Google has teamed up with ASUS this time for the Asus OnHub, the second member of the growing OnHub family. The company’s first foray into the Wireless (Wi-Fi) router scene was the OnHub in partnership with TP-Link with $199 price tag in the US and Canada.
The Asus OnHub is priced at $219.99 and will be available in the US only for now beginning this week from select retailers and is on pre-order from the company’s website. The router comes with a newsworthy feature called ‘Wave Control’ which lets users boot the Wi-Fi speed of a particular device by waving hand over the top of the router.
Google will be providing the software update automatically for the router (when the network is quiet) and the search giant has promised in coming weeks the first update with several performance improvements will come.
One of these is a ‘new smart antenna algorithm’ which allows the device select the best combination of antennas to direct Wi-Fi to your devices, based on their location and orientation. It also managed using the Google On companion app which came with its predecessor.
Google is using the Nexus line concept with the OnHub routers too, the company designs and provides the software but teams up with an OEM or manufacturer (TP-Link and ASUS for now) to make it a reality.
The Asus OnHub has a somewhat similar design to the TP-Link OnHub; it has a dual-core CPU clocked at 1.4GHz, one Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, one USB 3.0 port, a speaker, it’s Bluetooth Smart, 802.15.4, and Weave ready, has a congestion-sensing radio, a proximity sensor for recognising hand gesture and ambient light at the base for notification.
Source: Google blog
