Asus USB-AC56 review: Feature-rich and very fast

Asus has been trouncing the competition with respect to wireless routers, and now it has the fastest 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter, too. The USB-AC56 is a fancy devil, with the same glossy black diamond-plate texture that Asus routers have. In addition, the USB-AC56 boasts not just a tethered USB stand but also an oversize, hinged, detachable antenna that I thought would give the adapter a significant edge at longer distances. Imagine my surprise when it didn’t.

Like most of the adapters in our latest roundup, the USB-AC56 has a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button, so you can connect it to your router without having to remember the router’s password. This was the only adapter I looked at that had a USB 3.0 interface, and it delivered the fastest throughput when the client was close to the router, reaching 404 megabits per second when the client was in the bedroom, 9 feet from the router. The second-place finisher—Netgear’s A6200—was 23 percent slower, achieving TCP throughput of 310 mbps.

ROBERT CARDIN

The Asus USB-AC56 has internal antennas, too, so you can leave the cap that covers the thread mount if you don’t want to use the long antenna.

The Asus adapter proved to be the fastest of the test group when the client was in the kitchen, too. With the client and router 20 feet apart, the USB-AC56 achieved TCP throughput of 347 mbps. Netgear’s A6200 was the second-fastest adapter at this spot—in fact, it was slightly faster here than it was in the bedroom, though the difference was less than 1 percent.

Given the size of the USB-AC56’s antenna, however, I was surprised to see it land in fifth place when the client was inside the double-thick walls of my home theater. And it finished fourth when the client was in my home office, 65 feet from the router. But with data rates of 163 mbps and 213 mbps on those respective tests, the Asus adapter should have no problem streaming high-def video to any location inside the typical house.

The Asus USB-AC56 was the overall winner, and far faster at close range than any other adapter in this roundup. (Click to zoom.)

The USB-AC56 is a bit unwieldy, whether you use its external antenna or not (it also has an internal antenna, so the external one is not an absolute requirement). Without the antenna, the adapter will protrude about 3.875 inches from your computer’s USB port. Remove the cap protecting the threaded antenna connection and attach the antenna, and that length extends to nearly 4.5 inches.

When you average each adapter’s throughput at all four test locations, the USB-AC56 finishes first—but it’s less than 1 percent faster than the second-place Netgear A6200.

Note: This review is part of a roundup of six 802.11ac Wi-Fi client USB adapters. For more, read the introduction to the roundup.

Michael manages PCWorld's hardware product reviews and contributes to TechHive's coverage of home-control systems and sound bars.
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Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate 6.5 review: Robust, fast, and feature-rich

Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate is an easy and capable ideo conversion utility, but it faces stiff competition from free software such as Freemake Video Converter, as well as pro-level programs such as Sorenson Squeeze 9. At $60, its integrated disc authoring and burning may not be enough to entice users away from the freebies.

Professional in power, yet easy to use, the Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate interface makes short work of even batch operations.

Wondershare's interface is wonderfully easy without seeming childish. Drag a file to the program window, select a destination device from the drop-down list on the right, and click on the convert button. There's a large selection of Apple and Samsung devices, a decent selection of Motorola devices, and then...nothing.  Owners of HTC and other brands of devices need to know their format and resolution and select from the list of those that Wondershare also provides.

Video Converter Ultimate can convert multiple videos at once, and preview them all for you while transcoding in small video windows to their left. I found the program roughly equal in performance to the modern competition, though it's not quite as quick with large batches as Sorenson Squeeze 9.

Disc authoring and burning is integrated.

Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate no longer rips commercial DVDs, but it will still author and burn. It's handy to have these capabilities under the same roof. There's a decent selection of menu templates, and you can change the text and background image as well as add your own music to the menu.

You may also download and convert video from the Web. Wondershare provides an add-on for the major browsers, and you can also cut and paste a URL into the program. I didn't have a lot of luck with the plug-in/add-on outside of YouTube, but the program downloaded from a wide variety of Web site URLs emplying Flash video, but not Silverlight.

Wondershare also includes a very capable and smart-looking video player which rivals VLC for features and format support. It actually seemed a bit more stable and bug-free. Alas, it took over all file associations without asking during installation: not a sin, but not polite to be sure.

You can download videos from just about any site that uses the flash format.

As I said up front, selling a consumer-grade video converter is a tough row to hoe when there are capable freebies available. But Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate is easy, competent, and fast. There's a free demo (albeit one with watermarks) so give it a whirl—it might just suit your style.

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Juilliard, and now he power-mods his car for kicks.
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Acronis True Image 2014 review: Still powerful and feature-rich, now easier to use

You might think Windows has you covered with its own imaging/system backup, but there's still a need for programs such as Acronis True Image. Windows' built-in utility is extremely limited and reacts badly to new hardware. True Image handles bare-metal restore and diverse hardware without hiccup. Owners of recent versions of True Image probably won't find anything particularly compelling about this latest rendition, as only the online service is really new, but the new interface is a breeze to use. It also takes Acronis Backup to the cloud for the first time.

Acronis True Image 2014's new backup pane is simplicity itself.

If there's one thing that stands out about the latest version of True Image 2014, it's how friendly it is. Gone are the poorly rendered dialogs and oddly phrased instructions. The interface is clean, efficient, and simple. You can perform a backup without answering a confusing stream of questions. All the options advanced users want—including password protection, sector-by-sector backup (the program defaults to backing up only occupied sectors),  pre- and post-run commands, splitting (or not) of files, and validation—are still present. They're simply hidden away in a very cleanly organized dialog.

True Image 2014 can perform file and image backups, one-off backups, multiple tracked backups, incremental, differential, scheduling, notifications, and more. There's really no imaging trick from the last fifteen years that the program doesn't have in its bag. In addition, if your laptop lacks a boot-time recovery option, True Image will provide it. The SecureZone and Try and Decide options are still available, and there's a full list of secure erase options. You can even convert Windows backups to Acronis's format, and vice-versa.

Acronis True Image 2014's friendly new interface and vibe are major improvements to the once obtuse GUI.

In keeping with modern times, there's an online backup option in Acronis's own Acronis Cloud. You get one year of 5GB (enough only for data, not system backups) for free with the program, but after a year, or for more storage, it'll cost $10 per year for 5GB, $30 a year for 50GB, $40 for 125GB, and $50 for 125GB. That's highly competitive pricing.

Every imaging or backup program should feature the ability to create disaster recovery boot media—ideally, both CD (for older systems), and USB flash drive. The ponderousness of TI's older boot media forced me to abandon previous versions of the program, as it wasn't good for older, memory-challenged PCs. R-Drive Image is better for those. True Image 2014's rescue disc still requires 512MB of system memory, and the new interface isn't implemented, making it less friendly that the Windows UI. However, Acronis provides the means for adding it to a Windows PE boot disc, though it's not as simple a process as it should be.

Though they aren't available until you ask, True Image's options are advanced and myriad.

If  If If If you're more than a version or two back on True Image, the 2014 version is well worth a look.you're new to backup products, simply know that it really doesn't get any better than Acronis True Image for the average user, though I recommend R-Drive Image for pros.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

Jon L. Jacobi has worked with computers since you flipped switches and punched cards to program them. He studied music at Juilliard, and now he power-mods his car for kicks.
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