It has been a while since we last looked at wireless network routers but there really hasn't been all that much movement in this field as of late. Now that 802.11AC has started to become mainstream, manufactures can no longer just market that ?Wireless AC? designation as something special and unique. Rather, the standard is now enjoying widespread adoption and without a successor on the medium-term horizon, the networking market has somewhat stagnated.

ASUS hasn't let stagnation take hold in their lineup and have been delving further into 802.11AC, ultimately pushing the boundaries of what it has to offer. That shouldn't come as any surprise since their RT-series routers have almost always been at the forefront of technology while also offering good hardware, custom software that is feature rich, and doing both at competitive prices. This is a formula that has consistently worked for ASUS, and the new RT-AC3200 and RT-AC87U routers have not radically deviated from it.

Now you may be wondering why we are grouping the reviews of two different routers together in one article. Unlike previous generations when ASUS offered one flagship product and gradually cascaded select features into more affordable products, the RT-AC3200 and RT-AC87U almost cohabitate atop their lineup. We say ?almost? since there are differences in pricing and some baseline features but regardless of the differences, both of these routers are supposed to offer class-leading performance.