Archive for October 28, 2016

Review: Asus RT-AC5300 Router

Posted in Products with tags on October 28, 2016 by itnerd

The high performance router wars are heating up because of two things:

  • The increasing availability of 100 Mbps or faster Internet access.
  • The need to support high bandwidth devices such as streaming devices, video game consoles, and smart TVs, and high performance gaming PCs.

Because of this, routers like the Asus RT-AC5300 have started to appear. Now, let me deal with the elephant in the room. The RT-AC5300 looks…. Different:

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It measures 2.6 by 9.6 by 9.6 inches (HWD) which means RT-AC5300 requires a good deal of real estate. It also has 8 antennas and looks like something from another planet. That may turn off some and be ultra cool to others. It feels solidly built and clearly has enough vents to ensure that it doesn’t overheat. The front contains small LED indicators for Power, 2.4GHz and 5GHz band connectivity, WAN and Internet activity, and WPS activity. On the left side is a USB 2.0 port, as well as buttons for enabling and disabling the LEDs and the Wi-Fi bands and for initializing the WPS security feature. Around back are four Gigabit LAN ports, a WAN port, a USB 3.0 port, and a Power button. You get a 1.4 Ghz dual core processor to drive three radio bands. One 2.4GHz band and two 5GHz bands so that you can segment your wireless traffic so that everything stays speedy. The router supports beamforming for sending signals directly to wireless clients, Smart Connect which automatically chooses the best band for optimal throughput, and MU-MIMO technology for simultaneous rather than sequential streaming for devices that support that standard. 

Setting up the router is incredibly trivial for novice users and you can have it running in minutes. Here’s what I did to set it up:

  1. After connecting the router to my Mac, I opened a browser, entered http://router.asus.com in the address bar
  2. I followed the on-screen instructions to configure basic Internet DHCP and wireless security settings.
  3. Done. Declare victory and have beer.

But if you really want to tweak things, this router will give you that ability in spades. You can configure everything from parental controls to threat protection. Plus if you’re a gamer, you’ll appreciate the Game Boost feature, which offers one-click QoS settings that give gaming applications traffic-network priority, and provides you with a free subscription to WTFast, an online game-acceleration service that automatically routes game data to achieve optimal bandwidth which in turn will allow you to pwn your online competition. The level of configuration is above and beyond what is available with most routers out there, and this is one of the key advantages that the RT-AC5300 has over every other high performance router that is on the market. It should also be noted that there are apps for iOS and Android that will allow to keep on top of your router settings. Finally there’s alternate firmware available such as Merlin to really open up the power of this router. And unlike most routers, you can flash back to stock firmware if you want to.

But what you really care about is how fast this router is and what the WiFi coverage is like. For the basis of this comparison, I will show you the numbers from the Linksys Max Stream AC5400 that is connected to Rogers Ignite Gigabit Internet which is the fastest router that I have tested to date. What you see below is the speed of the Linksys router using a computer connected via Ethernet:

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Now here’s the RT-AC5300:

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It’s not far off the Linksys router which has been tweaked to get the speeds that you see above. I am pretty sure that If I spent some time tweaking the RT-AC5300, it would have been able to do better. But having said that, it is more than competitive. As for WiFi coverage, it covered about the same amount of real estate in my condo as the Linksys router. Keep in mind that I have concrete walls that any router that I test has to deal with. Thus this is a very good result.

The Asus RT-AC5300 goes for $500. It’s the same price as the Linksys router, but the fact that RT-AC5300 can be customized to a greater degree than the Linksys gives it the edge for those who want a high performance router that they can control to the nth degree and get great performance from said router. Plus you get the option to use third party firmware which for the record, the Linksys Max Speed AC5400 doesn’t give you the option. For those reasons, if you are a “control enthusiast” in need of a high performance router, the Asus RT-AC5300 is the one that you need to look at first.

