There is one interesting thing about the RAX40 that was not present with its higher-spec’d siblings and it’s that it is equipped with an Intel (Lantiq) chipset, instead of the Broadcom or Qualcomm platforms. Intel and the DOCSIS modems don’ have a nice history due to the Puma chip latency and jitter issues and the fact that the Netgear AX4 has a chip that’s related to Puma 7 is a valid source of concern.

That being said, just like the Asus RT-AX58U (another ‘affordable’ AX3000 router), the Netgear RAX40 uses OFDMA and it supports 1024-QAM as well as the 160MHZ channel bandwidth to significantly improve the wireless performance of your compatible clients and to ensure a greater WiFi coverage (than with the previous gen) – there’s also support for Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant.
Note: I ran some tests prior to this review to confirm some issues that I saw with the Asus RT-AX58U and things seemed to be in order when connected to an AX client (for the most part), but I will also try to check for some hidden jitter issues.

Design
The Netgear Nighthawk RAX200, the RAX120 and the RAX80, all look the same and have those ridiculous Star Wars ship shape that gives the impression that the router may fly off when you’re not paying attention, but the Netgear RAX40 had its wings clipped, so, instead of the large upwards-pointing sides, there are just two regular looking antennas. This way, it does look more like a traditional router, but the rest of the case is still very similar to the other WiFi 6 devices from the series, featuring those two plastic wrapping that start from the side and get close together towards the middle, leaving space for the LEDs and buttons. Still on the top, but towards the rear side, Netgear added lots of cut-out areas which not only look really good, but also help a lot with the internal temperature. Besides for the middle which is glossy, the rest of the case is matte black which is quite soft to the touch (it’s also a fingerprints magnet).

Subjectively speaking, I do consider that the Netgear RAX40 has a better design than the Asus RT-AX58U, but the latter has the advantage of being a lot more compact and that’s no surprise considering that Netgear has always been about large cases (even its Orbi is among the largest WiFi systems on the market). So, at its 13.38 x 8.11 x 2.24 inches, it’s going to take some significant amount of space from your desk, but the beauty of the traditional-looking routers is that most can be mounted on the wall and so does the RAX40. The mounting holes can be found on the rear side positioned somewhere within the cluster of ventilation cut-outs which cover the bottom side almost entirely. Also on the bottom, there is an info label along with four silicone feet that have the role of keeping the router in place in case you decide that it should stay on a flat surface (the RAX40 weighs 1.32 lb).



The top and bottom ventilation cut-outs are a very welcomed addition and I saw that Netgear has included a vent grille on the rear side as well (above the ports), but is it enough for a relatively high performing router? The combination between a large case and the vent cut-outs seems to have been a successful one, so indeed, the router will not overheat, but it will become warm on the top, near the ports area. Just like with the Asus RT-AX58U, I was taken by surprise by the non-removable antennas and I know that most of you don’t really care and would not have upgraded them anyway, but there is a certain demographic that may have and again, this is not a cheap device by any means, despite being considered affordable and such an option would have been nice to have (well, the silver lining is that the antennas are very easy to move and have a large adjustability angle).

Like I said before, you get the LEDs in the middle of the case positioned in a vertical fashion, so, from the top, there’s the Power LED (if it’s flashing green, then either the firmware is upgrading or the Reset button has been pressed), the Internet LED, the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz LEDs, four LEDs, one for each LAN port (green indicates that the connection has been made at 1Gbps and amber shows that the connection has been made at 100 MBps) and a USB 3.0 port (if it flashes green, then a USB device is trying to connect). Further down there are a couple of buttons, one for turning on or off the WiFi (press and hold it for two seconds) and the other for enabling the WPS pairing process.

Moving to the rear side of the router, we find a Power On/Off button, a 12V Power port, a WAN Gigabit port, four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, a USB 3.0 port, a recessed Reset button (press and hold it for at least 10 seconds in order to return the device to factory default settings) and a LED On/Off switch.

Note: It’s worth mentioning that Netgear decided to extend the bottom plastic, creating some sort of tray underneath the ports and, while it looks cool, I got myself a manicure trying to remove some Ethernet cables.



Internal Hardware
To open up the router, detach the four silicone feet to expose the four screws and, after removing them (the screws have a star head, but you can use a small flat screwdriver), make sure to also remove the screw near the ports from the rear side of the router – be aware that doing so can void your warranty. Then, gently detach the top part and you’ll be greeted by the PCB which has two heatsinks connected by spring-operated bolts; I left them like that for now and instead I detached the antennas and turned the board upside down.

Here, I saw the 256MB of storage from MXIC (Macronix a182209 MX30LF2G18AC-TI) and I could also easily remove the spring bolts that kept the heat sinks, thus exposing the chips from the other side: first, there’s the Intel AnyWAN GRX350 CPE network processor (S8503N15 SLMD9), followed by 512 MB of RAM (from Samsung), as well as a LV132A quadruple positive-NAND gate, a couple of GS5014R LF 1851M 10/100/1000 Base–T dual port magnetics modules (LAN) and a 10/100/1000 Base–T magnetics module (WAN).

As for the wireless performance, the Netgear AX3000 uses an Intel WAV654 (S8514L96 SLMRS) chip (b/g/n+ax) 2×2:2 for the 2.4GHz band (along with the Skyworks SKY85331-11 front-end module) and the Intel WAV654 chip (a/n/ac/ax) 2×2:2 for the 5GHz radio band (along with the Skyworks SKY85743:31 front-end module).

Note: The Netgear Nighthawk AX4 is advertised as being an AX3000-class router which means that it features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 2,400 Mbps on the 5GHz band and a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 600 Mbps on the 2.4GHz radio band.



Features and Performance
The current generation of AX wireless routers (especially, the ‘budget’ segment) is not going to deliver everything that the new WiFi standard can offer, but the RAX40 does support a few important ones, such as the well praised OFDMA (short from Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) and it’s a feature that supports a low data rate transmission simultaneously from multiple client devices – the channel gets divided into multiple sub-channels (sub-carriers) which are shared by up to 30 devices at the same time, limiting the overhead and ensuring that the bandwidth is not wasted (OFDMA works both up and downstream). You’re still going to need compatible clients to be able to take advantage of such a feature and that’s not only available for OFDMA, but pretty much the entire set of newly implemented technologies, such as 1024 QAM, 160MHz and yes, even MU-MIMO is still a part of the more pretentious group.

The 1024 QAM is basically trying to ensure a 25% data rate increase, while the 160MHz is not really that new (well, neither is the 1024 QAM, since I already saw it with the old Linksys WRT3200ACM which has gotten oddly relevant these days), but it can also ensure a far wider bandwidth and, hopefully, double the link rate. When I tested the Asus RT-AX58U, I did not saw a suitable implementation of this feature and, as you’ll see below, neither did Netgear with its ‘budget-friendly’ Nighthawk AX3000. MU-MIMO is still present and, as usual, it has the role to ensure that multiple clients are served at the same time (and not having to compete for the bandwidth) and I have to also mention the BeamForming which has the role of focusing the signal towards your compatible clients, so you get a better, more stable throughput and less interference. As you can see, the keyword is compatibility and the WiFi 6 is at a serious disadvantage right now since the market is pretty much void of 802.11ax wireless adapters.

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Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

It’s true that all of these WiFi systems took the promethean role of bringing the once too expensive mesh technology to the home users or smaller offices and make it as affordable as possible, but it was Netgear that decided to take a different route when it designed the Orbi system and instead of using the multi-node technique, it went with a main router + satellite extenders approach, while dedicating a 4×4 MU-MIMO radio for backhaul traffic, therefore greatly improving the way the network operates and achieving higher speeds and larger coverage than with any other router setup. This made the Netgear Orbi the fastest WiFi system to date and among the most popular among its peers.

Over the last two and a half years, the Netgear Orbi RBK50 System underwent multiple radical changes, pushing the spoke and hub topology towards the better daisy-chaining (the satellites can now communicate between each other) and it also included the Ethernet backhaul feature to help get a more stable network. These changes have greatly improved the feature-set of the Orbi, but some users have also experienced a high degree of network instability which seem to persist even today, despite multiple fix attempts.
UPDATE 17.03.2019: More than two years have passed since the Netgear Orbi has been introduced to the market, so I decided to retest the system and see if its popularity is still justified and if the manufacturer has managed to fix some of the issued that plagued a significant portion of the users (the article was UPDATED taking into account the v2.3.0.32 firmware update).

