Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router review: Get your net in the game

In the Wi-Fi arms race against your neighbours, getting a good Wi-Fi 7 router is bringing out the big guns. A tri-band router (with a 6GHz band) is the biggest gun, but a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 router is still plenty if you don’t want to shell out eleventy billion dollars for your internet.

The Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router is a gaming-focused router and, like every other router I’ve tried from Asus in the past year, I love it. While so many gaming-focused routers make you forsake the joys of mesh, the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router gives you the option of using a mesh network, or just sticking with the one unit.

While it’s not the fastest router on the block, it’s got more than enough speed and reliability for most Australian users.

Table of contents

• First impressions
• Specifications and price
• Speed tests
• Gaming
• General use
• Who is the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router for?

First impressions

The Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router looks like a gaming router, only a little more refined. It still looks like a prop from an ’80s movie about the future, because I’m guessing all the gaming router makers signed some kind of pact to that effect years ago. But the lines on it are sleek enough that I am willing to allow this prop from a Swedish Eurovision entry in my home.

As with all Asus routers I’ve tested recently, the setup was quick and easy. The app was clearly thoughtfully designed for people to actually use it, rather than just tick the boxes of what it absolutely had to do. Setting up the guest network to be an IoT network is always a good call, and I appreciate that Asus suggests it in the setup process.

I went from having it in the box to fully set up (including updates and screwing on its little antennas) in less than 15 minutes. It would have been faster had I not gotten distracted by opening a Pokémon TCG Pocket pack midway through.

TUF Gaming BE6500 Router specifications and price

Speed tests

I have to admit that I was sceptical about how the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router would do in my apartment, being just dual-band. I live in an apartment building in the inner city, where the interference is off the charts. My bedroom has interference from more than 70 other Wi-Fi networks. That’s a lot of noise for a dual-band router to compete with.

Pleasantly, though, not once in the month that I’ve been using the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router have I thought my internet was too slow or laggy in any room, on any device, during any application. Aside from downloading updates on Xbox, but that’s an Xbox problem rather than a me problem.

Here are the speeds I got in different areas of my apartment while using the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router.

Overall, while it would be nice if there weren’t an 80% speed drop off in my daughter’s room, given the amount of interference and that this is only a dual-band router, I’m actually really impressed.

Of course, I would be less impressed if this were 80% of a 100/20 NBN speed, rather than my 1000/1000 DGTek speed. In that situation, it would be worth either upgrading to a higher speed tier, or buying a tri-band router (whichever is cheaper).

Gaming

For hardcore gamers who want a bit more out of their router, there are lots of customisation options in the app, including port forwarding routines for dozens, if not hundreds, of popular games (and some I’ve never heard of), and options to make your own rules to cater to other games you might have settings for.

There’s also Mobile Game Boost, which reduces latency and boosts the priority for your mobile device for when you’re ready to lock in. It’s red, so you know it’s serious.

General use

Other features in the app include AIProtection, which calculates the needs for defences and adjusts them as necessary. Not once was I stopped from visiting a legitimate website, but I was twice stopped from websites that my toddler accidentally clicked on in spam mail while sitting in my lap. This tells me two things:

1. The security is effective without being overzealous.
2. I need to start teaching my toddler about cybersecurity before she bankrupts us in a phishing scam.

There’s also the option to configure a VPN, which is very helpful given the upcoming aggressive age-based censorship we’re about to experience.

Having the traffic analyser is great for working out which program exactly is ruining everything.

My favourite part is that none of it required me to pay for a subscription. They were just features that came with the router. Already, that gives it 10,000 bonus points in my book.

Who is Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router for?

The Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router is a great option for gamers who want Wi-Fi 7 on a budget. Asus has done a really great job of balancing features and price. The app is really easy to use and understand, so even gamers who like to play but don’t necessarily get the tech will still be able to work out how to tweak the settings to suit their needs.

While the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 Router isn’t suited to large dwellings on its own, the ability to include it in a mesh network means it will suit everyone who wants Wi-Fi 7 and doesn’t need the 6GHz band.