This is not what I expected.
Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me get a little closer to you.
Okay, when you talk, you gotta face me, Lance.
Oh, sorry, Brandon. Sorry, Brandon.
The upload's finally suffering a little bit.
We've got three walls between us now.
Like, what? Do you want to see my Wi-Fi?
Obsolete!
At least, that's the goal.
ASUS sponsored this video, and we're gonna be taking our first look
at the Zen Wi-Fi Pro ET12.
The first empirical proof that I've seen
that Wi-Fi has completely jumped the shark.
That's right, my friends.
This is a $900 US wireless router.
Well, actually, there's two units.
Wireless solution for handling anything from a bungalow
all the way to a 6,000-square-foot residence.
With just these two.
Admittedly very attractive.
Attractive base stations.
$900.
How could you justify that?
It looks so cool.
Oh, my God. Are those the antennas?
Yep.
Wow. Okay, that's kind of cool.
Also, there's a lot of tech inside them.
This is insane.
I mean, part of the reason that it costs so much
has got to be that they effectively just ship you two of them.
Here, do you see these antennas, Andy?
Antennae?
I can tell you part of the reason for the high price
is that they literally ship you two of them.
Can you buy it at one?
Oh, it's a two-pack.
That's the ET-12 is the two-pack.
Two-pack is alive.
You saw it here first.
Oh, my God.
It's an older meme.
Taken from us too young.
I think we can all agree on that.
All right, before we explain why you might need two of these,
let's talk about why one of these base units
might be worth about $450.
Starting at the back.
For wired technology, right out of the gate,
it's better than your average wireless router
having two 2.5-gig Ethernet ports.
This is going to be great
if you've got a greater-than-gigabit Internet connection,
which I just got installed at my house,
2.5-gig Internet inbound,
or if you have a couple of key clients
that might need to run at greater-than-gigabit speeds.
Say, for example, if you had your main computer
that you use as an editing station in your home office
and a high-speed NAS
that you use as an editing station in your home office,
that you use to store high-resolution pictures
or high-bitrate video.
It's got a couple more gigabit ports,
all the usual power-in, WPS, on and off.
Does that just enable and disable, like, the whole unit?
Other than that, it's got a nice aesthetic,
which I guess is cool,
and of course, it is jam-packed full
of the latest wireless technologies.
So this isn't just Wi-Fi 6.
This is Wi-Fi 6E, and that's a really big deal
because while it's more of an evolutionary system,
it's built on the same fundamentals as Wi-Fi 6.
For you, the end user,
it could actually be a bigger upgrade
compared to going from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6.
When we went from 5 to 6,
the biggest benefits were in households
with many connected devices,
whether that's a lot of users
or whether that's a lot of IoT devices,
smart locks, smart blinds, all of that kind of stuff,
because it allowed much more efficient use
of the available spectrum.
All right.
It also adds new security features
and all that kind of good stuff.
But where Wi-Fi 6E changes the game
is it's actually adding more spectrum.
That's right.
6 gigahertz is finally here.
So we've had tri-band routers before,
2.4, and then in most cases, dual 5 gigahertz bands.
But this tri-band router is 2.4, 5, and 6 gigahertz.
And what's cool about 6 gigahertz
is not only will it never be cluttered,
but it's also going to get cluttered up by legacy devices.
So this is entirely fresh spectrum
for those new devices to communicate on,
but it's also way wider than what we had before
in the first place,
which isn't to say that it doesn't come
with some disadvantages.
Because the frequency is even higher
than what we had before,
yes, you might see a really nice speed benefit.
On a supported client,
though admittedly there aren't many yet,
you could easily see throughput in excess of 1 gigabit per second,
and even to multiple clients.
This features a 4x4 design
on both the 5 gigahertz and 6 gigahertz bands,
but it does come with a drawback.
So remember how 5 gigahertz
didn't have the same kind of range
and penetration power of 2.4 gigahertz
because the frequency is higher?
Well, 6 gigahertz is higher again.
So you're gonna get that lightning fast speed
and lower latency,
but it will come at some cost in terms of range.
And I think really that
is where a lot of the value add
of a package like this comes in.
ASUS is acknowledging that the kind of person
buying a premium wireless access point like this one
may want that kind of speed across their entire domicile,
or I mean, realistically,
you could use a product like this in a small business
if you really wanted to.
And that's what makes this product really cool.
So because both of them have dual 2.5 gigabit ports,
what you can do is you can actually configure it
a number of ways.