ALSO CHECK OUT: LINKSYS VELOP VS NETGEAR ORBI

Design
The Netgear Orbi can be purchased as a single main router (which would defeat the purpose of the device) or as a main router + satellite (of course, you can add more than one satellite extender), so unlike the mesh systems, where every unit is identical with each other, the Orbi’s base router is slightly different than the satellites in terms of exterior design, as well as on the functionality. Both the router and the satellite have a relatively large white case, which is covered by a matte finish (which is soft to the touch and doesn’t retain fingerprints) and one of the differentiating factors is the colour of the top side: the router has an all-light-blue top, while the satellites are completely white. The design choice seems inspired by modern furniture shapes (like those you can see in futuristic magazines), but I can not help feeling like this is a larger air freshener. Regardless of that, there is no doubt that this is a nice looking device and since it doesn’t have any features to make it stand out or attract the attention in a room, it will be on a large majority of people’s taste.

Because both the router and the satellites are a lot taller than your average router and have a smaller base (a single unit has the following dimensions: 6.67x 2.36 x 8.89 inches), but be aware not to put them near a place where there’s heavy traffic, since similarly to the Linksys Velop, it is very easy to accidentally push any unit off the table or desk (and possibly break the device). Furthermore, each Orbi device weighs around 1.96 lb and, while that may be more than enough for a large generic-looking router, the Orbi router can feel a bit lightweight (it has a low gravity centre, but the oval shape keeps it from being properly stable).

To alleviate this problem, the manufacturer had added some elements to make it stay in place so, on the bottom side, there are four relatively large silicone feet positioned towards the edges which will keep the device from budging and in the middle resides a label with printed info about the device (the default SSID and password, the Serial Number, the MAC address, as well as the web UI address, username and password). On the left and right side of the label there are two sets of vent grills in slightly recessed zones (a necessity since the rubber feet aren’t tall enough to allow a proper airflow) and there are also some cut-outs above the ports area which, in total, did create some concerns about the heat distribution (of course, it relies on passive cooling), but, thankfully, so far neither the router unit, nor the satellite have overheated.

Similarly to other WiFi systems, the Netgear Orbi took a minimalistic approach when it came to the LED indicators and instead of going with the typical array of LEDs, both the Orbi router and the satellite rely on the top ring indicator to show the status of the system (but, be aware that the LED behaviour of the router is different than that of the extenders). So, if the router ring LED flashes a white colour, then the unit is either booting or the Sync process has been initiated, otherwise, if it’s solid white, then it is resetting to factory default settings. If the ring LED is solid magenta, it signifies that the Orbi router can’t connect to the Internet, but if the LED is turned off, then the router is working normally.

The satellite ring LED is flashing a white colour when the unit is booting up, it will be solid magenta if the extender failed to synchronize to the main router and it will turn off when the satellite is synced to the main unit and is working properly. Furthermore, the satellite LED will turn blue for 3 minutes if the connection between it and the router is good and it will turn amber for three minutes if the connection is fair.
Just like with the Linksys Velop and other WiFi systems, I dislike the idea of a single LED that shows the status of the system using different colours and blinks simply because it is counter-intuitive and you need to constantly consult the instruction manual to understand what is happening with your network.

The oval body shape doesn’t betray that this is a WiFi system and the only thing that reveals that we’re dealing with an actual networking device is the back side, where you can find a series of ports and buttons: from the left, there is a Sync button (can be used as WPS), four Gigabit (10/100/1000 Mbps) Ethernet ports (the router unit uses the first LAN port to connect to the Internet (it is divided by yellow), while the satellites lack this function), a USB port, the Power On/Off button with a Power LED on top of it (if the LED is solid amber, then the device is booting, otherwise, if the LED is blinking amber, then the device is returning to factory default settings and lastly, if the LED is blinking red, then the firmware is corrupted), a DC-IN Power connector and a recessed Reset button (to restore the unit to factory default settings, press and hold the Reset button for at least seven seconds – until the Power LED from the rear side turns off).
Note: Inside the box, you can find the main Orbi Router unit (RBR50), one Orbi Satellite (RBS50), a relatively long Ethernet cable, a Quick Start Guide and two 12V/ 3.5A power adapters.

Hardware
The Netgear Orbi router uses the Qualcomm Atheros IPQ4019 chipset (with integrated quad-core ARM Cortex A7 processor clocked at 717MHz) which is the first product to use Qualcomm’s SON technology (Self Organizing Network). Besides the Qualcomm chip, there’s also the Qualcomm QCA8075 Gigabit chipset (for performing Port Switching and Port Mirroring), 512 MB of DDR3 RAM (NANYA NT5CC256M16DP-DI) and 4GB of flash memory (Samsung KLM4G1FEPD-B0310 eMMC).

Furthermore, the 2.4GHz radio uses the Qualcomm IPQ4019 chipset along with Skyworks SKY2623L 2.4GHz Power Amplifier, while the first 5GHz radio band uses the Qualcomm IPQ4019 chipset, along with the RFMD RFPA5542 5GHz power Amplifier and the dedicated 5GHz radio (backhaul) uses the Qualcomm QCA9984 chipset, along with RFMD RFPA5542 5GHz Power Amplifier. The Netgear Orbi also comes equipped with a CSR8811 Bluetooth 4.1 SoC.

The Netgear Orbi is marketed as a AC3000 class router system, therefore the router unit features a maximum theoretical speed rate of 400 Mbps using the 2.4GHz radio and a maximum theoretical speed rate of 867 Mbps using the first 5GHz radio band. Additionally, the Orbi system uses the second dedicated 5GHz radio as a backhaul band which can reach a maximum theoretical rate of 1,733 Mbps (added to the advertised 3000Mbps).

Features and Performance
At first, despite being advertised as a Tri-Band Mesh Home WiFi system, the Netgear Orbi could not really create a mesh network (not in the same manner as its competitors) and only later, after an update, it could take advantage of some of the features of a mesh network. By default, a mesh system consists of (usually) more than one identical routers, which are scattered around a specific zone (house or hotel or even smaller communities) and have one or more units connected to the Internet, while all the other units connect to the closest router (also called node) in order to share the load and find the better route for transmitting and receiving data.

Some of its main features are the ability to self-heal if a node goes offline (the system finds the best nearby nodes to re-route the data, so it keep the network online and running) and the capacity to continuously analyse the signal and other network parameters to create better routes for every added device. The problem with all mesh systems is the increased latency after you add many nodes and a larger number of clients (at this point, the whole network may become unusable because of the lack of bandwidth) and the real challenge from the networking products manufacturers was to find a way to keep a low enough latency and to cover as much space as possible with WiFi.

The advent of tri-band routers has given light to new ways of handling clients and the Linksys Velop is one of the first to take the initiative by adding one more radio band, but did not dedicate it specifically to backhaul, allowing the clients to connect to either one of the three radio bands, so again, with a larger number of Velop units, the network can become unstable and at a certain point, unusable (although the system is able to use Ethernet backhaul something that the Orbi does not, so that could recover some lost bandwidth). It’s nice that the Netgear Orbi has added the Ethernet backhaul feature, but, as with all new added features from Netgear, it did destabilize the entire system (it could create broadcast storms), but, with the new update (v2.3.0.32) it did fix this issue, so make sure to keep your Orbi at the latest firmware available. The Netgear Orbi is also a tri-band router but does things a bit differently. Instead of allowing devices to connect to all three radio, it has a dedicated 5GHz radio for the backhaul traffic (with higher bandwidth – as seen in the Hardware section) which uses the higher channels and leaves the lower channels for the clients (you can’t connect to the third radio even if you use only the router, without the satellites).

This way, Netgear pretty much solved an older networking riddle on how to make extenders to stop halving the bandwidth. That’s right, if you have an extender using the same band as the router for broadcasting and receiving the wireless signals, then you’ll experience a 50 percent signal loss. Of course, if you use only the Orbi router and the satellite, you’ll experience almost no signal loss or latency, but, as you add more satellite add-ons, this advantage will diminish.

A while back, the most relevant distinction between a wireless mesh system and the Netgear Orbi was that the satellites didn’t communicate with each other and each add-on extender had to connect directly to the main router in order to function. Now, Netgear has enabled daisy-chaining (with v2.0.0.74), so, the satellites are able to communicate and connect between each other and any satellite unit can dynamically choose the best path: either directly to the main router unit or through a nearby satellite. This way, the system should deliver a seamless connection inside a larger home or office and you won’t experience any disconnects as you move around a larger area (especially with the new Fast Roaming feature).
Note: Be aware that the daisy-chaining feature is still unpolished and it is advisable that you don’t place the second satellite too far from the main router, otherwise you may experience connectivity issues (30-35 feet between the routers should be ideal).

Pages: 1 2

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

While it’s true that the home network has become more demanding, not many WiFi adapters are compatible with the latest technologies, so, even if the R6220 hasn’t adhered to any of the flashy WAVE 2 technologies, it should still deliver a decent wireless performance (and, if the number of clients is large, you could always have a look at the Nighthawk series).

