Asus ZenWiFi BT10 Wi-Fi 7 mesh router review: Good multi-gig wireless performance, but still pricey

Asus’ ever-expanding family of Wi-Fi 7 routers is growing yet again with the introduction of the ZenWiFi BT10. In many ways, the ZenWiFi BT10 is similar to the ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro we reviewed earlier, but it is a step behind in outright performance and features.

Whereas the ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro is all about delivering the absolute fastest wireless performance and giving you a second 6 GHz band, the ZenWiFi BT10 is a tri-band Wi-Fi 7 router that offers you most of the performance at a price point of hundreds of dollars lower. Its output is solid but not among those of the best Wi-Fi routers.

Design of the Asus ZenWiFi BT10 Wi-Fi 7 Mesh Router

The ZenWiFi BT10 shares its design language with the BQ16 Pro. However, it is slightly shorter and narrower than its pricier sibling (7.48 x 6.14 x 2.91 inches for ZenWiFi BT10 versus 8.4 x 6.9 x 2.8 inches for the BQ16 Pro). Each node wouldn’t look out of place sitting on a bookshelf or end table. In other words, this design won’t clash with your usual home décor like one of the popular octa-antenna “spider” gaming routers on the market.

There’s a single LED on the lower front of the ZenWiFi BT10, just below the Asus logo. The light flashes various colors to signify connection status (for example, flashing red signifies a problem with your internet connection). It glows a steady white when the network status is nominal. There are fewer ports on the back than you’ll find on the BQ16 Pro. You get one 10G port for WAN/LAN, one 10G port for LAN, and one 1G port for WAN/LAN.

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At this price point, 1G LAN is a headscratcher, but we had the same annoyance with the BQ16 Pro. There’s also a USB 3.2 port for attaching a storage device or printer for network access. I should note that the main router and satellite are identical hardware-wise and interchangeable. Whichever node you set up first becomes the router, while the second unit becomes the wireless satellite.

Asus ZenWiFi BT10 Wi-Fi 7 Mesh Router Specifications

Setting up the ZenWiFi BT10 Wi-Fi 7 Mesh Router

Configuring the ZenWiFi BT10 out of the box was relatively straightforward. I unboxed the first node, plugged in power, a patch cable to my modem, and a cable to my server. I then accessed asusrouter.com from my browser to invoke the setup process.

The setup program provided easy-to-understand steps for creating an SSID for the network, gave me an option to enable a separate IoT SSID, and allowed me to create an administrator login and password. Once this was completed, the setup program sought out the latest firmware from Asus.

After the first node (router) setup was complete, I was asked to turn on the second node, which would become the wireless satellite. I plugged in the second node, after which it took about 5 minutes for it to sync up with the router and complete the network.

My next step was to create separate SSIDs for the three wireless bands. I named them Asus_BT10_24, Asus_BT10_5, and Asus_BT10_6 to make testing the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands easier for this review. However, after rebooting the router after applying these changes, I encountered an issue — the satellite would no longer connect. After a lot of confusion and reboots to rectify the problem, I resorted to completing a factory reset on the satellite. After performing the factory reset, the satellite was re-paired with the router, and I never had any additional configuration issues with the system.

As I mentioned earlier, there is no physical or hardware difference between the router and the satellite. As a result, you get the same limited number of ports on each node: 10G WAN/LAN, 10G LAN, and 1G WAN/LAN. The 10G LAN port can be used to implement a wired backhaul between the router and the satellite to maximize performance. Since the router and satellite use identical hardware, each has two 10 GbE ports on the back.

If you don’t have cabling in your home to take advantage of the wired backhaul, the ZenWiFi BT10 – like the ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro – has a beefy wireless backhaul. The ZenWiFi BT10 takes advantage of MLO, which is part of the Wi-Fi 7 spec, to bond the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands into a single link.

Asus ZenWiFi BT10 Wi-Fi 7 Mesh Router Software

Asus routers use the AsusWRT 5.0 software platform, and the ZenWiFi BT10 is no exception. We updated the mesh system to Asus’ latest firmware, 3.0.0.6.102_36758, for testing. While the interface is familiar to me and anyone who has previously dabbled with Asus routers, it can easily become overwhelming with the sheer number of settings you can configure.

Once you enter your administrator login and password, you’re brought to the router homepage, or “Network Map,” as Asus calls it. It provides internet connection status, your current WPA security level, core utilization percentage for the CPU, RAM usage, active Ethernet ports, the status of your USB port, and AiMesh status. If all you want to do is to complete the initial setup of the ZenWiFi BT10 and not mess with it again, you probably won’t need to venture away from this homepage.

