Customer reviews from https://www.asus.com
ASUS - ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro Quad-Band Wireless-BE Mesh Router (2-pack) - White
Average customer rating
4.3
(9 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 9 reviews
5 Stars
5
4 Stars
2
3 Stars
2
2 Stars
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1 Star
0
Customer Reviews for ASUS - ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro Quad-Band Wireless-BE Mesh Router (2-pack) - White
Posted by: Rohit M
Frequency of use:Daily
Verified Purchase:Yes
Blistering fast performance and excellent coverage in a 2500 sqft house with two BQ16 Pros.
Surprisingly, ethernet was not selected automatically as preferred backhaul and had to jump through multiple menus to use all 4 available wifi bands including 6Ghz-2 as fronthaul on both the mesh nodes. In AP mode, i'm unable to hide the SSID of my guest/legacy/IoT network. Turning on MLO constantly drops connection with my M1 Macbook Pro which supports Wifi 6E and honestly might be poor compatibility in macOS than Asus. MLO speed on my iPhone 16 Pro with Wifi 7 is less than 6Ghz without MLO sitting near the router. At this price point, all ethernet ports should be multi-gig.
Surprisingly, ethernet was not selected automatically as preferred backhaul and had to jump through multiple menus to use all 4 available wifi bands including 6Ghz-2 as fronthaul on both the mesh nodes. In AP mode, i'm unable to hide the SSID of my guest/legacy/IoT network. Turning on MLO constantly drops connection with my M1 Macbook Pro which supports Wifi 6E and honestly might be poor compatibility in macOS than Asus. MLO speed on my iPhone 16 Pro with Wifi 7 is less than 6Ghz without MLO sitting near the router. At this price point, all ethernet ports should be multi-gig.
Written by a customer while visiting https://www.asus.com
Posted by: Ragrayson
Frequency of use:Daily
Verified Purchase:Yes
These mesh system has the potential to be great. I have had them for about a week and need to tweak them every once in a while. Even though you can use combined security protocols and change the bands older wifi IoT devices have trouble consistently connecting. The wifi seems to hang for streaming devices. I had to change most the wifi to none wifi7 and tweak setting to get things like Kasa light switches to connect even on the 2.4 bands. They have all the bells and whistles but I feel firmware needs some work. I would hold off a few more months to give Asus a change to hammer out the software. I will be keeping and tweaking to get the most out of the system for now. I would also give them a better review in the future if Asus gets the connections and firmware more stable.
Response from https://www.asus.comBy CLM, March 20, 2025
Dear Ragrayson,
Thank you for your comment.
We do understand your disappointment with the product and the inconvenience this may have caused if you are experiencing connection problem. To resolve this unstable connection, place the routers in the center of the area you want to cover, avoid placing the router near metal objects, electronic devices or direct sunlight, position the router on a flat, hard surface and halfway between the floor and ceiling. Additionally, dense building materials, such as gypsum, concrete walls and planks can affect Wi-Fi signal penetration. Additionally, try to disable WIFI from your ISP's modem. Legacy devices may not work properly with WIFI-6e or WIFI-7, please check updates for these devices. Furthermore, try connecting this manually to either 2.4GHz or 5GHz. Also, we recommend updating the Mesh router firmware if it is running with an older version. Firmware is available for download at: https://www.asus.com/us/networking-iot-servers/whole-home-mesh-wifi-system/zenwifi-wifi-systems/asus-zenwifi-bq16-pro/helpdesk_bios?model2Name=ASUS-ZenWiFi-BQ16-Pro .
Should you need further assistance with the product, please email me at cl-rodel@asus.com and I would be more than happy to help. Or you are most welcome to call Product Support Hotline at: 1(888) 678-3688. Also, you can chat with an ASUS live support agent from the link: https://www.asus.com/us/support/article/1135/.
Thank you for choosing an ASUS product.
Regards,
Rodel
ASUS Customer Loyalty
Thank you for your comment.
We do understand your disappointment with the product and the inconvenience this may have caused if you are experiencing connection problem. To resolve this unstable connection, place the routers in the center of the area you want to cover, avoid placing the router near metal objects, electronic devices or direct sunlight, position the router on a flat, hard surface and halfway between the floor and ceiling. Additionally, dense building materials, such as gypsum, concrete walls and planks can affect Wi-Fi signal penetration. Additionally, try to disable WIFI from your ISP's modem. Legacy devices may not work properly with WIFI-6e or WIFI-7, please check updates for these devices. Furthermore, try connecting this manually to either 2.4GHz or 5GHz. Also, we recommend updating the Mesh router firmware if it is running with an older version. Firmware is available for download at: https://www.asus.com/us/networking-iot-servers/whole-home-mesh-wifi-system/zenwifi-wifi-systems/asus-zenwifi-bq16-pro/helpdesk_bios?model2Name=ASUS-ZenWiFi-BQ16-Pro .
Should you need further assistance with the product, please email me at cl-rodel@asus.com and I would be more than happy to help. Or you are most welcome to call Product Support Hotline at: 1(888) 678-3688. Also, you can chat with an ASUS live support agent from the link: https://www.asus.com/us/support/article/1135/.