The competition is not that high for the entry-level routers and it’s always nice to see newer devices (such as the pcWRT and the TP-Link Archer C1200) or products that have withstood the test of time, such as the subject of this article, the Netgear AC1200 R6220, so let’s have a closer look and see if this router still offers enough for today’s standards.

Design
The Netgear AC1200 R6220 is not part of the Nighthawk series (it belongs to the Smart WiFi family), so don’t expect to see a dynamic, angular case, instead, the router is a bit more conservative, featuring a smaller rectangular plastic body on the top covered by a black glossy finish (that easily retains fingerprints) and with two antennas pointing from the rear side (similarly to the Asus RT-ACRH13 and RT-ACRH17, the antennas can’t be removed nor upgraded, but remain omni-directional).

On the front, lateral sides and the bottom, the R6220 is covered by lots of triangle shaped cut-outs (although the front ones are solely for increasing the aesthetic value of the device, while the others actually have the role of keeping the router at a decent temperature). The Netgear R6220 was created as a replacement to the R6200 (which reached EOL) and, while at first it may not be obvious since the latter is a device that can only be positioned vertically, these two routers have a lot of design elements in common: just remove the stand from the R6200, add two antennas to one side and you get the AC1200 R6220.
Some manufacturers cheapen out on the design for their entry-level models, but this doesn’t seem to be the case and the Netgear R6220 feels solid and there is no flex when pushing from the top surface.

Still, the router is surprisingly light (0.84 lbs) considering its size (9.43 x 7.14 x 1.59 inches), but, the manufacturer has added four small silicone pads on the bottom to keep the device from budging (and they do a relatively decent job when multiple cables are connected). In terms of heat management, the Netgear AC1200 R6220 should be able to keep the temperature as low as possible because of the multitude of ventilation holes and the increased height and, while I was testing the router, it did warm a bit near the label on the bottom, but it was barely noticeable, so no, it did not overheat (even if the chipset is not really that efficient as its modern alternatives).

Even if it’s not really a new device, the minimalist design of the R6220 and its small antennas should still allow it to be positioned pretty much anywhere in the house and, if you’re short on space, Netgear has added a couple of holes on the bottom side to easily mount the device on the wall.

The top side is a simple glossy surface and the only thing that breaks the monotony is the Netgear logo and the array of LED indicators which have the role of showing the status of the system and the network: from the left, there’s the Power LED (if it’s flashing green, then either the software is being upgraded or the device is returning to the default settings), the Internet LED, a single LED indicator for both radio bands (2.4GHz and 5GHz – if it’s flashing, then the router is receiving/sending data packages), four LEDs, each for one LAN port, a USB LED (flashing green indicates that an external drive was plugged in and is trying to establish a connection to the router) and a WPS LED (if it flashes for 2 minutes, then the WPS pairing process has been initiated).

On the rear side, in between the two antennas, rests the WPS button, the WiFi On/Off button, a USB 2.0 port (yes, the old standard, but that’s to be expected), four RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, one WAN port (Gigabit), a small recessed Reset button (press and hold the button for at least 7 seconds to return the router to the factory default settings), a Power On/Off switch and the DC In Power port.

Hardware
Inside the case, Netgear decided to equip the R6220 with the single-core (dual thread) MediaTek MT7621ST SoC, clocked at 880 MHz, 128 MB of RAM (Nanya NT5CB64M16FP-DH), 128 MB of flash storage (Macronix MXIC T140705 MX30LF1G08AA-TI), a couple of HN4821CG 10/100/1000 Base-T LAN Transformer Modules and the router also uses the MT7621ST as the switch chip. Furthermore, the 2.4GHz wireless band uses the MediaTek MT7603EN 1422-BMAL WiFi chip (2×2:2, 802.11b/g/n), while the 5GHz band uses the MediaTek MT7612EN 1411-BMAL chip (802.11ac+an 2×2:2).

The Netgear R6220 is advertised as an AC1200-class router, so it features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 867 Mbps on the 5GHz band, while on the 2.4GHz band, it features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 300 Mbps (summed to 1,167 and rounded to 1,200 Mbps).

Features and Performance
The Netgear AC1200 R6220 is considered an entry-level router, so it hasn’t implemented some of the more popular features that have the potential to enhance the wireless performance (such as the MU-MIMO technology, 80+MHz or an additional radio band – at the same time, one of its competitors, the RT-ACRH13 does come with MU-MIMO), but it does support the WiFi BeamForming technology on the 5GHz band (802.11ac), so the signal is going to be focused towards the connected clients to ensure a more stable network and a better throughput (due to less interferences). Furthermore, the R6220 is a dual-band router, so the clients can connect to either of the two available networks, but it doesn’t seem to have implemented any type of band steering tech, which would have made sure that one band would not get overcrowded.

If you were wondering if there is any chance that the AC1200 R6220 would work as a node within a mesh network, well, unfortunately no, Netgear has not made any steps towards developing something similar to the Asus AiMesh, but it does have its own WiFi system called the Netgear Orbi that uses a form of mesh network (even if Netgear wanted to, the MediaTek SoC will have to be changed in order to reliably ensure that the R6220 could interconnect to other Netgear routers).

To test the wired performance of the Netgear AC1200 R6220, I took a Desktop computer equipped with an Asus PCE-AC88 WiFi adapter (will act as the client), as well as a powerful laptop that will function as the server and I connected these two PCs to the router using CAT6 Ethernet cables: from the client to the server, the router delivered an average of 890 Mbps (TCP) and 867 Mbps (UDP), while from the server to the client, it delivered an average of 823.5 Mbps (TCP) and 461.2 Mbps (UDP). Afterwards, to test the wireless performance, I connected the client device to the 5GHz network and, from the client to the server, at 5 feet, I measured an average of 497 Mbps, while at 15 feet, just an average of 385 Mbps; at 30 feet, the router delivered around 262 Mbps. From the server to the client, I measured an average of 345 Mbps at about 5 feet from the router, while at 15 feet, I got an average of 334 Mbps; at 30 feet, the speed went down to 137 Mbps.

On the next step, I connected both computers to the 2.4GHz network and, from the client to the server (at 5 feet), I measured around 80.6 Mbps, while at 15 feet, the speed actually went slightly up to 96.5 Mbps; at 30 feet, I measured an average of 73.3 Mbps. From the server to the client, I measured an average of 78.9 Mbps and, at 15 feet, the throughput averaged slightly above to 79.3 Mbps; at 30 feet, I measured around 55.9 Mbps. Since the Netgear R6220 comes with a USB 2.0 port, I had to test the storage performance and, using a Samsung T5 SSD drive (256 GB), I moved a 2.5GB multimedia folder: writing the folder, I measured an average of 22.1 MBps, while reading it, delivered an average of 30.4 Mbps (it may not look like much, but it’s quite decent for a USB 2.0 port).

Software
The Netgear Nighthawk series can be configured using either the traditional way (via the web-based interface) or by using the dedicated Nighthawk app (as I recently saw with the Nighthawk R7000P). Fortunately, the Smart WiFi series can also be configured using an app, so, to initiate the Setup Wizard, I decided to install and run the Nighthawk app. For some reason, the app didn’t recognise the router, so, to install it, I chose the Sign In option near the WiFi SSID (since the Nighthawk app was out of the picture, the router can still be afterwards managed and monitored using the Genie application, which is compatible with both the iOS and the Android OS). On the first step, I had to let the Netgear genie UI detect the type of Internet connection that I have in my home, insert the ISP username and password (since it was PPPoE), configure the Admin Account Settings (a new password) and, afterwards, wait for the Wizard to check for the latest firmware. The process doesn’t have many steps, but is does take more than 5 minutes to finish – afterwards, you could log into the Netgear Genie app (it supports both Local and Remote access).

The mobile interface has two main sections, one is on the bottom, where you have logged in and it shows the SSID and password of each network, as well as all the connected clients, while towards the top, there’s a menu with the most important options. First, there’s the WiFi section where you can change the SSID, the password, the security type and the channel (you can also view the Signal Strength and the Link Rate), then, there’s the Guest WiFi, where you can create two separate Guest Networks; the Network Map shows a graphical representation of your network, displaying all the connected devices (tap on the name to view detailed info about the client) and it allows you to enable the Access Control (this adds the ability to pause the Internet for any connected device). Next, there’s the Parental Controls, which relies on OpenDNS, there’s also the Traffic meter (shows the total and the average transferred data), MyMedia (shows both client Sources and any Speakers connected to the network) and ReadySHARE.

