I am a big fan of the ASUS TUF Gaming device series. I have owned a TUF Gaming laptop and have been using the TUF Gaming AX5400 wireless router daily for over two years, and it has never let me down. ASUS aims to balance performance and price with the TUF Gaming series. While this series typically lacks some of the newer RGB LED lighting and certain more successful designs, it maintains strong performance.
The ASUS TUF Gaming AX4200 is a reasonably priced wireless router for those who play games regularly. This router would also be a good choice for those with an internet connection exceeding 1 Gbit/s. There aren’t many places here with such fast internet, but it is available in some areas.
Technical Specifications
| Feature | Specification |
| Product Category | Dual-band, AX4200 |
| Processor | 2.0 GHz Quad-Core |
| Memory | 512 MB RAM, 256 MB Flash |
| Antennas | Four, MU-MIMO |
| Connection Standards | IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax |
| Ports | 2.5 Gigabit WAN, 4x 1 Gigabit LAN |
| LED Indicators | Power, Wi-Fi, LAN |
| Buttons | Reset, On/Off, WPS |
| Dimensions | 256 x 178 x 186 mm |
| Additional Features | QoS, Parental Control, AI Mesh |
| Price | Around $150 |
Design and Build
ASUS has chosen to design the TUF Gaming AX4200 wireless router to resemble other TUF and ASUS ROG gaming routers. Its shape is somewhat reminiscent of a spaceship, but it lacks any RGB LED lighting. Instead, the TUF Gaming AX4200 features practical LED indicators that show the router’s activity.
The entire device is made from high-quality plastic and includes four non-removable antennas. At the back, you will find the usual LAN and WAN ports, as well as a USB port (which can be used for 4G/5G USB modems or to connect a flash drive or external HDD to create a data server). Two of the LAN ports can be used for a feature called LAN Aggregation (often referred to as Link Aggregation), which means you can connect a compatible NAS device with two network cables, providing nearly double the data transfer speeds (around 2 Gbit/s). Link Aggregation also has other advantages—if one network cable fails, the other will still work.
Software and Setup
I used the ASUS Router app to set up and manage the TUF Gaming AX4200 during the review, but ASUS also offers a web browser interface with additional features not available in the app. Once again, I can commend ASUS for their excellent work, as setting up the router did not turn into a tedious web resource browsing experience—it worked exactly as promised. The setup process was smooth, and the router came out of the box with a stable firmware version, which used to be a significant issue for ASUS.
The TUF Gaming AX4200 wireless router is highly recommended for beginners, as its initial setup with a Windows 11 computer is simply excellent. You just need to turn on the TUF Gaming AX4200 and connect to the wireless network it creates with your computer. Windows 11 will automatically open the TUF Gaming AX4200 configuration page in your web browser. The following steps are straightforward, with everything explained clearly, and the router’s firmware updates itself. At no point did I feel uncertain about what to do, and the router performed as expected.
To set up the TUF Gaming AX4200, you simply need to power it on, wait a moment, and connect to the wireless network it creates with your computer or smartphone. Windows 11 will redirect you to the setup page in your web browser, while on a smartphone, you will need to enter router.asus.com in the browser to access the setup page. The setup will take no more than two minutes. The TUF Gaming AX4200 can also be set up using the smartphone app, where you are unlikely to encounter any questions, even as a complete beginner. The app operates quickly, and I did not notice any flaws or confusingly placed information.
The TUF Gaming AX4200 supports ASUS AiMesh, which allows you to easily create a wireless mesh network using multiple ASUS routers. Previously, ASUS AiMesh was a feature exclusive to significantly more expensive ASUS router models. However, it should be noted that the TUF Gaming AX4200 is not super cheap; it leans more toward the higher price range.
Performance
We test the performance of wireless routers using reasonably priced devices. Previously, we have also tested high-end flagship smartphones, but their data transfer capabilities sometimes fall below those of mid-range smartphones. This time, we tested the TUF Gaming AX4200 with a Xiaomi 13T smartphone and a laptop (AMD Ryzen 7 3750H, 24 GB RAM, Intel AX200 network card, Windows 11). The test computer, acting as a local server, has an Intel Core i9 13th generation processor, 32 GB RAM, and a 2.5 gigabit network card.
When it comes to the signal strength of the TUF Gaming AX4200, it dropped faster than that of other wireless routers in a similar price range. In the further room, other routers typically show around -60 to -63 dBm, while this one was closer to -67 dBm, which is already on the edge of being unusable. These readings are for the 5 GHz band; the 2.4 GHz band performed much better without major issues.
With the smartphone, the TUF Gaming AX4200 displayed quite variable data transfer speeds. For some reason, in direct line of sight, the data transfer was nearly half of what we observed in the adjacent room, separated by just one wall. Overall, though, the data transfer with the smartphone was not bad.
The laptop achieved around 700 Mbit/s for downloads and about 560 Mbit/s for uploads in direct line of sight, which is quite good but not outstanding. With the laptop, the data transfer speeds were logical and predictable both in the adjacent room and at the far end of a further room.
Conclusion
In my view, the ASUS TUF Gaming AX4200 is a good but not outstanding wireless router, unless your internet connection exceeds the usual 1 gigabit. In that case, the TUF Gaming AX4200 can really show its strength in daily use and gaming.
In all other situations, the price of the TUF Gaming AX4200 will be higher than that of competitors that rely on the standard 1 Gbit/s WAN and LAN. This seems to be the biggest drawback of the TUF Gaming AX4200: it has only a 2.5 Gbit/s WAN port but no 2.5 Gbit/s LAN ports. As a result, the TUF Gaming AX4200 loses some versatility in how its fast connection can be used. In this regard, TP-Link is much smarter, providing 2.5 Gbit/s ports for both internet and local needs.
