Asus USB-N53 review

Dual-band wireless N adaptor to boost your Wi-Fi

Reviews
By
published
Asus USB-N53
It might look needlessly fancy, but this wireless N adaptor works well

TechRadar Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Dual band

  • +

    Great range

  • +

    Fast wireless speeds

Cons

  • -

    High price

  • -

    Design could put you off

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Anyone who has an Asus RT-N56U Dual Band Wireless-N Router will recognise the striking design of the Asus USB-N53 dual-band 300Mbps wireless N adaptor.

Of course it's performance that counts with a wireless adaptor, and the Asus USB-N53 does very well, and goes some way to justify its higher than average price. Being dual-band, you get both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands - as long as you have a capable router - and interference from other wireless signals is kept to a minimum, which is a godsend in the modern home when almost everything is Wi-Fi enabled.

It works well and we were streaming HD content as well as surfing the internet on our test laptop without any stuttering. There was also a noticeable increase in range compared to our test laptop's built-in wireless receiver, although streaming media became a bit less consistent when a few walls were placed between the receiver and the router.

The Asus USB-N53 wireless N adaptor comes with some handy software that turns your PC into an access point, although we did have a few problems with the set up process hanging in Windows 7 64bit.

Matt Hanson
Matt Hanson
Managing Editor, Core Tech

Matt is TechRadar's Managing Editor for Core Tech, looking after computing and mobile technology. Having written for a number of publications such as PC Plus, PC Format, T3 and Linux Format, there's no aspect of technology that Matt isn't passionate about, especially computing and PC gaming. He’s personally reviewed and used most of the laptops in our best laptops guide - and since joining TechRadar in 2014, he's reviewed over 250 laptops and computing accessories personally.