Other options that are worth mentioning are the Turbo Transfer (useful for receiving and sending files in the local network), Remote Access and the ability to Reboot the router or to Register the Product. Switching to the web-based interface (accessible by going to 192.168.1.1 – the default IP address) shows the same layout that we got accustomed with, which divides the settings into Basic and Advanced. The Basic section includes the Home tab (various network and router stats displayed into 6 mini-windows), the ability to set up the Internet connection or to change the Wireless settings (for either of the two bands), view all the Attached Devices (and enable the Access Control, a feature that can block the access to the Internet for specific devices), the Parental Control (unlike the app, I was surprised to see that the browser sent me to the Circle with Disney page – similarly to how the R7000P worked, but apparently not as perfectly integrated), ReadySHARE (for connected external storage devices) and the Guest Network.

The Advanced section includes the ADVANCED Home (more stats than the Basic Home), the Setup Wizard and the WPS Wizard. There’s also the Setup group (allows you to set up the Internet, the Wireless, the Guest Network, the WAN (includes MTU Size, NAT Filtering and VPN Passthrough – IPSec, PPTP and L2TP), the LAN and the QoS (includes WMM, the ability to set a maximum uplink bandwidth, to create QoS rules and set QoS by Device)), the USB Storage, the Security (includes the Access Control, the Block Sites and Block Services filters), the Administration (includes the Logs, the Backup Settings, the NTP Settings and the Firmware Update) and the Advanced Setup (offers more in-depth Wireless Settings, the ability to run the device in Access Point Mode or Wireless Repeater Mode, it also includes the port Forwarding/Port Triggering feature, Dynamic DNS, VPN Service, Static Routes, UPnP, IPv6 and VLAN/IPTV Setup).

Overall, I felt that the web-based interface is slow, the router takes its time to load any new windows, it takes its time connecting to the Internet if you removed the cable and it takes a while to apply settings and restart, so you need a lot of patience. But what I did like about the software is that it’s still being kept up to date even in 2019 (the latest update has been released in February).

Conclusion
Without a doubt, the Netgear AC1200 R6220 is an entry-level wireless router, but it’s still a surprisingly decent device especially if you need to connect multiple compatible devices to the 5GHz network (and I noticed that more and more devices have distanced themselves from the older 802.11n standard). Sure, it lacks all those fancy WiFi enhancing features, but, as I said in the introduction, it will suffice for a small home. At the same time, it does have one annoying shortcoming: the web-based interface. It’s feature-rich, it offers everything you would want from a router (especially considering the price tag), but it’s so slow and it takes ages to modify and apply any settings. At the same time, if you’re not bothered by that and want a decent budget wireless router, it’s definitely worth checking out the Netgear R6220.

Check the product here:

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

Furthermore, Netgear also advertises the support for the NETGEAR Armor™ which is powered by BitDefender and acts as an alternative to the TrendMicro (mainly used by Google WiFi, Eero and some Asus routers), and there’s also support for Circle with Disney for better Parental Controls, but both of these features are limited to a free trial and you’ll have to purchase a paid subscription to continue to use them.

But, at the same time, the R7000P doesn’t feel like a radical improvement over its predecessor since it is difficult to use it at its full power (you need compatible WiFi adapters), but considering that the R7000 was a game changer for Netgear, I am curious to see if the Nighthawk R7000P’s performance rises up to today’s exigences.

Design
Without a doubt, the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 was one of the best designed wireless routers of its time, overshadowing its direct competitor, the RT-AC68U by taking inspiration from the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth plane (from where it took the name of the entire series). The Nighthawk R7000P looks identical to the R7000, so you can expect the same angular plastic case covered by a dark grey matte finish, with its lateral parts slightly inclined towards the base, exposing two sets of ventilation grills. The router is still very large, especially by today’s standards, measuring 11.22 x 7.26 x 1.97 inches (while a Google WiFi unit is only 4.1 x 2.7 inches) and, from the rear area, there are three omni-directional antennas, shaped like fins, which can be removed and upgraded.

Some may think that the decision to keep the same case design is a good one because then the new router can easily replace the old R7000, but I saw a similar approach from Linksys which to its newest WRT router, it simply changed the colour and this can get tiring for the user after a few iterations. Don’t get me wrong, the R7000P can still compete with the latest wireless routers in terms of design, but the new Netgear Orbi and the XR500 show that the manufacturer can still create a cool designed product, so a fresh looking router can make a difference.

Unlike some small, minimalist designed WiFi system units, a larger case can offer a few advantages, such as the better heat management and to ensure it, Netgear has also added ventilation grills on its rear side and a few on the bottom area, near the info label (that mainly contains the SSID/passkey, Serial Number and MAC address). While testing the R7000P, the case did get slightly warm near the label and on the top surface, but it never showed any signs that it may overheat. Similarly to its predecessor, the Nighthawk R7000P can be positioned horizontally on a flat surface, but, thanks to the two mounting holes from the bottom area, the router can also easily be mounted on the wall (so it doesn’t cram your desk). Furthermore, the R7000P weighs 1.65 lbs (a bit under the WRT3200ACM) and, by pairing it with the four silicone feet, we get a stable device which won’t budge regardless of the number of cables connected.

Getting back to the top surface, you’ll notice the reliable array of LED indicators that have the role of showing the status of the router and of the network: from the left, there’s the Power LED (solid white indicates that the router is ready to be configured, while flashing white shows that the firmware is corrupted; the LED will blink amber either when the firmware is being upgraded or when the router returns to the factory default settings), the Internet LED (flashing white indicates that the WAN port is receiving and sending traffic), one LED for the 2.4GHz and another for the 5GHz radio, one LED for the USB 3.0 port, one LED for the USB 2.0 port and four LEDs for the four LAN Ethernet ports.

Next to the last Ethernet port LED, there are two buttons that have LED lights underneath them, one responsible for turning the WiFi On or Off and the other for initiating the WPS pairing. As I said many times before, I do prefer the traditional array of LED lights instead of the single LED approach of the WiFi systems because it’s more intuitive and make it simple to understand everything that happens with the router, without having to constantly consult the manual. On the rear side of the router, Netgear has positioned a small recessed Reset button (press and hole it for seven seconds to return the R7000P to factory default settings) and next to it, there are four LAN Ethernet ports (RJ45, Gigabit).

A bit more to the right, there’s the WAN port (Gigabit), a USB 2.0 port (could still be useful for connecting a printer), a Power On/Off button and a proprietary Power port. If you remember the frontal USB 3.0 port from the Nighthawk R7000, well, Netgear decided to also keep it on the R7000P, so, you get quick access if you have to connect a NAS storage or USB drive (surely, it could also lead to a mess of cables).

Hardware
Inside the case, the Netgear Nighthawk R7000P is noticeably different than the R7000, but it still uses the Broadcom platform, being equipped with a dual-core Broadcom BCM4708C0 chipset clocked at 1GHz (which is not really that different than the dual-core BCM4709A0 also clocked at 1GHz of the R7000), 256 MB of RAM (Samsung K4B2G1646F-BCK0), 128 MB of flash storage from Spansion (S34ML01G200TFI00 622BB613) and it uses the BCM4708C0 as a switch chip.

So far, it’s almost identical to the R7000, but the area where the R7000P got significantly improved was at the wireless chip for the 5GHz radio, which went from the Broadcom BCM4360 of the R7000 to the better BCM4365E KMMLG 3×3 SoC, that supports MU-MIMO (it also comes with the QPF4519 Qorvo integrated FEM). The 2.4GHz wireless chipset remained the same Broadcom BCM4360.
The Nighthawk R7000P is advertised as an AC2300 class router, so it features a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 600 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 1,625 Mbps on the 5GHz radio band (to get the best possible wireless performance, you need to have a wireless adapter that supports 1024-QAM, otherwise the device won’t perform better than an AC1900 class router).

Features and Performance
The Nighthawk R7000 was very well equipped for its time, but the R7000P had to make a step forward and adopt one of the more popular WAVE 2 features, the MU-MIMO technology (Netgear added the 160MHz support only to its R7800). This ensures that multiple clients connected via WiFi will get served simultaneously instead of fighting for the bandwidth (the compatible clients are still very scarce, but, surprisingly, MU-MIMO seems to gain more ground every day, although in its lesser forms, such as 1×1 or 2×2). The R7000P has kept the support for BeamForming+, which ensures that the signal is directed (and enhanced) towards the client, so it improves the stability of the network and significantly reduces the effect of the interferences.

And I also noticed that the router takes advantage of the Smart Connect feature that automatically assigns the connected devices to their suitable WiFi band. While some routers also pride themselves with this feature, it’s not always properly implemented and you may still end up overcrowding one band and underusing the other, but Netgear seems to have done a good job in this case and R7000P is very effective in this regard. Some other features that are worth mentioning are the Netgear Armor (powered by BitDefender) that works as an Antivirus, provides protection against phishing and malware, and it also scans all your devices for vulnerabilities (great if you have IoT gadgets connected to the LAN network); the second feature is the Circle with Disney for enhanced Parental Controls. The problem with Netgear Armor and the Circle with Disney integration is that the former offers just a trial for 90 days, while the latter offers a basic free package and the full access requires a monthly fee. I’m not really a fan of monthly / yearly subscriptions, but they do offer some degree of convenience for the users that don’t want the hassle of dealing with additional hardware or custom software solutions.

