Wireless network performance

Before showing you the data from our measurements, let's take a look at the apartment that was used in our testing and how it is set up. You can see that the main ASUS Lyra is placed in the living room. When we use wireless routers, the signal strength is not that high in rooms like the Kitchen and the Medium balcony. To improve the coverage of the network, we placed the second Lyra in the Big Bedroom. As a result, the Medium balcony should benefit from faster WiFi. Then, the third Lyra was situated just near the entrance to the Kitchen, to improve the coverage there too.

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 13t laptop for our analyses.

We decided to compare the ASUS Lyra with TP-Link Deco M5 and Linksys Velop - two competing whole-home mesh WiFi systems.

We started by evaluating the 2.4 GHz wireless network and measured the signal strength offered in each room, using a tool named NetSpot Pro. As you can see in the graph below, ASUS Lyra did not deliver the best wireless signals strength on this frequency.

Then, we used SpeedTest to measure how fast the internet connection offered by ASUS Lyra is. As you can see, ASUS Lyra delivered fast downloads in all rooms. In some of them, it was the quickest mesh WiFi system in our comparison.

We measured the upload speed with SpeedTest, and the same trend was noticed: ASUS Lyra was fast, and in some rooms, it was the fastest.

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. ASUS Lyra performed well in all the rooms, and in some, it was incredibly fast. As you can see below, its average download speed can vary between rooms more than when using other mesh systems.

The performance for uploading files over the 2.4 GHz wireless network was similar to the download, in most rooms.

The 2.4 GHz wireless network that is broadcast by ASUS Lyra can be quite fast. Sometimes it is incredibly fast. However, the average speed you get can vary more than when using other mesh WiFi systems.

Next, we analyzed the performance offered by ASUS Lyra on the 5GHz wireless network. First, we looked at the evolution of the signal strength, from room to room. ASUS Lyra performed similarly to the mesh WiFi systems we compared it to.

To see how fast the internet connection can get, we used the ASUS PCE-AC88 network card on our desktop computer. This is the only 4x4 MU-MIMO wireless card on the market, and it reaches the best speeds you can get on wireless today.

We ran SpeedTest to see how fast the internet connection can be on the ASUS Lyra. We obtained a speed of 509.86 Mbps for the download and 409.63 Mbps for the upload, on the 5 GHz wireless frequency. High numbers. However, everyday laptops and devices get less, because they do not include advanced wireless network cards like this one.

We then ran SpeedTest on our test laptop. Below you can see the evolution of the download speed. You can see that ASUS Lyra delivered fast downloads in some rooms and surprisingly slow ones in others.

The upload speed showed a similar trend in every room.

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. ASUS Lyra delivered fast downloads in some rooms, without being the speed champion in our comparison.

The same was true of the upload speed.

The 5GHz wireless network that is broadcast by ASUS Lyra can deliver fast speeds if you have high-end networking hardware. For traditional gadgets and devices that are connected to a wireless network, ASUS Lyra is not a speed champion. The variability of its average speed is higher than when using other mesh WiFi systems.

Wired network performance

To test the quality of the wired Ethernet connection, we used a desktop PC with an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 processor, running at 3.20GHz, 16GB of RAM, a fast Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD, and a Lenovo IdeaCentre 610s mini PC.

We measured the speed of the internet connection when using a 1 Gbps Ethernet cable, using SpeedTest. In this test, ASUS Lyra was the speed champion, delivering transfers that are very close to the maximum specifications of our internet connection.

Then, we ran a network transfer between the two computers, each connected with an Ethernet cable to a different ASUS Lyra. Since the stations were connected to each other wirelessly, the transfer was mediated through WiFi. We used PassMark Performance test for this measurements. As you can see, the ASUS Lyra was slower than its competitors.

ASUS Lyra can offer 1Gbps Ethernet connections. However, since it is a mesh wireless network, you can benefit from such connections only on one PC that is connected to the main ASUS Lyra.

Extra features

ASUS Lyra offers several additional features alongside plain wireless networking:

• AiProtection - A security feature that is delivered by ASUS together with Trend Micro. With it, you can have the ASUS Lyra automatically block malicious websites when they are accessed from any device. You get a Two-Way Intrusion Prevention System that prevents attacks coming from the internet, as well as infected device prevention and blocking. They are useful in a smart home with many devices and with guests visiting regularly.
• Family Members - allows you to set a schedule for internet access as well as content filters for your children and the devices that they use. Parents will highly appreciate this feature. What we found strange though is that this feature can be set up only when using the mobile app. There is no mention of it in the web user interface.
• Guest network - you can enable a guest WiFi network for people visiting your home. From the mobile app, you can only set time limits for guests. However, if you access the web administration user interface, you can set bandwidth limits or whether you allow visitors to access your home network or not.
• Traffic Manager (Adapting QoS) - a user-friendly service that allows you to set prioritization rules for different kinds of traffic. For example, if you are a gamer, you can prioritize online gaming versus other types of traffic.
• VPN Server - this can be enabled only in the web-based administration user interface. You can set the ASUS Lyra to work as a VPN server, using the PPTP and OpenVPN protocols.
• Network Tools - a set of troubleshooting tools that help you figure out how to solve networking problems. They can be accessed and used only from the web-based administration user interface.
• Amazon Alexa - if you use Alexa, you can control ASUS Lyra through voice commands like: "Alexa, ask ASUS Router to turn on the Guest network."

ASUS Lyra offers all the essential features that you need for a safe and secure smart home experience, including modern-extras like voice control through Amazon Alexa.

What is your opinion about the ASUS Lyra?

Now you know our opinion about the ASUS Lyra AC2200 whole home mesh WiFi system, and how it performed in our testing. Before closing this review, share with us your view about this mesh WiFi system. Would you like to purchase it? If you already have it, how was your experience with it? Comment below and let's discuss.