ASUS Expands Lyra Mesh Family

Photo of author

Tim Higgins

Somebody had to eventually combine a smart speaker with mesh Wi-Fi and it looks like ASUS finally has. The Lyra Voice is a tri-band AC2200 mesh router with built-in microphone and stereo speakers supporting Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.

AC2200 would mean it has three dual-stream radios, one for 2.4 GHz, one for 5 GHz low band (Channels 36-44) and one for 5 GHz high band (Channels 149-165), with maximum link rates of 400 Mbps for 2.4 GHz and 867 Mbps for each 5 GHz radio.

ASUS Lyra Voice

ASUS Lyra Voice

Lyra Voice works with other Lyra nodes to form mesh networks for whole-home Wi-Fi coverage. It also supports IFTTT for other home automation options. There are no details on Ethernet or USB ports.

The second Lyra will give many ASUS fans a real sense of deja vu. Lyra Trio resurrects the pyramid design of the EA-N66, but in the form of a three-stream 802.11ac mesh router in what looks like a white and aqua color scheme that is bound to please the lady of the manor.

ASUS provided no further details, so we don’t know whether this is a dual-band or tri-band, how many Ethernet ports it has, yadda yadda.

ASUS Lyra Trio

ASUS Lyra Trio

ASUS’s last "announcement" isn’t really one, since the company already introduced its 802.11ax RT-AX88U at IFA 2017 back in September. But I guess they included it in their CES announcements to officially plant their 11ax flag on American soil.

The router looks awfully like the company’s four-stream AC3100 class RT-AC88U, complete with red-accented antennas. The AX88U is said to also sport eight Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and will support both downlink and uplink MU-MIMO. The last point is interesting, since all 11ax chipmakers have said that uplink MU-MIMO won’t be initially supported and is likely to not appear until 11ax "Wave 2".

ASUS RT-AX88U 802.11ax Router

ASUS RT-AX88U 802.11ax Router

ASUS says all three products will be available in "1H 2018" with pricing announced at launch.

Related posts

TRENDnet Adds Two New 4K PoE Surveillance Cameras

TRENDnet has added a pair of indoor/outdoor 4K security cameras.

NETGEAR’s CES 2018 Announcements

NETGEAR's CES 2018 introductions include something for gamers, business and babies.

QNAP Announces AI For Storage, New NASes…And A Robot?

QNAP's CES announcements for CES 2018 cover AI, IoT, robotics and, yes, a few new NASes.