I’m using mesh from Keenetic (former Zyxel, with Andy Padavan in their team), and pretty happy with it. 1 Giant, 3 Giga, 1 Air and 1 Buddy are covering two houses and their nearby territory with mesh, while Giant’s detachable antennas are covering the whole street, so i’m entering my mesh Wi-fi before i even drive close to my home. The hardware is rather weak, but software abilities match microtic’s while keeping things much easies for home users.
Because Wifi 6E + multiple 10Gbase-T + 2.5G ports
Again, why ASUS….
For that price you can get an enterprise router, with a switch and a couple aps. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all up for 10gb ports, but I’m seeing prices around 450~500 euros for the ASUS axe16000.
At this price range you can get an RB5009, with a switch with much more ports, and a couple of aps. Makes no sense in my mind at all.
Look, you get one 2.5 g port, two 10g ports but only four 1gb ports. Unless you only have a couple of devices, you’ll always need to get a switch.
I’m thinking of my home network, in a two person home, where I have two desktops, 4 APs, one server, + upwards of 8 rj45 ports scattered throughout the apartment.
Even if you assume that the ports the router has are enough, then you’d be much better setup with a an alternative solution because you’re simply paying premium for those 10 gb ports, which you can buy entire switches for 100~200 euros with several of them.
I’m not trying to annoy you, it’s just that, any way I see it, it’s a terrible investment… if you’re set on your decision please disregard my comment.
Which you don’t actually need at home, cause there is no service ready to give you such bandwidth.
That’s besides the point. If he wants 10gb at home he/she can have it. You don’t know if there’s servers at home to use the 10gb.
Some boards already carry 2.5g nics like the x570 ones.
That’s not the point, your internal network ought to be 1gb so upgrading can make sense if you can make use of the available network.
The problem is paying the equivalent of a computer, for sub par hardware and crappy software, and if possible I’d like for her/him to know what’s out there.
I’m not annoyed. In fact, I am thankful to learn about other options out there. I am familiar with mikrotik. I am using a 24-port mikrotik switch right now in my home network, and it’s running also as my router. Port 1 is connected to the “WAN” / internet.
The reason I’m interested in the Asus is not as a switch / router. It is purely for the Wifi6e as a mesh wifi access point. Most likely I’ll still be using my Mikrotik switch as my main network router (i.e. the one to forward packets between different networks - well that’s what a router does)
If you know of a better / cheaper Wifi 6e access point (consumer, or enterprise grade) that does mesh (with either wired or wireless backhaul) - I’m all ears!
Okay cool, then forgive me for additional questions 
Why do you care, right now, for Wi-Fi 6 in particular?? And why do you want mesh in particular?
I currently have Wifi5 mesh and I really love the mesh feature. I have 1 main access point and 2 satellites. Even so, reception in the corners of the property (outside the house) is a bit lacking so I’d like to get more satellites.
I have tried using multiple (non mesh) access points: setting them all to the same SSID and each to a different channel technique. I have also tried Ubiquiti Unifi access points - and my impression is that Unifi as a company is not to be trusted with “stability”. Their “release” version CAN BE buggy. And this is not just their firmware, but also their hardware. Of course this is my experience - many people sing high praises for Unifi gear. Personally I am staying away from their products.
I find the “mesh” access points offer better handoff for moving clients (e.g. laptops / phone) - well my fixed clients are all wired anyway.
I know this Asus AP is very expensive, and I’d like to get at least 3 of them. But that’s why I haven’t ordered them (heck it is not even available yet). But I’m hoping that in the future the price will drop. It may take a year or two. In comparison, this Asus AP is still cheaper than Cisco or Aruba’s gear. If money is no object, I’d rather get a Cisco or Aruba access points.
In the mean time, I would suggest to the OP to get an Orbi (Wifi5 / AC) kit - they are much cheaper now that wifi6/6e is the next shiny new thing, with wifi7 around the corner.
I want a speed upgrade for my wifi network - because I mainly work on my laptop. Right now my laptop only supports Wifi6, not 6E, but chances are, 2-3 years from now I’ll be getting a new laptop. I don’t want to be upgrading my access points again then.
This has nothing to do with “internet” speed. This is purely for local network speed between laptops and the (wired) server that acts as NAS (Linux + Samba).
I understand the point of the local connection speed. I’m upgrading for 10gb for that exactly same reason.
But I mean, the axe 16000 is not an AP. It’s a router. You can set it up as ap but that’s like buying an i9 and cutting the cores down to 4c/4t.
If you have expendable income, then more power to you. But honestly what you are doing is really just throwing money to the bin.
For the money you are throwing into those routers, you could instead wait for the new APs that will undoubtedly be coming out in the next couple of years, with POE and the latest Wi-Fi 6 norm (which they are basically coming out yearly at this point), for 1/5th of the price of each of those routers…
I don’t know, maybe I’m biased, or I just don’t earn enough, but I’m looking at this 699 dollar router and I’m flabbergasted that you considering it. Then, you say you’re thinking of buying three, and …. I don’t know. You’ll be paying more money than some companies I know did for their network, with hundreds of users…
Wi-Fi 6E does not offer speed over Wi-Fi 6…. It’s just more channels… which I can understand that you’d think it’s good if you have a mesh system (because your radio congestion must be high ofc) but …. You solve that with cables, and reducing radio signals/radio potency. not more mesh stuff.
You should be moving away from mesh, wiring cables, and then you’d be golden with a couple of decent aps.
Hand over quality you mention is something that nowadays exists basically by default, unless you mix and match brands, which is to be expected. As an example, it I have two unifi aps, and one ASUS in the office and move between the two unifi aps, it’s seamless. Whatsapp and telegram calls are stable are a rock. Teams with video are too.
If I go to the office all connections are killed while my device scrambles to catch on to the new network.
But this also works fine if you’d have a full asus, or any other (recent and decent) set up.
Again, do what you will, I’ll probably not convince you either way. You’re looking to pay 1500 euros to have three routers, have two of them be reduced to dumb APs, because you want Wi-Fi 6E, which there’s barely any devices using right now. Anyway you look at it it’s more intelligent to have a central router, and buy externals aps which you can them upgrade as need arises (if it’s your laptop, then maybe you just need Wi-Fi super duper fast on your office?? But maybe it’s justifiable to wire a cat6a cable there instead of over paying for Wi-Fi?!).
What will you do when Wi-Fi 7Z comes out?
Over pay for three more routers? When you could just upgrade one ap at a time? Because we all know that saying “I don’t want to buy another ap later” is something that just won’t happen, when you see benchmarks outperforming your devices 
Note: I confused myself with the my current setup and the setup that I’m planning for after the remodel I’ll be doing. Right now, I have two unifi aps, and one ASUS router. After the remodel I plan to have 4 unifi aps and one mikrotik router. So, current → future. Just in case I messed a previous explanation.