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Review: ZTE Axon 7

Posted in Products with tags on October 28, 2016 by itnerd

Last year, I gave the ZTE Axon the award for the Best Smartphone Of 2015. Here’s the reason why: 

Let me boil all of that down to just the facts. ZTE has a fast phone that has the best audio that I’ve ever heard in a phone, a camera that works in all conditions, and a battery that not only lasts the whole day and then some, but charges quickly as well. It’s a phone that will have Samsung and Apple looking over their shoulder, and you smiling all the way to the bank because it won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

Now, it’s one thing to get to the top of the mountain. But it’s difficult to stay there. Given how competitive the smartphone market is, that’s doubly true. So ZTE’s latest effort has to be one that keeps them out front. To that end, they have brought the Axon 7 to market and it comes to the table with the following specs:

  • Android 6 with MiFavor 4.0 skin
  • 2.15 GHz Quad-core processor
  • 4GB of RAM
  • 64GB internal storage
  • microSD card slot / Dual SIM slot
  • 20MP rear-facing camera 
  • 8MP front-facing camera
  • 32-bit HiFi Dolby ATMOS audio with dual front-facing speakers
  • 5.5″ AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 
  • Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 with MiFavor 4.0 skin
  • LTE
  • 20 MP rear camera
  • 8 MP front camera
  • 802.11 ac WiFi
  • Bluetooth 4.2

In terms of the design of the phone, it looks cool. There’s a USB-C connector on the bottom, a slot for the two SIM cards and micro SD card on the left, power and volume on the right, and a fingerprint sensor on the back. It has a very cool looking full-metal unibody with a premium-feeling silky matte finish which felt great in my hand. Though it is on the heavy side. The screen is very sharp and is readable in every lighting condition but bright light. One note is that the screen does NOT attract fingerprints. You’ll really like that. It felt fast during my testing. Nothing I tossed at it made it bog down. Now, I’m not a big fan of skins, but the MiFavor 4.0 skin isn’t bad and doesn’t feel like it gets in your way. But if it does annoy you, you can turn it off easily enough. Though I don’t think you’ll bother to do so.

ZTE did up its game in a number of areas. First is the fact that the Axon 7 is an unlocked dual SIM phone which also has the ability to pop a microSD slot. The former makes this phone a great phone to travel with as you can pop a local SIM card into the phone and save on roaming charges. The latter addresses the lack of expandability in the original Axon. There is a catch though. You can use two SIM cards (a micro SIM and a nano SIM) or you can use a nano SIM and a micro SD card. If you rely on having memory beyond what comes with the phone, that might be a problem for you. Another area they’ve upped their game is the 5.5″ display which is viewable in every condition that I tested it in, including bright sunlight. Sound is another area where things have improved. The Axon 7 comes with 32-bit HiFi mobile audio with Dolby ATMOS and dual front-facing speakers. To be frank, they crush the effort that ZTE made in the original Axon. That’s no small feat as the Axon was exceptional when it came to sound, and I was skeptical going into this review as to if ZTE could actually do better on that front. But it did and If you’re an audiophile, you will love the Axon 7 as the sound quality is absolutely stunning. 

The biggest change is the rear camera. Gone is the dual camera setup from the Axon and replacing it is a 20 MP camera on the back and an 8 MP front-facing camera. Video capabilities include 4K recording. I tested it by taking shots of the 2017 Mazda6 that I am reviewing this week and I will be using it next week to take photos of the Mazda3 that I will be reviewing and I will be using it on a short getaway to Kingston Ontario. I did further testing at Pearson Airport in Toronto. Here’s some of the still shots that I got during my testing:

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The only issue that I had when taking photos is that sometimes the autofocus would not work properly. But other than that, all the photos were sharp and clear.

Now here’s a couple of videos that I shot in 4K resolution. Please set the videos to full screen and 4K resolution:

While there is wind noise, it did a good job of capturing good quality audio and video.

When it comes to the battery, I got almost two days of charge which is excellent. It also has the ability to deliver a full charge in about 90 minutes via the USB-C port which is handy as well. You can find the Axon 7 for $519.99 CDN which undercuts the competition from Samsung and Apple. One plus is the fact that it comes with a bumper style case and great quality headphones as part of the deal. Excellent! The bottom line? It’s a great second effort at a flagship smartphone from ZTE. The addition of dual SIM capability as well taking what was already good audio and making it better is going to get it a lot of looks. It should be on your shopping list if you’re in the market for a flagship level smartphone at a bargain basement price as it does a lot for the money that you’ll pay for it. 

 

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