ASUS USB-AC53 Nano USB WiFi Adapter Dual-Band (2.4GHz, 5GHz) Wireless AC1200 802.11ac MU-MIMO for use with Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 and MAC OS

The ASUS USB-AC53 AC1200 Nano USB Dual-Band Wireless Adapter has significantly improved my wireless connectivity experience. If you're looking to upgrade your device's wireless capabilities, this adapter is a fantastic choice. To start, the compact and sleek design of the ASUS USB-AC53 is impressive. Its small form factor allows for easy portability, making it convenient for on-the-go use with laptops or other compatible devices. The nano size ensures it won't interfere with neighboring ports, and it can be left plugged in without obstructing other connections. Setting up the adapter is a breeze. It's a simple plug-and-play device that quickly connects to your device via USB. The installation process is straightforward, and the adapter is compatible with various operating systems, including Windows and macOS. Within minutes, you'll have a reliable wireless connection at your fingertips. The dual-band capability of the USB-AC53 is a standout feature. It supports both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands, providing flexibility to connect to the most suitable network for your needs. This allows for faster speeds, reduced interference, and improved stability, especially in crowded Wi-Fi environments. Whether you're streaming high-definition videos, gaming online, or transferring large files, the USB-AC53 ensures a smooth and uninterrupted wireless experience. The inclusion of MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) technology is a significant advantage. It enables simultaneous data streaming to multiple devices, ensuring efficient performance and reducing lag. This is particularly beneficial in households or offices with multiple devices connected to the same network. I've noticed a considerable improvement in overall network speed and responsiveness since using this adapter. The AC1200 rating ensures excellent wireless performance with speeds of up to 867Mbps on the 5GHz band and up to 300Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. This allows for seamless browsing, streaming, and online gaming experiences. The adapter's performance has exceeded my expectations, delivering fast and stable connections throughout my usage. In conclusion, the ASUS USB-AC53 AC1200 Nano USB Dual-Band Wireless Adapter is a game-changer when it comes to upgrading your device's wireless connectivity. With its compact design, dual-band capability, and MU-MIMO technology, it provides a seamless and reliable connection. Whether you're at home, in the office, or on the go, this adapter ensures fast speeds, reduced interference, and improved overall performance. I highly recommend the ASUS USB-AC53 to anyone seeking a wireless connectivity upgrade. Disclaimer: I received no incentives or discounts for this review. I am simply sharing my genuine experience with this product.

Like a few other comments pointed out, I don't understand the negative reviews this has received. It does run a little warm, but beyond that it works flawlessly. First, be sure you understand the ports on your computer and the limitations of older hardware. If you plug this into a older USB port, you will be limited on speed. It works just fine on the USB 3 port I use. Second is to be sure to use the Asus driver, not Windows; though I will say Win10's generic AX driver did a decent job before I upgraded to the Asus. You can generally tell the difference between USB 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 by color alone. While the size and shape may be identical, the key is to look at the color of the plastic inside the device. The USB 1.0 features a white plastic color, while USB 2.0 is black, and the USB 3.0 is blue. USB 1.0 only had a data transfer speed of 12 Mbs, but was later sped up to 480 Mbs. USB 2.0. 3.0 and 3.1 have since improved upon this speed by bringing it up to 5 Gbs and 10 Gbs, respectively. Note you will never reach those max speeds on any USB device as it is benchmark values, not real world. Also regarding data transfer, the USB 2.0 and older models are only capable of processing data in a single direction at a time, but newer 3.0 and 3.1 models allow for data transfer in both directions. This means that data can be sent and received simultaneously. The speeds above are shared totals, not each direction at the same time To understand more Google for yourself about USB and the difference between Mbs/MBs and Gbs/GBs. In sum, this product connects to my WiFi 6, and is just as fast as my other WiFi 6 clients on the network from similar distances. I plan to get another one.

This is more than a review. First I would buy this wi-fi usb again. Works great. Showed up as WiFi 2 on Windows 10. Within a day I started having more than the usual connection problems with my Microsoft Wireless Adapter-Miracast device. This device allows me to send Netflix, Amazon Prime, or anything else on my computer to the TV. Great device. The connection problems, however, are NOT THE Result of my new Asus Nano. getting 100Mbs with the new wireless at 5GHz connection. The original card Atheros is only a 2.5 connection. So using a dual band router I have great connection speeds. But what was up with the Miracast device? ****After mucking around for a few hours yesterday and today--and after a chat with MSFT Support--I turned OFF the original Atheros wifi card. I did rename the Asus Nano first just to be sure I was turning off the correct card. Now, both the MSFT Wireless Adapter (about 5 years old) and the Screenbeam Adapter for another TV (same age) display as devices that I can connect. This doesn't mean I still won't have some issues. But at least i'm headed in the right direction. I do not have this issue with my other laptop (Surface 3 Pro). Oh well. The Asus Nano Dual Band Wireless USB is an awesome, easy upgrade.

