RT-AX58U V1 vs RT-AX59U (2024)

Because I couldn't find any direct comparison, I'll try to ask here. My sister needs new router and I'm thinking of giving her my RT-AX58U and replacing it with RT-AX59U. Its compact design would certainly be useful for my cramped desk, but that's not why I buy a router. Could you give me pros/cons comparison between them?

Thanks!

Welcome to the forums @Terepin.

The RT-AX58U was the most troubled Asus router I have bought/used. The RT-AX59U isn't much better (from reading the forums here).

I would suggest keeping your working model in your network and getting something else/better for your sister.

The RT-AX68U is the lowest model I would consider (if you can find it still available, and on a good sale).

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Problem is my sister has limited budget and currently the RT-AX58U V2 is on sale for 77,50 €, which is a steal in my opinion.

Terepin said:

if you know a better model for the same price, I'm all ears. Besides, I never had any problem with my model.

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I used the RT-AX58U for over a year and it worked very good for me never had a issue and got top speeds with it using AC wifi adapters and phones. Even better if you AX devices. There is nothing wrong with this budget friendly router if you just need good wifi for surfing and streaming.

Volt said:

AX58UV1 is based on an obsolete SoC version which is no longer produced

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Is V2 satisfactory in this regard?

Terepin said:

I mean, if you know a better model for the same price, I'm all ears. Besides, I never had any problem with my model. At least none that I am aware of. A bit OT, but what were common issues with 58U?

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The issues that I saw were laggy network performance (wired and wireless, when the RT-AX58U was put into the network via wired backhaul AiMesh), unreliable performance, particularly around firmware update times, and just a general lack of network dependability (it would frequently need rebooting to be as fast as it could be). Not to mention the laggy GUI.

With the RT-AX58U out of my network, the difference was astounding. Noticeably less lag, perfect reliability, and a network that I could depend on again.

Terepin said:

Is V2 satisfactory in this regard?

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It is still slower than the quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 CPU in Filogic 830. Another benefit is that AX58U is 2x2:2, while AX59U is 3x3:2. It is not 3x3:3, but still better than 2x2:2 - routers with more spatial streams are always better, since even for 2x2 clients, they can use the remaining spatial streams for beamforming.

BTW, here is another post from the AX58U user who switched to TUF4200 (which is almost identical to AX59U in terms of hardware) and is very happy with the speed.

Terepin said:

But isn't TUF4200 a true 3x3 model?

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No. 3x3:2 like RT-AX59U.

Terepin said:

Were those issues fixed in V2? My sister is only using internet for IPTV, VOD and web browsing. And some light gaming on a phone. I am a gamer, but I am using LAN connection, wireless is used only for phones, TV, Chromecast and printer. Would me getting the V2 and her getting the V1 be a better choice considering our use scenarios?

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If you are happy with RT-AX58U v1 you probably won't notice a difference in performance between RT-AX58U v2 and RT-AX59U.
You can buy the cheaper one.

PS: RT-AX59U will have OpenWRT support.

Terepin said:

But isn't TUF4200 a true 3x3 model?

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No, it is also a 3X3:2 model.

Terepin said:

Ok, last question: does anyone know if AX-58U is close to EoL, seeing as 56U is already dead?

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Given that we have V2 now, I don't think that its EOL is closer than for any other mainstream AX model like, for example, AX82U. On the other hand, RT-AX59U is a much newer model and was from start released with 388 firmware, so we can speculate that RT-AX59U EOL will be after RT-AX58U.

Volt said:

so we can speculate that RT-AX59U EOL will be after RT-AX58U

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It's pure lottery.
We can as well speculate that RT-AX59U will be on the EOL list sooner because Asus supports Broadcom longer than Mediatek
The advantage of RT-AX59U may be the support of Openwrt (especially after obtaining EOL status).

PS: RT-AX56U is not dead, it still works and may continue to do so for a few several years (if no important security bugs appear).

Terepin said:

So between TUF-AX4200 and RT-AX59U, what is the actual, real world difference?

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Design, marketing, WAN port (2,5 GbE vs 1 GbE), flash memory (you can skip it).