Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 review: Spectacular mesh Wi-Fi for demanding users

Invest in one of the best Wi-Fi mesh systems on the market and you can ensure that your entire home is covered in high-speed, reliable Wi-Fi – and especially when you opt for one of the heavy-duty, premium models available, like the Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 on review here.

The price of this 2-unit pack is immediately going to put some people off buying, but if you've got the budget for a serious investment in your home Wi-Fi, then this fits the bill. If you currently just have one router installed, this product could make a substantial difference.

I've been using this on my home network for a couple of weeks, looking at everything from wireless performance to the ease of the setup process – and by the time you've finished reading my review you'll know whether or not this is the Wi-Fi mesh upgrade you need (or, indeed, never knew you needed).

Price & Availability

So you know exactly what I'm reviewing here, this is the 2-pack Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 quad-band BE25000 mesh Wi-Fi system. Note that there is also a Pro version which swaps one of the 5GHz bands for another 6GHz band, giving you even more bandwidth.

The shopping widget embedded above will direct you to the best prices currently available online for this system, but at the time of writing it's being sold for around £900 in the UK. As well as getting it from Asus directly, you can find it at retailers including Currys and Amazon here in the UK.

Design & Setup

Here's the drill for installing Wi-Fi mesh systems: you plug in the first unit, you install the companion app (for Android or iOS), and you follow the instructions. That's what I did with the Asus ZenWiFi BQ16, and it was all straightforward and simple. You might even get a firmware update thrown at you as well.

One neat touch is that you'll be given the option to set up a dedicated network for your smart home devices, on the 2.4GHz band – the one offering the slowest speeds but the greatest range, and the band that smart home devices usually prefer. It's handy to have something like this included as a suggestion right away.

I also like that there are no extra subscriptions attached to this router, which makes a welcome change from a lot of hardware that launches with software add-ons nowadays. Everything is included in the up-front cost. Another nice feature to have that isn't always guaranteed: access to the system through a web browser, not just the mobile apps.

As there's so much Wi-Fi tech packed in here, these are bulky units, about the size of a chunky hardback book. They're not easy to hide away, and indeed need to be out in the open to work at best, but they're reasonably easy on the eye – with subtle, nicely done LED status lights. They also come with rather chunky, two-piece power cables, which is something else worth bearing in mind.

Features & Performance

The Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 brings with it support for the latest Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) standard, and has four bands: 2.4GHz, 5Ghz (x2), and 6GHz.

The system smartly uses a combination of the 6GHz and one of the 5GHz bands as a backhaul (or you can use one of the Ethernet ports instead), ensuring super-speedy connectivity between the two units, and a seamless experience no matter where in the home you and your devices might be.

I certainly couldn't fault the performance here, with connections to the secondary node getting download and upload rates close to the main one plugged directly into the router.

Remember, of course, that these systems don't improve your broadband speed, but do distribute Wi-Fi further and more effectively. Wandering all around my two-storey, semi-detached house while streaming 4K video on a phone worked flawlessly.

My internet isn't slow, but up in the far corner of the house – through a floor and a couple of walls – I'm getting around half the speed that my broadband provider promises with a single router. With the Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 that goes up to 90% or more in the same spot on the same phone, which shows you the difference a high-end setup like this can make. What's more, latency and consistency are flawless too.

You can top out at 25Gbps of bandwidth with this mesh system, and while your broadband speed won't be anywhere near that, the Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 excels at local streaming around the home. I tested both Plex and Steam Link streaming and didn't have any problems with either: connections were pretty instant, and the streams showed no issues at all in terms of quality or reliability.

Asus says this system can cover 8,000 square feet or almost 745 square metres, which is enough to cover all but the biggest mansions. There's no upper limit mentioned for connected devices, and it's going to be way beyond what the average household is going to manage – way into the triple figures most likely, though I stopped at half a dozen.

While I can only test a mesh system like this on my own home, the performance here is strong enough that you're likely to be impressed no matter what your current Wi-Fi setup is – or even if you're kitting out a small office. Dead zones will be no more, local streaming will be top-notch, and you should see as much Wi-Fi bandwidth as possible getting into every corner of the property.

You get some excellent wired internet options too, with five Ethernet ports on each unit: two 10Gbps ports and three 1Gbps. For devices where stability is most important (think gaming consoles or smart TVs) you can hook up Ethernet connections, though the Wi-Fi performance is at a high enough level that you might not need to. There's also a USB-A port included, if you want to set up networked storage.

As for the companion app on mobile, it's a straightforward and intuitive experience all round. You get controls for managing devices, setting parental controls, and configuring multiple guest networks, and there's even the option to connect a VPN at the hardware level if you need. It's therefore perfect for power users.

Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 review: Verdict

There's no doubt the Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 is a premium option – you can tell that just from the price. But while some 3-pack Wi-Fi 7 mesh systems out there are cheaper, this 2-pack option offers lots of perks that actually make a lot of sense.

The quad-band bandwidth capability is something you don't see on a lot of systems, for example, with this setup offering some of the best Wi-Fi performance I've seen yet. Whether it's speed or latency or reliability, the Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 is very hard to beat when it comes to getting as much of your internet connection as possible.

Factor in additional considerations like access from a web browser, no reliance on additional subscriptions, versatile Ethernet options, and lots of features for power users (parents especially) to utilise, and you're getting a lot back for your money. It's a really impressive bit of hardware kit all round.

Just be sure you actually need a Wi-Fi network upgrade of this magnitude – most average consumers probably don't. While I'm also in that category too, I must admit that I've loved the jump from 'good' Wi-Fi to 'great' that the Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 offers. It's the dream upgrade I never knew I needed.

Also Consider

Another impressive Wi-Fi 7 system is the TP-Link Deco BE68. Although it offers one band less than the Asus model, you do get an extra node unit for less money.

The Netgear Orbi 370 costs considerably less, even if you go for the 3-pack option, and while there are some compromises to performance (it's only dual-band rather than quad-band), it's still a capable and cost-effective system.