My Asus ZenWiFi BT8 Experience After 6 Weeks

[gculley]

Like any good technical review, it should read back-to-front, so here’s the skinny:

• Don’t purchase any mesh system with the 6 GHz band if you are expecting the seamless roaming (with possible band switching) to extend to the 6 GHz band. Check posts for different products online and ChatGPT for more information.
• The BT8 has high power 5 GHz, better coverage than my old RT-AC86U system.
• Ethernet backhaul is stable and fast.
• There is a possible compatibility issue with Apple IPad as we notice frequent disconnects on the 5 GHz band.
• With QOS disabled, we get blazing Wi-Fi speeds on 6 GHz (2.29 Gbps at 14 feet).
• Satellite Wi-Fi performance is on par with the main node when using Ethernet backhaul.
• Even if Asus eventually implements it in firmware, don’t plan your system around Wi-Fi 7’s AFC feature.
• Forget having a single SSID for all 3 bands. You’ll almost never use the 6 GHz band that way. Set up separate main SSIDs for 5 GHz, 6GHz and a guest network that will support Iot devices on 2.4 GHz.
• Client-side MLO seems to work, but there is no measurable performance benefit.
• Though output power can be adjusted on a per-node basis, it doesn’t seem to work. Even adjusting the main node’s power from maximum to “power saving” gives no measurable change in RSSI at the same distance. UPDATE: As one of the commenters indicated to me, this is likely due to Automatic Gain Control (AGC) on my phone. I need to run distance tests to confirm a drop in power, not close range tests.

Now for the long-winded review:

During Amazon Prime Days I was able to snag the Bt8 for 40% off, so I went for it. The package replaces 2 RT-AC86Us that I had working with AiMesh, one in our central open-concept great room and one in our garage to cover our deck and yard. Here in Canada we get bad winters, but our garage stays above freezing and our RT-AC86U has been fine there for years.

With the 3 new BT8 nodes, I now have two in roughly the same locations and an additional node in our basement. I'm using Ethernet backhaul for best performance and it appears to be reasonably solid (I’m using the June 2025 firmware, currently the latest). The only issue we are looking into is that my wife’s IPad seems to have a few disconnects from the 5g band each day. The IPad auto-recovers, but we’ve taken note that there may be an issue with Apple compatibility.

Our home has a main floor, a second floor and a basement, for a total of 4500 sq ft of area to cover. Our great room has a vaulted ceiling so that one node has access to 2nd floor bedrooms through 1 or 2 walls (not through a floor) on either side of the room.

With the 3 nodes, I get gig+ speeds (measured using Ookla) in every room on 6 GHz. When in the great room, I've measured speeds of up to 2.29 Gbps at 14 feet, with the node obstructed by the molding of the cabinet it sits on. It doesn't always do that, I typically get 1.8 Gbps, but sometimes it surprises me. My client is a Oneplus 12 phone.

Satellite node performance is excellent with Ethernet backhaul. I've measured over 2Gbps from 22 feet from our garage node on occasion.

Note that to get the best speeds you have to turn off QOS. If you have multi-gig bandwidth, you don't need it. The price for QOS was about 25%-30% of throughput. It seems that the processor just doesn’t have the horsepower to push full speed with QOS enabled. To optimize your settings, ChatGPT is very helpful.

I've noted that one or even 2 interior walls doesn't stop me from getting gig+ speeds. The signal can get down to -77dbm on my phone and I will still get 1.15 Gbps. The 6GHz band appears to be unused in my area, so I guess it has a very low noise floor.

My office laptop is about 9 feet away through the 2 walls of our powder room and gets 1.8 Gbps. My office desk is also about 4 feet below the Bt8 which sits high on our entertainment unit.

Our kitchen table is through one wall, about 20 feet away and gets 1.55 Gbps. I even get gig+ in about half of our basement on 6GHz from the node on the main floor that is mounted 7 feet above the floor.

