Wi-Fi 8 hasn't fully arrived, and we're even further out from Wi-Fi 8-compatible devices to come out in the real world. But I've already gotten a taste of the future of wireless connectivity.
I tried out Asus's first quad-band Wi-Fi 8 gaming router, ahead of the final certification of the latest Wi-Fi standard. The router is based on the latest draft spec of Wi-Fi 8, so it will be updated as the standard approaches final certification. The only way I could test the benefits of Wi-Fi 8 was to connect together two of these bad boys.
After a couple of weeks of testing, there’s no denying the Asus ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro is an impressive bit of kit with many extras you don’t get from other manufacturers, including a year of NordVPN service. The firmware has also been surprisingly reliable for me, unlike first-generation Wi-Fi 7 Asus systems, which took several updates to reach stability. But most folks shouldn’t be thinking about Wi-Fi 8 yet, and this router costs $900, a hefty early adopter tax.
The Asus ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro is enormous, with eight adjustable but permanently affixed antennas. It’s around 14 inches square and 9 inches tall with the antennas and looks like a giant dead mecha spider. It doesn’t fit comfortably in any of the usual spots I have my router, and it makes absolutely no attempt to blend in. It does look cool, though, with a translucent window that shows off some internal components and a big Aura RGB ROG logo offering seven color lighting effects.
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