Note: If you were wondering whether Netgear has implemented some form of mesh technology, the answer is no, but you can check out the Netgear Orbi, which is regarded as one of the fastest WiFi systems available. To test the wireless performance of the R7000P, I took two computers, one is a Desktop PC equipped with the PCE-AC88 WiFi adapter (will act as the client and will be able to fully utilise the power of the router) and the other is a potent laptop which will be connected to the R7000P via a CAT6 Ethernet cable.
Note: The R7000P was upgraded to the v1.3.1.44_10.1.23 firmware.

On the first test, I connected both clients to the 5GHz network and, from the client to the server, at 5 feet, I managed to measure an average of 861 Mbps, while at 15 feet, I measured around 805 Mbps and at 30 feet, the speed went down to 654 Mbps. This type of performance is possible because of the perfect compatibility with the PCe-AC88, so I decided to also test the router using the PCE-AC68 adapter and these are the result: at 5 feet, I measured an average of 753 Mbps (still a great throughput), but the real difference came at 15 feet, where I saw a decrease to 597 Mbps and at 30 feet, where the speed averaged at 348 Mbps.

From the server to the client, using either adapter, I got pretty much the same results: at 5 feet, I measured an average of 286 Mbps, while at 15 feet, the speed went slightly down to 267 and, at 30 feet, I measured an average of 222 Mbps.
On the next step, I decided to switch to the 2.4GHz network and, still using the PCE-AC88, from the client to the server, I measured an average of 176 Mbps, while at 15 feet, I measured an average of 158 Mbps; at 30 feet, the speed actually went slightly up to an average of 164 Mbps.

From the server to the client, things remained surprisingly similar: at 5 feet, I measured an average of 174 Mbps, while at 15 feet, I measured an average of 150 Mbps; at 30 feet, the speed went down to around 141 Mbps. As for the wired throughput (LAN to LAN), the result were decent: the router delivered an average of 891 Mbps from the client to the server (TCP) and 856 Mbps from the server to the client (TCP); as for UDP testing, I got 868 Mbps from the client to the server and 470 Mbps, vice versa. Lastly, I decided to check out the storage performance using a T5 Samsung SSD drive (256 GB) and, moving a 2.5 GB multimedia folder, I got an average of 22.1 MBps while writing the folder and an average of 76.7 MBps for reading it (as can be seen, the writing performance is severely underwhelming).

Software and Installation
The WiFi systems were among the first to adopt a mobile device-only user interface and, since this implementation has received positive feedback from the users, a lot of manufacturer had to adopt this new trend and now even the traditional router uses a mobile app for both configuration and administration purposes. The R7000P is not an exception, so it can be configured via either the dedicated mobile app or through the web-based interface. Of course, I chose the former, so I installed and ran the Nighthawk application on my Android phone. On the first step, I was required to create a Netgear account (you can use two-step verification for extra security and link it to your Facebook account – it seems to be necessary for remote access from anywhere in the world) and, afterwards, I had to connect to the router’s WiFi network (Netgear also provides some instructions for the hardware installation).

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Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

Not long ago, Netgear released the Nighthawk X4S R7800, which is an updated, better equipped version of the Netgear Nighthawk X4 (that I reviewed not long ago) and, besides having an overall better wireless performance than its predecessor, it also comes with the MU-MIMO technology, working out of the box (the X4 had to wait a while before being able to use it) and it supports the 160 MHz channel bandwidth (something of a novelty feature in the WiFi world), all these making the X4S a future-proof device. Of course, there are some shortcomings (the interface is still plagued by the same issues as the previous versions), but it does come at a very good price, so let’s see how it performs.

Design
The NETGEAR Nighthawk X4S kept the same case as the X4, favouring the sharp lines of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth plane inspired design that we first got with the Nighthawk R7000, instead of going for a different external appearance (I see this as a more successful design formula than what Netgear did with the mothership-like Nighthawk X6). This means that the X4S features an angular plastic exterior, with two antennas pointing from the back and two from either side of the case and everything is covered by the same black matte finish (that does not retain fingerprints). Similarly to the X4, the four antennas need to be attached in a specific order, matching the 1 to 4 labels on the router, to avoid having the them facing the wrong way (as expected, the four antennas are upgradeable, feel sturdy and solid).

It’s nice to see that NETGEAR understood the importance of a good ventilation and took a serious approach to maintain a proper temperature (especially since it lacks any internal fan and relies on the passive cooling system). This means that there are lots of vent holes all around the case, including the front, back, lateral sides and especially the bottom, where there is a huge number of small and larger cut-outs that facilitate a good heat dissipation. Of course, that is possible because of the four bulky feet, which also play an important role into maintaining a good stability when there are lots of cables connected.

At the same time, the router’s footprint is really large (it measures 11.2 x 7.2 x 1.9 inches) and the device itself is heavy enough to keep it from budging (it weighs 1.85 lbs). The size of the router can become an inconvenience, especially if you value every inch of your desk (this usually happens in offices), but you do get the option to mount the device on the wall, using the two mount holes from the bottom. If you can leave the X4S into your living room, you’ll appreciate that even though it’s big, it will nicely fit in with the furniture (especially the modern-type), but, it will undoubtedly attract a lot of attention onto itself.

On the top, towards the front edge, you can find a series of LED lights (just like on the X4), which show the status of the Power (if the LED is blinking an amber colour, you either pressed the Reset button or the firmware is upgrading, otherwise, if the Led is blinking a white colour, then the firmware is corrupted), Internet, the 2.4Ghz WiFi and the 5GHz WiFi (if either LEDs is blinking, it means that the router is receiving/sending data packages via WiFi), USB 3.0 port 1, USB 3.0 port 2, eSata port, the four LAN Ethernet ports (if either LED is blinking, then the specific port is sending or receiving traffic) and the last two LEDs are actually a couple of masquerading buttons for turning the WiFi On/Off and to initiate the WPS pairing (it allows you to join the network without typing the WiFi password).

The rear side of the Nighthawk X4S is home to the LED On/Off switch (a great addition if you don’t want to have the LED blinking in your face while you’re sleeping), a recessed Reset button (it returns the device to factory default settings), the four 10/100/1000 Ethernet Gigabit LAN ports, a 10/100/1000 Ethernet Gigabit Internet port, a Power connector and the Power On/Off button. On the left side of the case, inside a recessed zone, there are two USB 3.0 ports and symmetrically, on the right side, there is an eSata port (a welcoming addition which I only found on the Linksys WRT1900ACS, so far). As always, I dislike the fact that Netgear didn’t put these ports on the back side, since I do not like having lots of cables sprouting from all around the case.
Note: Inside the package, you can find the Netgear Nighthawk X4S R7800 router unit, the power adapter and an Ethernet cable.

Hardware
Inside the case, the NETGEAR Nighthawk X4S R7800 is equipped with a dual-core Qualcomm Atheros IPQ8065 CPU (clocked at 1.7GHz), 128 MB of storage memory and 512 MB of RAM (a step up from the dual-core 1.4 GHz Qualcomm IPQ8064 and the 256 MB of RAM of the NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 v2).

Furthermore, the 2.4Ghz wireless performance is being delivered by a Qualcomm Atheros QCA9984 4×4:4 chipset, along with a Skyworks SE2623L power amplifier and the 5GHz wireless performance is also being delivered by a Qualcomm Atheros QCA9984 4×4:4 chipset, along with a RFMD RFPA5542 power amplifier.

The X4S R7800 features a maximum theoretical speed of 800 Mbps using the 2.4Ghz radio band (this is possible thanks to the 256 QAM support) and a maximum theoretical speed of 1733 Mbps using the 5GHz radio band and the 802.11ac standard (it sums up to 2,533 Mbps and it rounds to the advertised AC2600).

Features and Performance
Since this router is an improved version of the Nighthawk X4, it was expected that it would go on the MU-MIMO technology route, instead of adopting the tri-band approach. An XStream tri-band router is able to handle a huge amount of clients on both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz radio spectrum and it has the advantage of featuring an extra 5GHz network to handle a larger number of connection than usual (the ASUS RT-AC3200 is one of these routers).

