You know how much we love the ASUS RT-N66U Dark Knight router; a joyously powerful and feature-packed router. Now, with the RT-AC66U, ASUS is taking its Dark Knight router into 802.11ac territory. To accurately sum, this router is the router of the future.

802.11ac support; Excellent performance; Tonnes of features; AiCloud support

2.4GHz output isn't as performable

Asus' RT-AC66U is easy to confuse with the identical-looking, and similar-sounding RT-N66U. The subtle naming difference is due to the former having an 802.11ac module for the 5GHz, and the latter being the 802.11n model. See also: Group test: what's the best wireless router

Asus has introduced its pre-draft 802.11ac router, the RT-AC66U. It's the only pre-draft 11ac router thus far to utilise external antennas, which is a plus in terms of range, and the RT-AC66U sustained a better throughput at distance compared to other pre-draft 11ac routers we've seen.

Very impressive range; Excellent performance at 5GHz 11n; Plenty of advanced features on board; Business-class capabilities

Somewhat sluggish interface; Lost Internet connectivity a few times

This is the best home router your money can buy. Absolutely stunning in looks and a beast of a performer. The router's UI is best I have ever seen. The signals are super strong reaching every nook and corner of a ~1500 soft. apartment.

Asus introduces its pre-draft 802.11AC router: the RT-AC66U. It's the only pre-draft 11AC router so far, to utilize external antennas, a plus for range, because the RT-AC66U sustained the best throughput at distance than any other pre-draft 11AC routers tested to date.

Excellent range; Top performing router at 5 GHz N, very good in 11ac mode; Advanced features; Business-class capabilities

Some sluggish performance in the interface; Connected clients lost Internet connectivity a few times

Kitguru says: With the potential of 1.3 Gbps data transfer rate this will be a fast performing router which will be perfect for the media savvy audience for years to come.

Performance of 5 GHz at close range is very impressive; Lots of great features; Extremely stable router; ASUS AiCloud incorporated; A future-proof wireless router

High price tag; 5 GHz speeds dropped off quite quickly with range; Can't get full speed out of the device with current technology

Apart from the AiCloud, there are no standout new features that are already available on the RT-N66U. The VPN-DMZ issue is still no fixed yet. We do like the router's firmware recovery feature. Apart from that the router's build quality is still top notch using quality parts.

NICE JOB ASUS KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK?

Let me tell you if you want the best out right now this is it; In combination with the N66 you can go 4 houses down and not loose bandwidth; I am a 50 years old and I worked for

Nothing wrong it is the perfect home networking setup

Two aspects are important with the ASUS RT-AC66U. First, how does it compare to other ac-routers? The ASUS router did clearly perform better than the Buffalo and Netgear routers. And secondly, should you get an 802.11ac instead of an 802.11n? Our current favorite n-router is the ASUS RT-N66U.

This replaced my DD-WRT -equipped Linksys WRT600N v1.1 router recently and I couldn't be happier. 2.4GHz performance is decent, not much improvement over the Linksys, but the improvement in range and speed in the whole house was a pleasant surprise.

Stability and reliability; 5GHz performance; range; fantastic WAN/LAN routing performance; changeable dual band antennas; modified firmware (Merlin) available; 3G/4G USB dongle support

Price; no 802.11ac mini-pcie adapters available yet