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Asus Lyra Trio review – The end of your WiFi headaches

Having unboxed a fair few routers the Asus Lyra Trio system was a bit of an oddity for me.

Usually you’ll find a router, a power adapter and a LAN cable but the Asus Lyra Trio (here forth referred to as Lyra) is very different.

Instead of one router you get three base stations that look like they were inspired by ancient Egyptian architecture, three power adapters and one LAN cable.

Three base stations and one LAN cable? This is because the Lyra hopes to solve one very specific problem – terrible WiFi signal.

The Lyra is a mesh network like those you will see at big enterprises but it’s simpler to use and cheaper than an enterprise solution. The question then is whether or not Lyra is any good.

Asus Lyra Trio review – Tap, tap, go

Setting the Lyra up is simple even if you don’t read the manual.

The first base station has to be plugged into a modem as the device doesn’t have an internal one, but the rest will connect to each other using WiFi. This is great because it means there is no need to run cabling to each base station.

Once base station one is plugged in you can start setting the router up using the Asus Lyra app. Connect to the WiFi network “Lyra Mesh” and within a few taps the first Lyra base station is set up and beaming internet.

From there you’ll be playing a game of “Find the signal” using your smartphone. The Lyra app will display the strength of the signal from the base station most recently added to the network.

This allows you to place the next base station in a position that extends the capabilities of your existing network.

Of course you can hard-wire the Lyra into a network if there is an existing port nearby but the WiFi connection works well enough to not warrant it.

It’s incredibly simple and it just works. Well done Asus.

Asus Lyra Trio review – Does it work?

The goal of the Lyra system is to extend the capabilities of your existing network. My house is old which means the walls are thicker, making getting WiFi throughout my home tricky.

My concern with the Lyra system was that despite being able to get WiFi in corners of the house that had never had it before, the quality of the signal would fail and make the connection unusable. Below are speed tests conducted at each Lyra base station.

Router Distance from source Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Ping (ms) Packet loss
Control 0m 4.87 1.56 20 0
Lyra 1 0m 3.72 1.58 29 0
Lyra 2 13m 4.16 1.66 35 0
Lyra 3 26m 4.24 1.48 29 0

As you can see the difference between Lyra 1 and our control is substantial but we put this down to interference caused by another WiFi router in the same room.

As we add more hops to our network we did notice very slight speed and latency difference but given we are now hoping between access points this is to be expected.

Overall I am incredibly impressed with not only the speeds I experienced on the network but how stable it is as well. As you can see from the table above we experienced zero packet loss during our tests and ping remained stable.

File transfers were also without issue

The seamless hand-off between Lyra access points is incredibly well executed. While watching a game of Hearthstone on Twitch and moving through the house the stream never stopped to buffer or pause despite switching between three access points.

Stand out features include support for 802.11ac WiFi as well as support on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrums.

There is also the option to set up parental controls and a guest network.

Overall, Lyra does what it says on the box and it does it incredibly well.

Asus Lyra Trio review – Who is this for?

Before you rush off to get yourself a Lyra we have to address the elephant in the room – the price.

At R5 999 the Lyra Trio is not cheap but then again neither is an enterprise mesh system.

At time of writing two enterprise grade access points from Ubiquiti were retailing for R2 899 a piece. Comparatively speaking then, Lyra is actually cheap.

This is especially true for a small business that needs to bathe it’s premises in WiFi but can’t afford the labour and equipment needed to install such a solution.

For average home users the Lyra is a bit difficult to recommend. That having been said if you live in a house that’s big enough to cause headaches because there isn’t WiFi in every room, this is a great way to fix that and it’s easy to use.

If we must find one pain point with the Lyra it’s that the lighting which gives you an indication of the signal strength is a bit bright. We know that’s reaching but that should be testament to how good this product is.

We’ve tested many routers which claim to spread WiFi throughout your entire house but the Lyra is the first to do that while maintaining the speed of my internet connection.

For big homes and small businesses then the Lyra is a simple solution to a common problem and having used it for two weeks I’m considering purchasing one for my home. Kudos to Asus, this is a fantastic product.

Disclaimer: The Asus Lyra Trio was sent to htxt.africa for review by Asus South Africa. The review was not paid for and the product will be returned to Asus South Africa.

[su_box title=”Asus Lyra Trio specifications” box_color=”#f37021″]

Standard 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Frequency 2.4GHz and 5GHz

Max data rate 450Mbps (2.4GHz) 1 300Mbps (5GHz)

Interface 1 x Gigabit WAN port, 1x Gigabit LAN port, Bluetooth, Lyra app

Security WPA2-PSK

Price R5 999

[/su_box]

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