Just got this yesterday so I’ll update the review if I experience any issues later on. So far it seems to be working great. I bought this for my Asus gaming Pc because the original WiFi adapter decided to croak on me. This one is literally plug and play friendly. Just make sure you disable your current WiFi adapter in your network settings before plugging this one in. That way there is no interference. The signal range is not as great as I would have hoped but even with 3/4 of a full signal I am able to get my high speeds and no connection drops. If you’re getting this for gaming, you’ll have nothing to worry about. Only reason it’s not getting 5 stars is because of the range could be better. Side note: my phones WiFi seems to be a bit better than this one. I’ve tried Speedtesting both my pc and my phone and I get different results every time. Not sure why that is but good with that speed. It’s more than enough for what I need. Phone- (205mps) Pc- (168mps)

Wow! Easy install and works as it should! Dell notebook with older b/g/n WiFi, with Windows 10 installed. Ookla Speedtest and Google’s speedtest both struggled to achieve much more than a couple of (2-3) Mbps download results. I plugged the adapter into a USB slot, Windows installed the device with little fanfare, yay. Looking at Device Manager I could see the new adapter under networking. I jumped over to the notifications area on the task bar, clicked on my WiFi icon, selected my WiFi network (802.11AC). Again, connected without issue. Disabled the old Dell b/g/n adapter n Device Manager. Re-ran speed test again and no getting results consistently 100-200 Mbps (using 802.11 AC router and 250 Mbps internet access). Windows Task Manager > Performance tab showed CPU never went above 60 percent utilization, 4 of 8 GB RAM use, and networking showing similar or higher throughputs than speed tests. Outlook, Firefox with multiple tabs, 2 PDFs, several word docs, folders, and more all open during test. Loaded several websites, news sites, that lately have been sluggish to load, at best, and all came up quickly as the should, visibly loading in just a couple of seconds versus a noticeable delay previously. Still need a new notebook, but this adapter keeps the current one useful for a while longer. For low $$, though losing a USB slot, it is a worthwhile upgrade.