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However, for someone in the market for a mesh Wi-Fi 7 router that costs nearly $1,000, we know you’ll be delving deep into the expansive menu system. While there’s too much to discuss in this one review, some key sections include AiMesh, which gives you an overview of your connected wireless nodes and backhaul status (in my case, the nodes are connected via an MLO wireless link). You also have the option to optimize the AiMesh if you’re having issues or add another wireless node.

The network tab is where you can create separate SSIDs for your main network, add a guest network, or create other networks (Kids, IoT, VPN, MLO, etc.). Our review unit came preconfigured with the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands all under a single SSID (Smart Connect). However, I decided to create an SSID for each band on the main network to keep things nice and tidy.

AI Protection is a comprehensive security suite for your router that’s provided by TrendMicro, while USB application gives you control of all the functions possible with the single USB 3.2 port. For example, you can enable a Time Machine backup with an external HDD or SSD for Mac computers, create a network printer server, or even connect a smartphone to use its cellular connection for internet access.

Asus ZenWiFi BT10 Wi-Fi 7 Mesh Router Performance

Our current Wi-Fi router testbed is a Windows 11 desktop with an MSI Pro B650M-A Wi-Fi motherboard, AMD Ryzen 5 7600, 32GB of DDR5, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and an MSI Herald-BE Wi-Fi 7 PCIe adapter, all of which are using the most recent software, BIOS, firmware, and drivers (where applicable).

The iPerf3 throughput tests are conducted using our Windows 11 server equipped with an onboard 10 Gbps wired network card connected to the 10 Gbps LAN port on the ZenWiFi ZenWiFi BT10. Wireless tests encompass 6-foot and 25-foot distances. Wireless tests are first conducted with the network free of added traffic from other connected clients. Next, those same tests are run with simulated traffic from additional users accessing the network (for our testing, we use six clients streaming 4K video from YouTube).

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The BQ16 Pro is currently our reigning speed king among Wi-Fi 7 routers (mesh or otherwise). However, the ZenWiFi BT10 was no slouch, hitting an average of 2,667 Mbps at a distance of six feet in our uncongested iPerf3 test on the 6GHz band. The BQ16 Pro was well ahead at 3,523 Mbps, while the TP-Link Deco BE65 Pro was far behind at 1,846 Mbps. 25-foot testing saw performance drop by well over 50 percent to 1,157 Mbps, putting it on par with the Netgear Orbi 770.

The ZenWiFi BT10 slipped into third place on the 5GHz band, with 1,293 Mbps at six feet, placing it behind the Deco BE65 Pro (1,530 Mbps) and the BQ16 Pro (1,630 Mbps). Stretching out to 25 feet, the ZenWiFi BT10 managed to come in first by the slimmest of margins at 659 Mbps.

The Orbi 770 dominated our 2.4GHz iPerf3 tests, while the ZenWiFi BT10 and BQ16 Pro duked it out at the back of the pack in performance at both test distances.

Our congested tests showed that the ZenWiFi BT10 experienced a 10 to 15 percent drop in performance across all bands at 6-feet and 25-feet distances. Likewise, ping times for the ZenWiFi BT10 mostly stayed below the 10ms range.

As we always caution, wireless performance can be highly variable, and can widely vary depending on the architecture of your home, apartment, or office.

Bottom Line

If the ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro is the overachiever in Asus’ Wi-Fi 7 router portfolio, the ZenWiFi BT10 doesn’t quite reach the performance highs of its high-flying sibling, but comes close enough. Close-range 6GHz band performance surpassing 2,600 Mbps is good no matter how you slice it, and performance on the other two bands was competitive with the Netgear Orbi 770 and TP-Link Deco BE65 Pro.

I continue to love the Asus WRT 5.0 interface and its breadth of features and configuration options to suit your specific needs. The additional USB 3.2 controls are also welcome. The only real reservations that I have with the ZenWiFi BT10 come with its port setup. There are only two LAN ports, one of which is 1G and the other is 10G. I’d like to see that 1G port bumped to at least 2.5G. Sure, you could attach a 10G switch to expand the number of available ports, but that’s an added cost to an already pricey router.

Speaking of pricing, the street price for the ZenWiFi BT10 is around $860, or about $300 less than the BQ16 Pro. That’s about $300 more expensive than the Orbi 770 2-pack (which didn’t have as strong 6GHz band performance). The Deco BE65 Pro has a street price of $500, but also came up short on 6GHz performance. Also, consider that the Deco BE65 Pro features three nodes (one router plus two satellites) at that $500 price point, but you don’t get 10G connectivity at all.

If top-notch 6GHz band performance and 10G wired connectivity is a priority, then the Asus ZenWiFi BT10 should be a top consideration. However, the TP-Link Deco BE65 Pro represents a far better value for most home users.