One Wi-Fi 7 feature that is currently missing is Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC). This feature allows the router to broadcast up to 4 watts of radiated power on the 6 GHz band, or 6db (4x) more power than it currently broadcasts. Effectively, this feature is intended to provide similar coverage to what you would get on the 5 GHz band. The big catch is that it has to play well with licensed commercial use of the 6 GHz band. This means that if there’s any licensed activity around your home address, such as fixed microwave links or weather radar systems, the router has to be aware of that and lower its power and/or change its channel. It does this by periodically checking an online database of licensed services to see when they are scheduled to be active around your location.

I hope they add the AFC feature with a firmware update (after all, this is a premium product for the current marketplace). The difference in power would pretty much allow full speed 6 GHz performance throughout our home. However, the fact that the unit has to request permission to use higher power a few times per day means that you may find your signal is suddenly weak if it doesn't get permission. For that reason, don't design your system to rely on AFC (you may also NEVER get permission, as Dong Knows Tech found out in a recent review). Plan on having enough nodes so that you get good performance without high power.

From my testing, if you have no interference from neighbors, the Wi-Fi-7 AFC feature not really necessary. However, you must pretty much forget about outdoor coverage. I found that our main floor brick walls are too much for low power 6GHz. The best my garage unit can do is cover our deck (which backs onto it through a brick wall) where I get 1.6 Gbps over most of the deck, but the rest of our yard is unusable. Even in the garage the signal strength changes wildly depending on if my car gets between the garage node and my phone. It seems that 6 GHz is very sensitive to obstacles, so Wi-Fi roaming will “band-steer” to 5 GHz very quickly.

Speaking of band-steering, even indoors where the signal is decent, my Oneplus 12 will drop to 5 GHz quite readily. Having the phone in my pocket and walking behind the kitchen counter will trigger a drop from 6g to 5g, even if I set the roaming threshold to -82dbm. I also found that trying to roam about the house while on a Wi-Fi call would frequently drop the call during a band switch. Calls were ok if I switched nodes on 6g, but not always ok if a band-steer was triggered. Also, once on 5 GHz my phone would almost never steer back to 6 GHz, so I had to give up on having a single SSID that uses all 3 bands. This may be an issue with the Oneplus 12, but I think it has more to do with how the 6g channel beacon is handled. Quite often my phone won't even detect the 6g band until I retry a few times. There are a lot of 6g channels to scan and it takes time to locate the one that is being used, even when I stick to the most commonly-used channels. This makes band-steering useless for 6g (except to drop down to 5g).

The takeaway I had from roaming around the house was that I need to leave my phone on a dedicated 5 GHz band. Once on 5 GHz I'm golden everywhere. I measured the RSSI from the BT8 as 6db stronger than I would get at the same distance from my RT-AC86U (yes, same channel (157) and bandwidth), so the 5g range is excellent. The BT8 garage and great room nodes cover our whole 1/2 acre yard without requiring 2.4g.  At 65 feet through a brick wall, I get up to 400Mbps with 5g. However, for the 6 GHz band, it's best to plunk yourself in one place to use it. Band-steering to 6 GHz doesn’t work well, I think it’s because of the time it takes to find the 6g channel, so if you are on 5 Ghz it won't likely upgrade to 6 Ghz when you enter a room that is close to a node. This appears to be a problem common to all Wi-Fi-6E and Wi-Fi-7 systems.

I gave client-side MLO a try, though my Oneplus 12 does not support it. The phone supports using 2 bands simultaneously (but with terrible results), so I thought I’d see what it does with MLO anyway. It connected on 2 bands (2g and 6g) and would occasionally steer to 5g and back to 6g again, but its performance was sub-par. I'd often find it using 2g or giving me speeds somewhere between 5g and 6g performance. On the other hand, my laptop supports MLO (it has the BE200 card) and gets 6g performance with it, but not better. Usually it's a tiny bit worse than simply using the 6 GHz band, but at least it works more as expected. I’ve left the laptop using my MLO guest network on the assumption that there’s somehow lower latency or better roaming performance, but I’ve not really noticed any difference from simply connecting to the 6 GHz band.