A few months back, I upgraded my old "N" WiFi router to an ASUS RT-AC88U "AC" 2.4Ghz/5Ghz WiFi router (and I LOVE it -- not flashed to Merlin, still on Default OS), my primary laptop is a Lenovo ThinkPad W530 with built-in "N" 2.4Ghz/5Ghz WiFi adapter (an Intel(R) Centrino(R) Ultimate-N 6300 AGN adapter), and my laptop OS is Windows 7-64bit. NOTE: I just disabled the built-in “N” WiFi adapter once I had this new ASUS USB-AC53 Nano WiFi adapter installed (but I've had to enable the built-in adapter with all of the issues that I've been having with this new ASUS adapter). My experience with getting this adapter working "consistently" has really been a bag of cats... I love it and hate it, at the same time... I love it because it's very tiny and 2-3x faster than my built-in "N" WiFi adapter (within 10-15 feet of my ASUS RT-AC88U router). I also hate it because it takes forever to connect when I first start-up my laptop (sometimes 30-60 minutes) or when I disconnect my VPN software (the latter is more of a VPN software issue, I believe). And, occasionally when I restart my laptop, I cannot get it to connect to my router at all (whether my SSID is "hidden" or not) without removing and reinstalling the ASUS USB-AC53 Nano adapter. When I cannot get the ASUS USB-AC53 Nano adapter to connect or power reset, I just use my internal "N" WiFi adapter as a backup, and it ALWAYS connects immediately. The range of this ASUS USB-AC53 Nano adapter varies greatly when moving around the house, but, it’s very tiny, and no external antennas. - I have seen very good speeds of "up to" 650Mbps & 866.7Mbps (Tx & Rx), but only if I'm within maybe 10 feet of the router (my router is very close to where I usually work, so it’s not an issue for me). - Moving away from the router, to about 15 feet (no obstructions), the speed starts to drop off a bit to about 526.5Mbps & 650Mbps (Tx & Rx), but still good. - Moving more than 20 feet away from the router or into another room (with wall obstructions), or to another floor in the house, things start to change "dramatically" with this tiny adapter (probably because it does not have external antennas—which I did expect). - Moving my laptop one floor up in the house (same side of the house as the router), the bottom completely drops out of both the Tx & Rx speeds, and it starts to fluctuate between 90-450Mbps, but mostly hovers between 175.5-260Mbps (about the same as my old built-in "N" WiFi adapter). The bottom line is, this tiny USB-AC53 adapter is 2-3x faster than my old internal "N" WiFi adapter on 5ghz band where I use it most, within 10-15 feet of my router, so I'm very happy with the "speed" improvement after upgrading. However, I find myself "enabling" my built-in WiFi adapter way too often when this USB-AC53 adapter will not connect to the router (many times the blue light in the adapter will not even blink, like it cannot reset itself when I restart my laptop--and it's not on a "always on" USB port, it's on a USB 3.0 port that turns of with the laptop power button). Would I recommend this adapter to my friends or colleagues? Only if they are also techies that like to tinker a lot. I've also included here the ASUS USB-AC53 Nano adapter settings that worked best for me, but, I'm only interested in using the "AC" 5Ghz (To get to the settings, on the Network Connections screen, right-click the Wireless Network Connection adapter icon for the ASUS USB-AC53 Nano, then click Properties, then click Configure button, then click the Advanced tab, then click on each setting to change the Value): - AdaptivityPara = 0 (<= NOTE: This option may "only" appear if you have installed the "Realtek_RTL8812BU" software driver for the USB-AC53 WiFi adapter) - EnableAdaptivity = Enabled - HLDiffForAdaptivity = 7 - L2HForAdaptivity = F5 - LdpcCap = VHT LDPC TX|RX - QoS Support = Support QoS - StbcCap = VHT STBC TX|RX - VHT 2.4G = Enable - Wireless Mode = IEEE 802.11ac - Allow this computer to turn off this device to save power = "uncheck" this box to disable (<= this option is on the Power Management tab, not the Advanced tab) UPDATE # 1: I updated the driver (using the option "search automatically for updated driver software"), and it installed the Realtek v1030.17.1101.2016 driver (driver date: 4/6/2017), and now I cannot connect via "AC" 5Ghz at all (only via "N" 2.4Ghz -- which I had with my old built-in adapter). Once I noticed that this update changed all of my settings back to default settings, I changed them to what I had posted previously, and am now at least able to connect via "AC" 5Ghz again. BUT, now I have a new problem, it "randomly" drops my connection to the router (SSID), and will not automatically re-connect whenever I completely shutdown my laptop and restart it, and just says "connecting" for at least 30-60 minutes (even when I move to within 5-10 feet from my WiFi router). So, at this point, I've had to just enable my old built-in "N" WiFi adapter just to get any connection to the router. Too many issues with this particular ASUS adapter (hardware and software). I'm pretty frustrated at this point (wasted to many hours), so I would NOT recommend buying this particular adapter for "AC" 5Ghz. I will definitely be testing a different manufacturer's "AC" 5Ghz adapter soon. UPDATE # 2: The driver recommended here by ASUS was the very first driver that I tried... same exact problems... I even tried removing the device, completely deleting both drivers from my laptop, then reinstalling each driver with just the default settings, and it would work for a little while, the exact same problems that I described earlier would eventually reappear. It seems like the adapter heats up and shuts off (it's very hot to the touch), or it just does not reset itself when I completely shutdown and restart (I have not tried pulling the laptop battery at shutdown--but then, I shouldn't need to). I love my ASUS RT-AC88U router, but I can't believe that ASUS put their name on this particular adapter, since it makes me not want to waste my time on another ASUS adapter ever again (I've gone back to my old integrated laptop "N" adapter--I had no other choice). Update #3: For some strange reason, this adapter is still heating up and disconnecting often, even changing my router to a new 5Ghz channel about every month just to get it to connect (several times now). I would say that there must be some type of interference (possibly coming from a neighbor). However, just for fun, I ordered/tested the Edimax AC1200 Wi-Fi USB Adapter ( Edimax AC1200 Wi-Fi USB Adapter Supports Web 2, MU-MIMO, Nano Size Lets You Plug it and Forget it, For Windows, Mac OS, Black/Silver (EW-7822ULC) ), which uses the EXACT SAME chipset and driver and costs HALF the price, and the Edimax adapter worked perfectly the the first time and every time (zero problems for weeks now). Maybe I just got a lemon with the first ASUS USB-AC53 Nano USB Adapter that I received (not really sure). What I am sure of is, you can buy two of the Edimax Nano adapters for the price of one ASUS Nano adapter, and it's the exact same adapter.

Great speeds on WiFi much faster than previous with older adapter!

This product worked flawlessly for 1.5 months and then, suddenly, no Wi-Fi. I hadn't downloaded the driver initially because several reviewers stated that it wasn't necessary, so I just plugged in the dongle and it worked immediately. So when it stopped working after 1.5 months, I immediately thought it might be due to the absence of the driver, so I went to the URL indicated on the packaging but no driver was there. Then I called ASIS tech support, and soon had someone on the phone guiding me in downloading the driver at a different URL. Once it was downloaded, the Wi-Fi came back on. The tech support person gave me a case number and informed me that the warranty is good through February 2024. I was very impressed with this level of service and happy I went with a reputable company.