The MU-MIMO technology is a bit different, because it doesn’t necessarily specialize into connecting and handling as many devices as possible, but to simultaneously serve more than one device. This is a great improvement over the generic round-robin technique, where devices were served one at a time, the only downside is that there still aren’t enough clients with compatible wireless adapters (still, this level of performance would attract the attention of competitive gamers, so it’s not a coincidence that the X4S is marketed as a gaming router).

But that’s not all, as there are many more interesting features implemented inside this router. The most head-turning feature is the support for the 160 MHz bandwidth mode, which in reality, is implemented as 80 MHz + 80 MHz (the X4S does not really support a contiguous 160 MHz bandwidth and the only router that does support it on the 5GHz band, at this moment, is the Linksys WRT3200ACM).

While a single 160MHz will just be a significantly wider channel, the 80 + 80 MHz approach uses two different channels bonded together, which transmit and receive data, simultaneously. The way the 160 MHz mode works is that it can notably increase the maximum link rate (since you get increased capacity, due to a wider channel), but, as with many other newer technologies, it suffers from a lack of compatible devices. I understand why Netgear went for the 80+80 MHz technique instead of a single 160 MHz channel, since the former has a higher chance to be used more often.

The last feature that I would like to mention is the Beamforming+ technology, which focuses the signal only towards your connected wireless clients, so you get a better coverage and less interference (of course, you need devices with compatible wireless cards, but, these are becoming more and more common).
In order to test the wireless performance of the NETGEAR Nighthawk X4S, first, I took two computers with wireless adapters and measured the speed at different locations inside a relatively large home. So, using the 5GHz radio (40 MHz channel, 802.11ac standard), at no more than 5 feet, I managed to measure an average of 515 Mbps (with a peak of 526 Mbps). Afterwards, I increased the distance to 15 feet, which meant a slight speed decrease to 477 Mbps and at 100 feet, I measured an average of 225 Mbps.

Next, I switched to the 2.4GHz radio (20 MHz channel) and, at close range (about 5 feet), I measured an average speed of 150 Mbps (it peaked at 157 Mbps), while at 15 feet, the speed decreased to 138 Mbps. Lastly, at 100 feet, I measured an average of 108 Mbps.
Because the Nighthawk X4S is a 4×4 router, it would be a shame not to test its potential using a 4×4 client. The problem is that I could not find a 4×4 client so I simply used another 4×4 router in bridge mode to test the wireless performance of the 5Ghz radio band. That being said, at close range (around 5 feet), I measured an average of 944 Mbps (with a maximum of 961 Mbps) and at a longer range (no more than 100 feet), the speed decreased to 332 Mbps.

Furthermore, similarly to the X4, the X4S allows you to connect three external storage devices at the same time, so let’s see the storage performance of this router. To test the read/write performance, I took a 2GB folder (containing miscellaneous files) and I was able to measure 53.7 MBps for writing the folder and 88.1 MBps for reading it. These is a very good storage performance, surprisingly close to the fantastic speeds of the Linksys WRT1900ACS.

Setup
The X4S comes with a pre-configured WiFi network (SSID and password info can be found on the label from the bottom side of the router), so you could just plug the device into a power outlet, connect it to an Internet source and you’re good to go.
But, if you want to configure the router, you have to open a web browser and go to https://www.routerlogin.net to start the Setup Wizard, which will automatically detect the connection type (of course, you can configure the connection manually, by going to Basic > Internet). After that, you can further change the settings using the Genie interface.

The UI has undergone some transformations during the years, but there is still a lot of work to be done to rise up to the current standards. Besides that, you get two main tabs, Basic and Advanced, each with its own set of options. The Basic tab includes the following sections: Home (shows the status of the Internet, Wireless, Attached Devices, Parental Controls, ReadySHARE and Guest Network, each of these options acting as a hyperlink towards the specific section), Internet (allows you to setup the Internet connection – Account and Domain name, IP address, DNS and MAC addresses), Wireless (allows you to configure each of the two networks, 2.4GHz and 5GHz – SSID, channel, security options), Attached Devices (shows the Total Bandwidth and a graphic representation of every connected devices, wireless or wired), Quality of Service (you can use the Dynamic QoS, which automatically prioritizes your traffic or return to the Attached Devices, select any device and manually choose the priority – it can be Low, Medium, High or Highest – for people who are used with a straight-forward QoS, the way the X4S operates can be a bit confusing), Parental Controls (requires a free OpenDNS account to enable the Live Parental Controls and if you want to configure which devices can connect and which are blocked, you have to go to the Advanced tab > Security > Access Control, in order to create access rules, otherwise, if you want to block certain sites, you need to go to Advances > Security > Block Sites – again, it’s not really straight-forward and users need to navigate a lot to reach the proper options), ReadySHARE (Basic, ReadyCLOUD, ReadySHARE Printer or ReadySHARE Vault) and Guest Network (allows you to create 2.4GHz or 5GHz guest networks, each with its own security options and SSID).

The Advanced tab features the following sections: ADVANCED Home (like the name suggests, it’s a more detailed Home section), Setup Wizard, WPS Wizard, Setup (here you can setup the Internet, Wireless connection, Guest Network, WAN (DMZ Server, MTU Size, NAT Filtering), LAN (LAN TCP/IP Setup and Use Router as DHCP Server), QoS and the Device Name), ReadySHARE, Security (Parental Controls, Access Control, Block Sites, Block Services, Schedule and E-mail), NETGEAR Downloader (allows you to download any files from the Internet, directly into a connected USB driver), Administration (shows the Router Status, Logs, Attached Devices, configure the Backup Settings, Set Password and perform a Firmware Update) and Advanced Setup (Wireless Settings, Router/AP/Bridge Mode, Port Forwarding/Port Triggering, Dynamic DNS, VPN Service, Static Routes, Remote Management, USB Settings, UPnP, IPv6, Traffic Meter, VLAN/ Bridge Settings and LED Control Settings).

The Netgear Genie is, as always, a mixed bag, because even though all the expected options are there, the interface sometimes feels like a maze (and it’s not as fast as other router interfaces out there).
Note: The Netgear Nighthawk X4S supports the DD-WRT custom firmware, as well as OpenWRT (Tomato works only with Broadcom-based routers).

Conclusion
Since the first and second version of the Nighthawk X4, the new X4S feels miles ahead of its predecessors, having a stellar wireless performance, one of the best storage performances, the MU-MIMO technology, support for the 160 MHz bandwidth mode and even though, the interface can be considered a weakness, there is support for custom firmwares to make up for it.

Check the product here:

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

Following the astounding success of the R7000 (which almost became a cult-classic device, along the WRT54GL and it still is a top choice even today), Netgear decided to also release a version that will have a modem incorporated (called the D7000), so people won’t need to buy a separate modem and still be able to enjoy the lightening speed of the R7000.

But having a modem and a router into the same device has always raised some eyebrows, because the popular opinion is that it’s better to have them separate, so you can upgrade them when time comes, but, many people don’t want too many gadgets or cables into their homes and don’t want to configure and maintain two separate devices.
So, if you can’t use a DOCSIS modem and if you’re constrained to go with a DSL connection, then the D7000 seems to be a perfect choice, as it has both the high performance of the R7000 and the reliability of the VDSL modem.

Design
The design of the R7000 was everyone’s wet dream and thankfully, the D7000 maintained the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth plane-inspired case. So, we get the same sharp, angular lines, but instead of black, we get a grey matte finish on the top of the device (that doesn’t retain fingerprints). Everything else is pretty much the same as with the R7000, with small exceptions.

For example, the sides of the R7000 were occupied by an abundance of airflow vents, while the front was a continuous piece of plastic, with only a USB 3.0 sticking outwards. The D7000, on the other hand, still has the airflow vents on the sides, but breaks the pattern on both sides to make way for some recessed zones that are home to the two USB 3.0 ports (one on the left, the other on the right). This way, the front remains clean, with only some additional airflow vents populating the area. From my point of view, it would have been better if Netgear would have just moved the USB 3.0 ports to the back, so you won’t have to deal with cables sticking out of everywhere.

The footprint is also unchanged, you get the same 13.7 x 10.1 x 3.1 inches and the same weight (26.4 ounces). To this day, the D7000 (and therefore, the R7000) still remains one of the largest consumer router ever made. In terms of positioning, the default stance is the horizontal one and if you lack the space to comfortably keep the modem router, it is advisable to mount it on the wall.

On the top of the D7000, the array of LED lights is positioned in the same way as on the R7000, but you get some additional LEDs: for DSL and for the second USB 3.0 (that replaces the USB 2.0). Furthermore, on the back side, there is a LED On/Off switch (good addition for people that are annoyed by the flickering lights), three gold-plated antenna connectors (left, right and middle), a recessed Reset button, the Power connector, the Internet port, four Ethernet ports and a DSL port.

