Wireless network performance

First, let's look at the apartment that was used in our testing and how it is set up. You can see that the router is placed in the living room. With most wireless routers, the signal strength is not that good in places like the Kitchen and the Medium balcony.

Our testing was done using a fast 1 Gigabit Internet connection that is capable of uploads on the internet of up to 500 Mbps. We used an HP Spectre 13 laptop for all our measurements, together with several software tools.

To get a better idea of the performance offered by ASUS RT-AC1200 V2, we compared it with Xiaomi Mi Router 3 (another router that works with 100 Mbps internet connections) and ASUS RT-AC1200G+ (an affordable model that can work with speedier internet connections).

We analyzed the 2.4 GHz band first and measured the signal strength with NetSpot. You can see the evolution of the signal strength in the graph below. The other routers generally outperformed ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 in this regard.

Next, we used SpeedTest to measure the speed of the internet connection when connected to the 2.4 GHz band. ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 offered good download speed in most rooms.

The upload speed was lower in all rooms and followed a similar trend.

Continuing our measurements on the 2.4 GHz wireless network, we used the PassMark Performance test to transfer data between two computers connected to the network. In this test, ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 had the fastest downloads in our comparison.

The same thing happened when we measured the upload speed. However, what you can't see in these graphs is that the variability of wireless transfers on the 2.4 GHz band was not the greatest, and it deserves some improvement.

On the 2.4 GHz wireless band, ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 is reasonably fast, offering the speeds you expect from a router in its price range.

For the next set of measurements, we analyzed the performance of the 5GHz wireless band using Wi-Fi 5. We looked at the evolution of the signal strength from room to room. Once more, ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 was not the top-performing router in this comparison.

Next, we measured the download speed with SpeedTest in every room of our test apartment. In all rooms, we enjoyed stable downloads close to the maximum speed potential of this router.

Uploads were sometimes slower, but still stable throughout the apartment.

For the last measurements on the 5GHz wireless network, we used the PassMark Performance test to transfer data between two computers connected to the network. The download speed offered by ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 was constant in all rooms.

Uploads were slightly slower, but still close to the maximum speed potential of the router.

Even though it is an AC1200 wireless router, ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 delivers speeds that are close to 100 Mbps because it is limited to working with internet connections that are up to 100 Mbps.

Wired network performance

We measured the speed of the internet connection with a 1 Gbps Ethernet cable using SpeedTest. ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 delivered about 94 Mbps both for the download and the upload, which is what we expected from a model that is limited to run at a maximum of 100 Mbps.

Then, we ran a network transfer between two computers, using the PassMark Performance test. The results were almost identical to the previous test.

ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 was built to work at 100 Mbps, and not more. Unfortunately, for most people, this speed is limiting, and other AC1200 routers can offer Ethernet connections at 1 Gbps.

Extra features

The firmware on the ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 is simpler than the one found on more expensive routers. It features only the basics people need from their Wi-Fi router, with some surprising mini-extras:

• Guest network - you can enable up to three wireless networks for your guests on each band, with different names, security, access, and bandwidth settings. A neat feature is that you can isolate your guests from the rest of the network.
• Traffic Manager - a basic QoS (Quality of Service) feature that helps you manually set limits to how your internet bandwidth is used.
• Parental Controls - allows you to set rules for how much time your children can stay connected to the internet on their network device.
• Dual WAN - you can use two internet connections on your router. This feature is seldom available on Wi-Fi routers in this price range.
• Network Tools - for analyzing the network and identifying what's wrong. They are useful when you need to troubleshoot problems.
• IPv6 - support for IPv6 addresses that are going to replace IPv4.
• DDNS (Dynamic Domain Name System) - a service that allows you to connect to the router from the internet, even if your internet provider assigns you a dynamic public IP address.

ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 offers all the basics you need to run a Wi-Fi network. However, there's no security included, and most advanced features are lacking. Still, you do get access to Dual WAN, which is a surprising feature for a router this affordable.

What is your opinion about the ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 wireless router?

Now you know what we like and what we don't like about the ASUS RT-AC1200 V2 wireless router. Before closing this review, tell us what you think. Are you interested in purchasing this router? If you already own it, what is your experience with it? Comment below and let's discuss.