You could say, okay, hey,
I want my modem
to plug into this one,
and I'm gonna put this over at the other side of my house,
and I'm going to have a bunch of devices
connected to this one,
a bunch connected to this one,
and I'm gonna use a dedicated wireless backhaul
between them.
That's cool, that's great,
but it means more hops,
which means more latency for any devices
that are connected through the second access point.
What you can also do
is create a dedicated wired backhaul between them,
which is a lot closer to what you would do
in a commercial environment.
So you can actually,
you can actually get full speed
on every wireless device
that is connected to either of them.
Pretty sick.
Speaking of hardware,
each of these units has a two gigahertz
quad core ARM V8 processor inside.
Like that's the thing,
it's really the main benefit of a product like this
is gonna be connecting many devices.
ASUS sent over internal shots of it.
That is so cool.
There's some other software,
features to talk about.
Obviously it uses ASUS's extremely robust web UI,
and they've got a cool VPN feature
that allows you to VPN through
your own home internet connection,
no matter where you are,
which means you don't have to even trust a VPN company
with your data,
and ASUS would have no access to it,
which is pretty cool.
And my laptop just booted up.
Let's see, do I have a Wi-Fi 6E chipset in here?
All right, all right, hello.
Yeah, I'm just Wi-Fi 6, not Wi-Fi 6E.
And that's something to note.
If you wanna take advantage of Wi-Fi 6E,
and you wanna take advantage of Wi-Fi 6E,
so the actual six gigahertz band,
you're gonna need a device
that was built from the ground up for it.
It's not just a firmware
that you can flash onto your old Wi-Fi 6 devices.
But that's a feature, not a bug.
Cause like I said before,
it means that your Wi-Fi 6E devices
will not be sharing any of that airtime
with older legacy devices.
Man, 6E is gonna be just such a godsend
for people living that apartment life.
Like you don't probably realize
how much your neighbors,
just having a bunch of wireless gear kicking around
is affecting not just the throughput,
but most importantly, the latency of your wireless gear
and the consistency of your connection.
So if you're trying to do something like stream video,
I would expect to be able to do it
at least until 6E gets super crowded.
Though that should take a really long time.
I mean, we get seven more 160 megahertz channels.
Like that's fricking insane.
Well, hey, in the meantime,
why don't we,
why don't we get this powered up?
What's their setup process like?
Oh, cute.
It's got like RGB lights in the top.
Check that out.
Oh wow.
It's it.
Okay.
It does not look like it's flickering like that in person.
Okay.
When it goes here.
Uh, I don't know.
Andy, you want to come with me?
Our internet box is over here.
Hey boys.
Hello.
Is this the longest cable we got?
Yeah.
I just have to hit that TELUS box.
Yeah, right there.
Oh.
Gosh, darn it.
Okay.
Where's our longest cable then?
Oh, that?
Yeah, that's what we got.
That does not look longer than what I have.
All the other ones are at your house.
Yes.
Okay.
Well, let's make the trek again.
And I ran out.
This one is even shorter.
Okay.
It's coupler time.
Oh good.
Yes.
I need a coupler for Ethernet.
Oh boy.
Yes, I know that's not best practice.
Oh good.
But damn.
I don't know.
I would never.
I've always got to keep some goodies for myself.
I haven't hounded him about his shelf in a while.
Back, back.
Clearly in some hounding.
Back I say.
Do you want your data back or what?
Jake's working on the vault recovery still.
Actually, it's going really well.
Massive shout out Wendell, by the way.
From Level One Techs.
What are the odds this is going to work?
Hundred percent.
Yeah, I don't think so, Andy.
Come on.
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
Oh, perfect.
It works.
Never use admin and password, please guys.
Do as I say, not as I do.
Login password is too weak.
Oh wait, it still let me do it.
That'd be great.
If a guy just like popped out of the box was like weak.
Apparently out of the box,
it's configured for six gigahertz backhaul,
which makes a ton of sense.
Most people go wireless
because they don't want to run wires through their home.
But if it was me, man,
I would find a way to run that wire
because your Wi-Fi experience
is going to be fricking amazing.
Although you wouldn't have to do it immediately, right?
Like you could run six gigahertz backhaul for now
while you don't have any devices
that can connect to it anyway.
And then you can run your wire later
once you actually feel like you need the extra speed.
Oh, there it is.
Extra slow showed up first.
How ironic.
Well, why don't we start with 2.4?
This is a gigabit internet connection.
So make of that what you will.
Obviously this is not the most scientific way
to do a wireless speed test, but.
