Mesh WiFi routers like the Google WiFi are the new hotness; while they have been around for a few years they are really becoming popular now with many new systems entering the market. One such recent entrant is the Lyra Mesh router from ASUS. ASUS has ‘street cred’ when it comes to household routers so we’re expecting the Lyra to be an excellent device.
ASUS Australia has confirmed that they will be bringing the Lyra and Lyra Mini to Australia, hopefully in early September 2017. The Lyra will sell for $599 AUD and the Lyra Mini for $499 AUD. Both come in a pack of 3, providing all the gear you need to create an entire home Wi-Fi mesh network.
The major difference between the Lyra and Lyra Mini is that the Lyra is a Triband AC2200 router and the Mini is a dual band AC1300 device. For the Lyra this allows the unit to dedicate a 5GHz band for back-haul and still leave two more bands available for your devices. Other than that the mini is slight smaller; 132 mm in diameter instead of the Lyra’s 149 mm.
Both devices include a WAN port as well as a LAN port allowing you to either hard wire the devices to your network or use the Lyra to provide a LAN port via its WiFi back-haul. Both systems support 801.11 a/b/g/n/ac with a maximum WiFi data rate of 867 on a single channel.
ASUS Australia have posted the following video on their YouTube channel:
Despite the growing number of mesh routers overseas many of them have never made it to Australia. ASUS has a long track record of bringing their products to market in Australia, and this is another example of them treating Australia as a first tier tech market.
We’ve asked ASUS for a review unit when they reach our shores so we can put it through its paces for you, as well as test out some of the trickier parts of Mesh networking. I know many of the Ausdroid team already have a mesh network and I am definitely upgrading to one of these systems in the near future.
Not clear in your article, $499 for the pack of three or $499 each? If it is $499 for one then it is $300 overpriced. Even $499 for the three pack seems too much as is the Google WiFi three pack offering at the same price.
the prices are for the pack of 3, sorry this wasn’t clear Bertie.
I bought a pair of Google wifi while in the UK the other week (yes, exactly four days before it got released here!). I finally brought it home yesterday and have it set up and the mesh works nicely here, and the cost is nice (even nicer with a favourable pound exchange rate and a special on in the Google store in Tottenham Court Road 😉 )
winning!