Asus launches its first WiFi 8 router

ASUS has begun rolling out its first Wi‑Fi 8 hardware. Less than a year after giving KitGuru an early look at its plans during the December 2025 Tech Tour, the company has now listed the ROG Rapture GT‑BN98 for sale, a quad‑band Wi‑Fi 8 router built on the developing IEEE 802.11bn standard.

While ASUS is taking orders now, the Wi‑Fi 8 spec is still in draft form. IEEE’s P802.11bn Draft 2.0 passed its Working Group ballot earlier this month, and the current timetable points toward final approval in 2028. As a result, the GT‑BN98 is being sold as an 802.11bn Draft product, which isn’t unusual as new Wi‑Fi generations often show up in hardware before the standard is finalised.

While Wi‑Fi 7 pushed headline bandwidth with 320MHz channels, 4096‑QAM and Multi‑Link Operation, Wi‑Fi 8 shifts focus towards reliability. The aim is to improve performance when signals are weak, networks are busy or devices are moving between access points. It’s the same point ASUS made during our Tech Tour visit – maximum router speeds don’t mean much if the connection two rooms away collapses under real‑world conditions.

IEEE’s goals for 802.11bn include operating modes that deliver at least 25% better throughput in difficult signal environments, lower 95th‑percentile latency and fewer lost packets compared to Wi‑Fi 7. The standard also introduces multi‑AP coordination, improved behaviour at the edge of coverage and more seamless roaming between access points.

ASUS’s first implementation is a high‑end one. The GT‑BN98 is a quad‑band 4×4 design rated at a combined 25Gbps, including 1,376Mbps at 2.4GHz, two 5GHz bands rated at 5,764Mbps each and an 11,529Mbps 6GHz connection. It also includes two 10Gb Ethernet ports, four 2.5Gb ports, a 2.6GHz quad‑core processor and 2GB of RAM. Other features like Adaptive QoE can adjust bandwidth allocation based on network conditions and the current application being used, removing the need for manual optimisation.

One limitation remains though. A Wi‑Fi 8 router doesn’t turn existing Wi‑Fi 6 or Wi‑Fi 7 devices into Wi‑Fi 8 clients. ASUS notes that the full feature set requires support at both ends of the connection, and compatible client hardware will take time to become common.

The ASUS GT-BN98 is available to pre-order now for October delivery at £790, direct from ASUS.

KitGuru says: Wi‑Fi 8 is still quite some ways off from finalisation and there are very few client devices that can take advantage of it. That issue will be solved over time though, as we should see more devices supporting WiFi 8 in 2027 and beyond. Are you planning to upgrade early, or will you wait for client devices to catch up?

Become a Patron!