If you turn the modem router upside down, you can find four feet for stability purposes and a label with printed info about the login details (user name and password), as well as the SSID, the Serial number, the password (network key) and the MAC address.
Note: Inside the package, you can find the modem router unit, the three antennas, a Power adapter, an Ethernet cable, a phone cable and a DSL microfilter.

It’s a good thing that Netgear maintained the same design for the D7000 and I was pleased to see those small improvements over the R7000 that definitely enhance the overall look of the modem router.

Hardware
In terms of hardware, the Netgear Nighthawk D7000 is equipped with a dual core 1GHz BCM63138 SoC (Cortex A9), backed by 256MB of RAM and 128 flash memory. Furthermore, there’s a Broadcom BCM43602 chipset that ensures a proper 2.4GHz wireless performance and the same Broadcom BCM43602 delivers some of the best 5GHz radio band speed performance.
This is an AC1900 router, which means that the maximum theoretical speed of the D7000, using the 802.11ac WiFi standard is 1,300 Mbps and, using the 802.11n WiFi standard the maximum theoretical speed is 600 Mbps.

Besides being a wireless router, the D7000 is also a modem and Netgear has made it compatible with the ADSL+ and VDSL2 technologies, which means that it can provide data rates of more than 100 Mbps simultaneously (both downstream and upstream).
If you can’t use a DOCSIS 3.0 modem in the area you currently live, then, so far, this is the best modem technology available for you.

ALSO CHECK OUT THE BEST DOCSIS 3.0 CABLE MODEMS

Performance and Connectivity
When I tested the Netgear Nighthawk R7000, I got some really good results and was impressed by the signal stability even at larger distances. I also put it against its main competitors, the Asus RT-AC68U and Linksys WRT1900ACS and as you can see, it proved to be a tough adversary and it has ensured a long-lasting place among the top three best AC1900 routers.

The D7000 keeps all the features we saw on the R7000, meaning we have the Beamforming+ technology, which focuses the signal directly to your clients, instead of blasting the WiFi signal everywhere, hoping it will reach your devices. Also, the + means that there is improved performance on the 5GHz frequency band. No, there is no MU-MIMO tech implemented, we will have to settle with the older SU-MIMO, which uses the round-robin technique, meaning one client is served at a time, instead of multiple users. The MU-MIMO technology can be found on the more recent Netgear modem routers, like the Netgear Nighthawk X4S D7800, but be aware that you need compatible clients to take advantage of it.

In order to test the modem router, I connected it to a Nighthawk R7000 unit in bridge mode and I got the following results: using the 802.11ac standard and the 5GHz frequency band, the D7000 managed a maximum speed of 504Mbps at close range (5-6 feet) and after I put some distance between the devices, I got 436Mbps at 15 feet and up to 398Mbps at 35 feet. Lastly, I tested the speed performance when there were about 100 feet between the devices and I got and average of 285Mbps.

Next, I switched to the 802.11n standard, but maintained the 5GHz radio band and at close range, I measured 222Mbps. After increasing the distance to 15 feet, the D7000 delivered 197Mbps and after further increasing it to 35 feet, the speed decreased to 188 Mbps. After I put around 100 feet between the D7000 and the R7000, I measured a maximum speed of 174Mbps. Lastly, I switched to the 2.4GHz frequency and, at close range (5 to 6 feet), I measured a maximum of 134Mbps. At 15 feet, the D7000 delivered up to 116Mbps and at 35 feet, the speed decreased to 89 Mbps. After further increasing the speed to 100 feet, I measured an average speed of 60 Mbps.

Afterwards, I coupled the D7000 to an external HDD using a USB 3.0 port and I wrote and read a 1GB folder, containing multimedia files. So, the writing speed of the folder was 39.5MBps and the reading speed was 57MBps.
The Netgear Nighthawk D7000 is compatible with Verizon, CenturyLink (Qwest), Frontier, AT&T (not compatible with AT&T Uverse). Before purchasing a new modem, always check if your ISP supports it.

Setup
In order to install your modem router, the first thing you have to do is to connect it to a DSL service: this is done by attaching the phone cable provided in the package to the D7000 using the DSL port and to the DSL microfilter which will be connected to the ADSL or VDSL wall socket (the second port on the microfilter allows you to attach a phone to the line). Afterwards, insert the power adapter into the modem router and wait for the Power LED to light white. Now, the first time you connect the D7000, if you launch a web browser, it will take you directly to the Installation Assistant (if you want to log in afterwards, go to www.routerlogin.net and insert admin for the user name and password for the password field).

Before the set up process, you need your ISP information (configuration info for your DSL account, the ISP login name, the password and the static or fixed IP address settings). Since Nighthawk D7000 maintains the same look for the interface as the R7000, we get the familiar Netgear Genie which will guide us into configuring the modem router: you need to select the country and the Internet Service Provider and choose to either manually or automatically configure it. By allowing the Netgear Genie to automatically detect the Internet Connection, you will have to wait two, three minutes and you’re done (sometimes, you may need to allow the Wizard to do a full scan to detect the PVC protocol). Now, you can log into the interface and further configure your modem router.
Note: You can also use the genie app, compatible with smartphones, tablets and computers, which allows you to maintain your home network remotely.

The interface itself consists of two main tabs, Basic and Advanced, each with its own sub-tabs displayed vertically. The Basic tab has the following sub-tabs: Home (shows the Internet status, the Wireless SSID and password, the number of attached devices, if the Parental Controls are enabled, if there’s a USB drive connected and if there are Guest Networks enabled), Internet (select the Country and the ISP, choose the Transfer Mode and the DSL mode, Use VLANID and set the Priority, setup the Encapsulation, setup the Login Details, the Password, Service Name, the Connection Mode and set the Idle Timeout, use either a Static IP Address or Get a Dynamic one and select your DNS Address), Wireless (Region Selection, configure the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz Wireless Networks and configure the Security Options for each network), Attached Devices (all the Wired Devices, as well as the 2.4 and the 5GHz devices are displayed separately with their corresponding info), Parental Controls (uses free OpenDNS accounts), ReadySHARE and the Guest Network.

The Advanced tab consists of ADVANCED Home, Setup Wizard, WPS Wizard (either use the PUSH button method or use the PIN number method), Setup (Internet Setup; Wireless Setup, Guest Network, WAN Setup, LAN Setup – LAN TCP/IP Setup, Use Router as DHCP Server and manage Address Reservations; QoS Setup – use the default rules with their default priorities or create your own custom rules and priorities), USB Storage (features functions such as ReadyDLNA that let’s you view movies and photos on DLNA/UPnP AV-compliant media players), Security (Parental Controls, Access Controls, Block Sites, Block Services, Schedule and E-mail), Administration (Router Status – Router Information, Internet Port info, the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz wireless settings, the Guest Networks; Logs, Attached Devices, Backup Settings – here you can save a copy of the current settings, restore settings from a file or revert to factory defaults; Set Password, Router Update), Advanced Setup (Wireless Settings, Wireless AP, Wireless Repeating, Port Forwarding/Triggering, Dynamic DNS, VPN Service – install OpenVPN; Static Router, Remote Management, UPnP, IPv6, Traffic Meter, USB Settings).

One of the perpetual weaknesses of the Netgear routers is the software, but it’s not about lacking features, because it is fully packed with everything you would expect, but rather about the user experience. The D7000 still suffers from this problem, as even though it is undoubtedly full of features, the UI lacks the fluidity of other router interfaces and the features seem a bit scattered.

Conclusion
The Netgear Nighthawk D7000 is, without a doubt, a great modem router, it is compatible with the VDSL2 technology, it features a modern, good looking case, great wireless performance on both the 2.4 and 5GHz frequency and although the interface is still not user-friendly enough, if one can overlook this, will have a great time using this device.

Check the product here:

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

A few months ago, the X4 received an important hardware update, NETGEAR catching up with the latest technology available on the market. So, how well has it improved and how does it fare against other similarly equipped routers from the competition? Let’s have a look.
IMPORTANT: NETGEAR didn’t make a clear distinction between version 1 and version 2, meaning that if you buy it online, you just have to see what you get, otherwise, you can just look on the package for the “Now with MU-MIMO” phrase.

UPDATE (12.21.2016):  Netgear has released a firmware  to fix the recent arbitrary command injection vulnerability that affected the Nighthawk X4 R7500.

Design
NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 looks very similar to the R7000, featuring the same angular design (reminding us of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth plane), with a fingerprint-repellent black matte and with the same sturdiness we were accustomed, no matter the amount of connected cables.
The plastic case may seem a bit bulkier than the previous instalment because of the four detachable antennas, but in reality it only measures 11.22 x 7.26 x 1.97 inches and it weighs 26.4 ounces. Just like the R7000, the new R7500 will fit right in if you have a modern-type furniture setup, but undoubtedly will attract attention, because it has quite a large footprint and it’s not discrete in any way.
Sure, it isn’t a boring design at all, it steered clear from the bug-like design of the LINKSYS WRT1900ACS, but adopted the menacing robot-like aspect (with its tiny hands and legs).