To help with roaming, the BT8 ostensibly allows you to adjust output power at each node (thank you Asus, it’s a long overdue AIMesh feature). However, it does not appear to work. When I turn the power down from maximum to minimum at the main node, I still measure the same RSSI at 4 feet distance. Hopefully this is something Asus will fix. UPDATE: As one of the commenters indicated to me, this is likely due to Automatic Gain Control (AGC) on my phone. I need to run distance tests to confirm a drop in power, not close range tests.

Overall, I’m satisfied with the BT8, though after 1 week I was ready to return it as it seemed that the 6 GHz band was a waste of time with all its connection/roaming quirks. Once I viewed the 6 GHz band as useful for a stationary device (such as a laptop), then my perspective changed on the system. It essentially works and is stable (at least with an Ethernet backhaul). In fact, my EZVIZ door cameras appear to be happier with it than with my old RT-AC86U system. They are not dropping their server connection as frequently and they are even able to alert me to the doorbell ringing in time for me to remotely talk to the person at the door before they leave. For me, this alone makes the upgrade worthwhile 🙂.

[Alex52]

Spoiler

I use a GT-BE98 Pro main with a MLO GT-BE98 Pro mesh node and one BE96U for even better coverage over a larger area with higher connection rates even through walls at 6GHz and up to 30 feet even roaming between rooms. I do currently keep MLO fronthaul turned off as the feature is still under development and fronthaul MLO client is currently erratic in the latest firmware version. My computers  phones, and laptops all use 6GHz and I get rates of 6 to 8Gb.  MLO fronthaul communication is not up to speed with standard WiFi7 6GHz as yet. I currently only use the 6GHz band as I prefer higher connection rates and full use of my 1Gb Internet service as well as higher speeds between my wirelessly connected computers.

[gculley]

Thanks for you feedback Alex. I got your original (angry) post in my email and I'm sorry if my first bullet was perhaps a bit too sweeping, it just reflected my experience and the experience I've noted in several other posts on the web (as well as ChatGPT's analysis). If your system is working well then that's great. Perhaps this is an issue with the BT8 firmware or with my phone, or a bit of both.
Your mention of AGC makes sense to me, perhaps that's why I'm not seeing a difference in RSSI for different power levels at close range, I hadn't considered that.
Regarding MLO, I didn't make any technical comment on that. From Dong Knows Tech I've noted that MLO can yield a small performance boost at close range, but I didn't see that.
Regarding AFC, I'll look at its implementation in more detail and update my review if required. 

[Alex52]

Your review is fine. I was actually set off by something unrelated and tried deleting my comment as best I could when I continued reading your review. 

6GHz does work quite well in WIFI 7 but requires care in setting up. Most client chips have a problem trying to use all three bands in fronthaul and you experienced this. Just try using 5 and 6GHz for MLO connections in fronthaul.  At this time, MLO works well for meshed routers (in downhaul) - but is only fully compatible with one node of the same model.  Fronthaul MLO is not ready for prime time as yet as you noted, so leave it turned off in favor of the higher gigabyte speeds standard WiFi 6 does offer. Seamless roaming handoff connections at 6GHz are possible with optimal settings. Optimal router placement also plays a key role and can be very frustrating until best positioning is found. When not using Ethernet downhaul, 30-35 feet between meshed units is close to maximum for reliable wireless 6GHz WiFi 7 connection (even through one interior sheetrock or paneled wall) in a home setting and each node should connect directly to the main router. 

I've seen the 5 and 6GHz bands used together in MLO fronthaul but even then it switches back and forth with the 6GHz portion becoming unusable. Even with both bands simutaneously connected, the total throughput was less than the standard WiFi 7 6GHz signal. Eventually, firmware updates should correct the problems.

[gculley]

Thanks @Alex52, I appreciate the tips and I'm glad that you're ok with the review. I'll modify my MLO network to just use 5g and 6g, but as you suggested I'll disable it for now until at least the next firmware update.
I did notice seamless handoff on 6 GHz, that generally wasn't an issue. The main problem I had was that if I'm on a Wi-Fi call walking through the house, the 6 GHz band might drop in signal strength because of some obstacle and trigger a drop to the 5 GHz band. This band switch would often result in a dropped call. You're right that careful placement of nodes is paramount (and I need to limit my walking around whenever possible 🙂).