Hands-on review: ASUS Lyra Trio – Wi-fi extenders with bundled protection

The ideal Wi-Fi solution for the modern household requires not only fast and reliable connection that unleashes the true power of fibre but also protection against the ever-growing threats over the internet, as well as content unsuitable for young audiences when we have children at home.

We have been asking ASUS for samples of their Lyra products as they tick all the boxes of being a suitable candidate for general households.

Finally, we received a review model today.

Let's see how this Lyra Trio performs in our tests.

The ASUS Lyra Trio 2pack is the 2nd generation MESH product from ASUS.

The 2pack means there are two units of this Lyra Trio MESH router in the package, while the Trio indicates it is a 3x3 MESH Router.

The patented orthogonal antenna design makes each unit look like a little pyramid, which they claim to be able to offer greater WiFi reception.

There are light indicators under each antenna frame, to indicate the status of the router, helping users to quickly identify its status.

Whether it is ready to pair (white), reset (yellow) or connected (cyan).

Each unit has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, where one can be turned into WAN port when being used as a standalone router or as the primary node (first router in the Mesh network).

There is a big pairing button and a tiny reset button at the bottom of the unit for easy access to device pairing and reset without using their app.

The pairing and management software, the ASUS Lyra App, is very neat and clean, with clear step-by-step guidance to guide its users through the setup and pairing process.

After setup, the ASUS router app will display a diagram indicating how each node is connected in the network, and the reception between each node.

Users can use this diagram to reposition each device for optimal reception.

A quick touch on each node on the diagram will give you access to check what is connected to this node, and to restart it if desired.

Underneath it is a set of popular features, including connected devices, router security check, firmware update check, user group, WiFi Sharing, AiProtection and real-time network bandwidth monitor.

You can even suspend the internet access to a specific user or device with a few quick touches of a smartphone screen.

Other features such as QoS bandwidth management, Guest Network, and router mode settings can be accessed from the options menu at the top left.

The only imperfection is the lack of access to the advertised Amazon Alexa control.

This, unfortunately, is available only through the router GUI, otherwise, we found the ASUS Lyra App to be one of the most intuitive router management app available on the market.

We have used WiFi Network monitoring software Acrylic Wi-Fi Home to exam the WiFi reception.

To our surprise, the reception was great for such small a device.

We were getting a steady -67dB RSSI over 5GHz and -52dB RSSI over 2.4GHz from 15m away from the router, pretty much the same reading as ASUS's own DSL-AC68U.

With the satellite node connected, we were able to easily cover the whole two storage houses and a garden without sweating.

In fact, we were able to get the same internet speed and ping via Speedtest by OOKLA anywhere in the house with not three, just two of these units in the house, something we have not expected indeed.

The roaming test streaming 4K contents was a breeze.

I was able to perform voice call or watch Youtube 4K content real-time while moving around the place without any hiccups.

The Lyra Trio definitely sets the bar high for future products with its reception, performance, ease of use, as well as its features.

We have no problems recommending this product to our readers.