In fact, I'm probably even too close to it.
Hi, YouTube.
It should be noted.
We have a ton of RF junk in here.
So if there's anywhere that I would expect
this new six gigahertz band to make a difference,
it would be in this office.
Yeah, Linus fast is not showing up here.
Linus slow is pretty fast.
So that's cool.
Dang.
All right then.
Just shy of eight.
A hundred megabit down.
Looking at around, wow.
Just wow.
Okay.
So Linus slow, pretty fast.
I'm confused though.
I don't know why I can't see Linus fast here.
I'm gonna see if there's any firmware updates or anything.
Oh, this is as good a time as any
to poke around ASUS's dashboard here.
So they've got their AI mesh,
which allows you to use multiple ASUS routers
as a mesh Wi-Fi system.
It's really cool.
It's a really neat way to bring forward.
Your older devices and still get use out of them.
Especially if you have a larger home.
Their AI protection, blocking malicious sites
and cool stuff like that.
Their parental controls were not amazing
last time we tried them.
Really good analysis tools though.
You can see traffic and clients
and what apps are being used
and stuff like that on your home network.
Especially if you have a family
that can be very useful.
Firmware update.
Here we go.
Okay. Let's check.
It's the latest version.
Hold on a second.
I'm gonna double check
and make sure this is actually a 6E client then.
Wi-Fi 6E, AX211.
Line is fast.
Not here.
Well, I'm not gonna lie.
I am at a total loss here guys.
Okay.
Yeah. I can't.
I can't connect.
It's been a month during which time we figured out
there are some issues around Wi-Fi 6E,
six gigahertz and Canada.
So magic.
We are now connected at six gigahertz.
And I am ready to do my speed test.
By the way, while this is running,
shout out Rothstein.
It's a bit of a belated happy birthday,
but in my defense,
this video was delayed by factors
that were outside of my control.
Fortunately, nothing about this internet is delayed.
That is gigabit freaking speeds over wireless,
ladies and gentlemen.
Look, I'll prove it.
I'm gonna unplug this wire.
Oh my God. It's dead.
Oh my God.
This page has so many ads on it.
The point is look ma, no wires.
I want Wi-Fi 6E all to myself.
I mean, I guess that's the point isn't it?
You don't have to share.
This is crazy.
Full line gigabit speeds just about wirelessly.
Man, I want to change the server.
There's a, man, what's that really good one locally?
Yeah, no, urban fiber is not better today.
I mean, I can go a little farther away
cause I'm imagining six gigahertz is not gonna do that great.
Oh crap.
I mean, it's not super scientific.
We're gonna have a lab for that soon.
Here, do you want to show how far away we are?
How many bananas is it?
Boy.
They're not a measure of distance.
They're a measure of size, Jono.
And you can check them out on lttstore.com.
Anyway, the point is we're gonna kinda, I don't know.
Let's go on the other side of a wall.
You know, let's see.
Is it gonna just completely get annihilated by one wall?
Nope.
Okay.
Well, let's go find another wall then.
Oh, okay.
This is not what I expected.
We are now have a good solid couple of walls between us
and we are still doing nearly 900 megabit per second.
Brandon, can you navigate?
Can you navigate this?
Going on a little voyage of discovery here.
Okay.
When you talk, you gotta face me, Linus.
Oh, sorry, Brandon.
Sorry, Brandon.
I'm going behind the sets.
Okay.
All right.
We got three walls and we finally dropped.
Oh, okay.
It's still.
Linus, face me.
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
Okay.
This is also better than I was.
I was hoping to show that it would like suck after a bit.
Cause like six gigahertz or whatever.
Yeah.
That's the uploads finally suffering a little bit.
We've got three walls between us now.
But that download though.
Brandon, do you need help?
Do you need help, Brandon?
I'm good.
Do you want to see my Wi-Fi?
Your Wi-Fi?
It's Wi-Fi 6E and it's really fast.
It's like way over on the ShortCircuit set.
Who needs cable?
Well, okay.
No, there's still a value to wire.
Stop.
He knows better.
Face me, Linus.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
I'm going all the way to the thing.
Oh, hey, sup, Dan.
Look at this guy.
He's like, oh, I'm working.
Did we finally lose it?
We finally lost it.
That's pretty darn good.
Just like we lost this sponsorship with ASUS.
Now that we're showing it failing at the end of the video.
Ha ha, just kidding.
Thanks ASUS for sponsoring this video.
You can check out the ET12 at the link down below
and subscribe to ShortCircuit.