Thank you for choosing an ASUS product.
Regards,
Rodel
ASUS Customer Loyalty
Written by a customer while visiting https://www.asus.com
Posted by: Tom Durack
Frequency of use:Daily
Verified Purchase:Yes
Last week I upgraded from an ancient Apple Airport Extreme to the ZenWiFi BQ16 Pro and, for the most part, could not be happier. The performance, the simplicity of setup, and the very user-friendly app are all at least as good as claimed in the reviews I consumed prior to purchase. My only quibble is the unacceptable degree of data harvesting to which one must consent before Ai Protection, QoS, etc., can be enabled. Ah well. I'll just have to content myself with the blazing speed of this beast and complete coverage of every square inch of our home. :)
Written by a customer while visiting https://www.asus.com
Posted by: GenomeMan
Frequency of use:Daily
Verified Purchase:Yes
I need to make two reviews, one for technology and specifications, the other for set-up. The BQ16 Pro definitely is 5 star+ for tech specs and performance (quad band) - it's blazing fast with Wifi 7 devices and quadrupled the speeds of my Wifi-7 enabled laptops. And Wifi 6 devices are also much faster than they were on my older Wifi 6E router (Asus Zen Xt12 with 2 Xt8 meshes). I live in a 100 year old house with thick plaster/lathing walls, cement block finished basement, two large chimneys that can block signals, at least a dozen or so metal ducts for the added HVAC system that will block signals, a second floor and a large yard with garage where I have security cameras. So getting adequate coverage in this house is a challenge. The two pack mesh BQ16 Pro provides adequate coverage, but the security cameras in the garage and yard are 2 or 3 out of 5 in signal strength (all other devices are 5/5 in finished basement, main and second floor - main router is in basement, mesh is on main or first floor, both units raised up about 7 feet off their floors and not in closets).
For set-up ease I rate it 3 or 4 out of 5. I did not opt for the suggested IoT separate network during set-up, and maybe I should have. Instead I had to re-install nearly all of my devices and this took a couple of days of focused work (actually I still have 3 more devices to finish). But once re-installed, everything worked perfectly and faster than my old system. The tech in BQ16 Pro is cutting-edge with upgraded CPU's, memory, and firmware, but apparently remains backward compatible with older devices as long as you re-install them, or maybe opt for the separate IoT network. I wanted both fronthaul and backhaul on the MLO bands with no separate networks. And since it's quad band, both 6 GHz channels can be used in the MLO configuration.
So, yes it was worth it to spend so much time and effort in re-installing nearly all my devices (some such as the Amazon Echo studio speakers re-installed automatically), but I had my doubts initially and wondered if it was worth the extra trouble - well, it was. I'm very pleased with the new mesh system and it's definitely 'future-proofed'.
For set-up ease I rate it 3 or 4 out of 5. I did not opt for the suggested IoT separate network during set-up, and maybe I should have. Instead I had to re-install nearly all of my devices and this took a couple of days of focused work (actually I still have 3 more devices to finish). But once re-installed, everything worked perfectly and faster than my old system. The tech in BQ16 Pro is cutting-edge with upgraded CPU's, memory, and firmware, but apparently remains backward compatible with older devices as long as you re-install them, or maybe opt for the separate IoT network. I wanted both fronthaul and backhaul on the MLO bands with no separate networks. And since it's quad band, both 6 GHz channels can be used in the MLO configuration.
So, yes it was worth it to spend so much time and effort in re-installing nearly all my devices (some such as the Amazon Echo studio speakers re-installed automatically), but I had my doubts initially and wondered if it was worth the extra trouble - well, it was. I'm very pleased with the new mesh system and it's definitely 'future-proofed'.
Written by a customer while visiting https://www.asus.com
Posted by: Rich1234
Frequency of use:Daily
Verified Purchase:Yes
Easy setup. Great range. Small issue with direct back haul connecting but worked perfectly with wireless backhaul. I'll try at future date to see if the direct back haul will work.
Written by a customer while visiting https://www.asus.com
Posted by: jrevock
Verified Purchase:Yes
After being an early adopter of another wifi 7 mesh router, and returning it due to reliability issues, I decided to wait until ASUS released the ZenWIFI BQ16 Pro. Couldn't have made a better decision. I've been using it for about two months now, and could not be happier. It took all of 30 minutes to set up, and has been working flawlessly ever since. Best of all, the signal strength is strong throughout the house, even the basement with all of the metal piping and wires.
Written by a customer while visiting https://www.asus.com
Posted by: Anonymous
Frequency of use:Daily
Verified Purchase:Yes
Setup took about 10-15 minutes with no glitches. While I don't yet have any Wifi 7 client devices, the speed improvements I'm seeing over my previous AiMesh system (wifi 6) are noticeable already. While I've only had the system running for over a day so far, I've had absolutely no stability issues, etc. I'm running a main network, IoT and guest networks and adding my appliances, etc to the IoT network was seamless. Highly recommend!
Written by a customer while visiting https://www.asus.com
Posted by: Bill Milligan
Frequency of use:Daily
Verified Purchase:Yes
Excellent system!! It has increased the speed in every device in my home! Way to go!!
Written by a customer while visiting https://www.asus.com