BE98 PRO What's Next?

[Clark Griswald]

With the 98Pro approaching 2 years since release (12/23), I'm curious what Asus will be releasing as their replacement/upgrade?

 

[ExtremeFiretop]

I had heard about the GS-BE18000 in may of this year; but I don't believe it supports Merlin firmware: https://rog.asus.com/us/networking/rog-strix-gs-be18000/

 

[RMerlin]

With the 98Pro approaching 2 years since release (12/23), I'm curious what Asus will be releasing as their replacement/upgrade?

Not much to upgrade, as Broadcom hasn't released any newer SoC than the BCM4916 it already uses, aside from lower-end stuff.

I guess if you absolutely need to find something even more expensive to spend your money, the GT-BE19000AI would be the next flagship monster.

 

[Poul Bak]

With the 98Pro approaching 2 years since release (12/23), I'm curious what Asus will be releasing as their replacement/upgrade?

There's a new RT-One billion coming, I have spied on Asus, here's a picture of the new antenna they use on that model:

The bad news are you need a nuclear power plant to power it and as you can see it gets glowingly hot

 

[degrub]

and only runs 2,4 GHz band

 

[jzchen]

Pretty sure it was white and had AI at the end of the model name. I am hoping 5 bands...

 

[uwish]

I had heard about the GS-BE18000 in may of this year; but I don't believe it supports Merlin firmware: https://rog.asus.com/us/networking/rog-strix-gs-be18000/

The specs indicated it only has a 2.5G WAN port…I find that surprising…

 

[jzchen]

The specs indicated it only has a 2.5G WAN port…I find that surprising…

That was immediately a negative for me. Also has to be primary router for AFC...

 

[ExtremeFiretop]

The specs indicated it only has a 2.5G WAN port…I find that surprising…

I did too, the specs on it's face didn't seem to surpass existing hardware, for example the GT-BE98 Pro is a Quad-band instead of Tri-band of the newer GS-BE18000
However I know the router was released later than the GT-BE98 Pro so it's targeting an odd demographic I don't fully understand I guess.

 

[jzchen]

I did too, the specs on it's face didn't seem to surpass existing hardware, for example the GT-BE98 Pro is a Quad-band instead of Tri-band of the newer GS-BE18000
However I know the router was released later than the GT-BE98 Pro so it's targeting an odd demographic I don't fully understand I guess.

People were complaining that ASUS was using highest end customers as beta testers so not surprising....

 

[ExtremeFiretop]

People were complaining that ASUS was using highest end customers as beta testers so not surprising....

Don't get me wrong I understand not every new model has to be better than the last... Some hardware is just lower spec'd.

But this router is a "ROG Strix" so it's clearly targeting the "higher end customer" demographic, but its newer and less impressive spec wise. That's what surprises me I guess.

 

[jzchen]

The Strix label is to my understanding an economical line. ROG GT being the highest...

Unfortunately they added the desirable AFC to it, BUT from what I read it's not quite working well, and the 2.5 GbE port is shy of my 10 GbE backbone, as well as limited to working only in router mode. That pretty much means double NAT for me to try it. And the price tag....

 

[Clark Griswald]

With the 98Pro approaching 2 years since release (12/23), I'm curious what Asus will be releasing as their replacement/upgrade?

I was hoping that we would see more powerful/capable hardware to deal with the fiber speeds, etc.
I definitely do not intend to purchase a $700+ AIO router, but Black Friday/Cyber Monday may have a deal on the RMerlin supported BE98 Pro

 

[jzchen]

I'll chalk up $700+ to tarrifs, inflation, weakening dollar, etc. But pretty sure as the wife no longer needs to work from home as primary care, she's gonna give me an earful. "But it's my favorite color" is probably not gonna cut it.

(MediaTek has a Filogic 880 capable of five bands). Having to choose between dual 5 GHz and dual 6 GHz is messed up for those who already have a dual 5 GHz setup. And ASUS doesn't even sell the dual 5 GHz GT-BE98 nor BQ16 here. I saw a 2-pack BQ16 I think on Amazon from a German seller for a little over $1200...