What we can’t take away from ASUS is its popularity at the expense of affordable prices and good features. After all, last year the company won the iXBT Brand 2021 bronze, second only to Keenetic and TP-Link. However, there are surprises behind the low prices (for example, the banal lack of memory and CPU resources in the cheapest models, which are physically unable to distribute traffic if any application exceeds 40-50 megabits per second data transfer rate).

As for the RT-51, its marking unambiguously refers to the old RT-51U, which was released back in 2019. However, the absence of the “U” does not just mean that there is no USB port and related features: the routers have many differences.

The router not only got four physical antennas, but also support for MIMO (2.4 GHz 2×2, 5 GHz 2×2). For the new firmware the amount of flash-memory had to be doubled (and the firmware is absolutely incompatible – with any firmware from RT-AC51U you will get a “brick” on the output!), the RAM has not changed. The processor is also different – not MediaTek MT7620A but MT7628. The wired capabilities are standard for inexpensive routers: 4 100 megabit ports.

Setting up is done via the usual for “asusovods” shell or via the ASUS Router mobile application. Here already has its own subtleties, because in the version “just enter the settings specified by the provider” not with all providers it comes out. And, it should be said, the problem here is often more from the provider’s side (for example, the author personally after the provider has brought the network to its senses, router uptime is already close to three-digit days, and only due to power outage in early summer – and before that I had to reboot regularly, as the external network stubbornly “lost” the router).

Main advantages:

  • 2 MIMO-supported bands
  • Setting up via an app

Cons:

  • Typical for “Asus” underestimated in the basic settings of the transmitters power, which reduces the range (can be adjusted either through the web interface in the advanced settings roughly, and subtly – through the console Telnet, instructions on the Internet a lot)
  • No support for OpenWRT