess. So that’s why asus with free lifetime aiprotection is a good thing to consider as security protection.
Netgear raxe300 doesn’t feature free network security protection like asus, you need to subscribe netgear armor network threat protection.
Table 2 Asus rt-axe7800 vs Netgear Raxe300
| Asus model | Asus RT-AXE7800 | Netgear Raxe300 |
| Tri-band axe7800 Wifi 6e 8-streams | Yes | Yes |
| 574Mbps @2.4GHz + 2×2 / 4,804Mbps @5GHz + 4×4 / 2,402Mps @6GHz 2×2 | Yes | Yes |
| Antennas | 6 x External antenna (non-detachable) | 8 x external antennas |
| WAN Port: 1 x 2.5G WAN/LAN and 1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps WAN/LAN | Yes ; 1Gbps WAN port + Port LAN #1 aggregated WAN | Yes |
| LAN Ports | 3 x RJ45 10/100/1000 Mbps for LAN | 4 x RJ45 for 1Gbps BaseT for LAN, 2 ports aggregation |
| USB Ports | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Port | 1X USB 3.0 port. Type-C for network storage |
| Processors | 1.7GHz quad-core processor Memory: 256 MB Flash and 512 MB DDR4 RAM | Quad-core 1.7GHz processor |
| Security Protection | Free lifetime asus aiprotection powered by micro trend | Netgear armor services advanced cyber threat protection plan |
| Dimension | 8.27 x 9.49 x 2.44 inches | Folded size: 11.86 x 8.16 x 3.23 in Unfolded size: 13.64 x 8.16 x 6.47 in |
| Price | $329.99 | $409.99 |
The prices are not too much different, just few buck different. Click the product’s link below to learn more details each of the products and get best deal in Amazon (#ads).
Related products
You may also like to consider asus zenwifi xt9 ax7800 mesh wifi 6, see comparison this new xt9 with new tplink deco xe75. Deco xe75 is one of the new deco products with wifi 6e technology.