When comparing NETGEAR Nighthawk AC2300 (R7000P) vs Asus RT-AC5300, the Slant community recommends NETGEAR Nighthawk AC2300 (R7000P) for most people. In the question“What are the best wireless routers?” NETGEAR Nighthawk AC2300 (R7000P) is ranked 1st while Asus RT-AC5300 is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose NETGEAR Nighthawk AC2300 (R7000P) is:
The R7000P truly shines under busy network conditions. The load-balancing band steering automatically shifts the devices around to give work to both radios. What this means is that users will have a pleasant experience even when the network is busy.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Great performance even for busy networks
The R7000P truly shines under busy network conditions. The load-balancing band steering automatically shifts the devices around to give work to both radios. What this means is that users will have a pleasant experience even when the network is busy.
Pro You can specify the amount of bandwidth you wish to dedicate to gaming or video
Nighthawk offers two different types of traffic prioritization tools. Traffic that is sent out by the user can be prioritized for gaming, while incoming traffic can be prioritized for improved video streaming.
Pro Several custom firmwares readily available
To make greater use of the powerful component hardware, owners can easily flash any of the popular third-party firmwares like TomatoUSB, DD-WRT, AsusWRT and more using the existing upgrade page in the stock web-based control panel.
Pro Excellent USB performance
The Nighthawk achieves file transfer rates of 231.2 Mbps over USB 3.0 and 224 Mbps over USB 2.0. This means that you can connect an external hard disk drive to this router and share a 2 GB file over a Wi-Fi network in just over a minute.
Pro Easy to configure
Uses a full-featured Web interface for configuration that's easy to use for both beginners and advanced users alike.
Pro Less congestion with multiple Wi-Fi bands
With the RT-AC5300 you get three separate WiFi bands, one 2.4 GHz and two 5 GHz bands. The additional 5 GHz band helps to lower congestion, because both 5 GHz bands can split the load between each other.
Pro Excellent performance
It's a device that delivers theoretical throughput speeds of up to 3.1 Gbps across both bands. It's capable of moving up to 1 Gbps in the 2.4 GHz band and 2.1 Gbps on 5 GHz bands. In real life testing at close range of 3 feet, RT-AC5300 delivers throughput of 661.6 Mbps. To maximize the router's speed it uses 1024-QAM which boosts the routers performance by 25% when compared to the more commonly used 256-QAM modulation scheme.
Pro You’ll be able to play games or stream 4K videos without a hitch
This router offers game-enhancement options such as Multi-User Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), 4X4 data transmissions, and a wealth of management settings. MU-MIMO offers simultaneous rather than sequential streaming and 4x4 data transmission gives four individual streams to deliver and receive data.
Pro Supports MU-MIMO for effective network management
If you have multiple devices using a lot of traffic at the same time, the ASUS RT-AC5300 can handle all of them simultaneously without sacrificing performance.
Cons
Con Might be a bit problematic to use in crowded dorms or apartment buildings
The R7000P does not have a third band, which is something that's usually available for routers around this price range. This is not a big problem if the router is being used in a suburban home, but it can be a bit problematic if used in a crowded apartment complex or dorm where there are a lot of neighboring networks interfering.
Con You can't block non-HTTP sites
Even though you can block websites by domain name or keyword, you can only do so for websites that don't use HTTPS.
Con Bulky design
This router is large, thanks in no small measure to its bulky antennas. Without them, it measure 9.6 x 9.6 x 2.6 inches. Including the antennas increases them to 9.6 x 11 x 6 inches.
Con Overkill for an average user
Unless you have a large house or an office with plenty of Wi-Fi devices that play games or stream media, using the Asus RT-AC5300 is overkill especially considering its price tag.