The four antennas are specifically labelled from 1 to 4 in order to be attached in their dedicated spots and failing to do so will result in the antennas facing the wrong way (but it’s quite hard to overlook this aspect, because the labels are printed on an yellow background, thus easily attracting attention).
If you don’t have enough space, the Nighthawk X4 can also be wall-mounted (being VESA compatible) and if you don’t want the LEDs to be visible, you can turn them off at a touch of a button.

The front of the router is home of the status LED lights responsible for Power, Internet, 2.4GHz and 5GHz band, two USB 3.0, an eSata, four LAN LEDs and the last two are actually buttons (masquerading as LEDs), one for turning the WiFI ON and OFF and the other is for WPS Push N Connect.
In terms of ports, the NETGEAR R7500 is quite rich, so on the back you can find a button for turning the LED lights ON or OFF, a recessed RESET button, the usual four GIGABIT LAN ports, a GIGABIT WAN port, a Power port and a button for turning the Power ON and OFF.
On the left side of the router there are two USB 3.0 ports and on the right side, you can find an eSATA port. We welcome the addition of an extra USB 3.0 (while the other routers offer only one) and it’s a good choice from NETGEAR to move both ports on the side, unlike the Nighthawk R7000‘s frontal position. This will prevent a mess of cables.

The case is well ventilated, there are lots of vent grilles on the sides and back and also, the base of the X4 is perforated allowing for a good airflow, so overheating shouldn’t be a problem.
Now that we saw how is the Nighthawk X4 designed and what features does it have, what can we additionally expect in the package. Well, there are the 4 antennas, a Quick Install Guide, a 6-foot Power Adaptor and an Ethernet Cable.

Hardware
Inside the case, NETGEAR has equipped the Nighthawk X4 with a dual-core 1.4 GHz Qualcomm IPQ8064 Processor (Atheros QCA8337 switch chipset), backed by a 256 MB RAM and 128 MB flash memory.
Now, while the previous version of Nighthawk X4 featured the usually used Quantenna QSR1000 5GHz 4X4 AC “MU-MIMO ready” radio, NETGEAR decided to switch to Qualcomm and use the new QCA9980 4-stream 802.11ac MU-MIMO radio 5GHz (making the MU-MIMO technology actually usable).

For the 2.4Ghz radio, the X4 remained equipped with the same 3-stream QCA9880. So, the router supports (thanks to wifi beamforming) a maximum link rate of 600 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to 1733 Mbps for the 5GHz band. These two added, put the Nighthawk X4 in the AC2350 class, next to ASUS AC2400 RT-AC87U and LINKSYS E8350 AC2400.

Performance and Connectivity
Despite the powerful hardware, the original NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 didn’t really live up to the expectations. But, because of the improvement we expect to see better results.
In order to actually thoroughly test the X4 you need a receiver that supports four 802.11ac streams and there’s none on the market, unfortunately. So, we were left with two options, use another Nighthawk X4 in bridge mode or use a 3×3 client (a Macbook Pro). And we did both.
Note: Simultaneously, we compared the results with the first version of NETGEAR Nighthawk X4.
Testing the router, using a 3×3 client, on the 5GHz band, we got 460 Mbps (while R7500v1 got 430 Mbps) at close proximity (5 feet). At 15 feet, the router managed 415Mbps (R7500v1 got 370Mbps) and at long range (100 feet), we measured 220 Mbps (R7500v1 reached 180 Mbps).

Afterwards, we tested the router using the 2.4Ghz band. We got 137 Mbps (R7500v1 maxed a 140 Mbps) at close proximity (5 feet). At 15 feet, the router reached 135Mbps(while R7500v1 reached 132 Mbps) and at 100 feet, we measured 104 Mbps (and 80Mbps for R7500v1).
Now, we connected another Nighthawk X4 router in wireless bridge, using the 5GHz band and we got these results: at 5 feet, the router reached a maximum of 870 Mbps, at 20 feet it dropped to 720 Mbps and at 100 feet the router reached a surprising 314 Mbps.
So, obviously, the new hardware made a huge impact on the X4 R7500’s wireless performance, the coverage got wider (almost 300 feet) and some results were really close to what ASUS RT-AC87U can deliver.

But, as you saw before, there aren’t any 4×4 client devices and there’s only a handful that are capable of supporting 3×3 streams of data. Another important aspect is that the router handles a large amount of clients (wired or wireless) without disconnecting.
If you read the design section, you saw that the Nighthawk X4 allows you to connect three external storage devices and because the chipset is better, we expect improved NAS performance. Here are the results: we moved a 2GB file and we got 43 MBps writing speed and 78 MBps for reading.
These are really great results and we only saw such high NAS speeds (and higher) with the LINKSYS WRT1900ACS, both routers featuring speeds comparable with dedicated NAS servers.

Setup
While other companies (like ASUS, LINKSYS or TP-LINK) have improved their software over time, meaning the setup and the configuring process is better with every instalment, NETGEAR did not. Meaning, it’s very similar to what Nighthawk R7000 had to offer and although, this is version 2 of the X4 R7500, software-size is the same (with only some tweaks in the front page).

Fortunately, setting up the router is still quick and easy. All you have to do is navigate to www.routerlogin.net (in your browser) and start the setup wizard. The router is preconfigured with the 2.4GHz network and, as for the 5GHz band, it has the same password as the 2.4GHz network and the same name (with an added 5G suffix). If you want to change the passwords and names or do any advanced configuration, you have to go through the interface.
Nighthawk X4 uses the same ol’ Genie user interface, which offers two separate areas, Basic and Advanced. The Basic section allows you to configure the Netgear Guest Network and the Dynamic QoS, see the number of attached devices and the status of Internet and Wireless connection. There’s also the ReadyShare section, where you can see your connected USB devices and manage clients.

The Dynamic QoS is a very important part of the X4. It allows you to customize which client needs more bandwidth and which one does not. So the prioritization will be made considering aspects like gaming, streaming or browsing and each will receive the needed bandwidth.
To make this work even better, NETGEAR created a database of applications, which will be updated regularly (manually or automatically), consisting of the necessary bandwidth, latency and more. This feature works really well, rivalling the Adaptive QoS of the ASUS RT-AC87U.
Although it’s called basic, this section is not really user-friendly and can be intimidating for beginners, there are lots of options and settings that most won’t understand and should have been better found in the advanced section. That being said, there are some advantages, the NETGEAR NIghthawk X4 is packed with every feature and option you would want to see on a router.

So, there’s Port forwarding, Dynamic DNS, Parental Controls, DoS attack prevention, IPv6, FireWall, OpenVPN server and more (most of them can be accessed through the Advanced section, where you can do a more in-depth configuration of the router).
Note: You can download the Genie app on your phone (iOS, Android or Windows), but you can access the router only if you’re in your local network. Also, the mobile app doesn’t give you access to all settings, only the ones that the majority of users will most likely use on a regularly basis.
Although the NETGEAR Genie is packed with features and it’s easy to setup, it is not easy to customize and may not feel as user-friendly as other routers from the competition. It’s quite clear that it needs an upgrade.

Note: If you decide to purchase this router, be sure to check any Netgear router updates before actually putting it to use.

Conclusion
NETGEAR Nighthawk X4 is a capable router and because of the latest upgrade (which enables MU-MIMO), it is now a lot more valuable than before. It features great speed performance and coverage, the same interesting design and although the software is a bit complicated, it is packed with options and features. Also, it suffered a price drop recently, so it’s worth checking out.
Note: ASUS has also upgraded its AC2400 RT-AC87U router recently to enable the MU-MIMO technology.

Check the product here:

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com

Since we already delved into the world of AC routers with TP-Link Archer C7 AC1750 which is a relatively cheap entry-level router, it is time to have a look at a better, high-end AC router known and praised around the world, the NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900.
Yes, we know it is a weird name but if you take a look at the design of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth plane you will understand why the router was named this way.

UPDATE (12.21.2016):  Netgear has released a firmware (1.0.7.6)  to fix the recent arbitrary command injection vulnerability that affected the Nighthawk AC1900 R7000.

Design
NETGEAR opted for a new interesting design, quite different from other (more boring) models, featuring sharp angular lines, a black matte finish that does not retain fingerprints. The case is made of plastic, but the router is very sturdy, quite heavy actually (1.8 pounds) and even if a large amount of cables are connected to the ports, the router stood in one place.
Although it may want to give a stealthy vibe (like the jet – big and undetectable), the router is quite wide (13.7×10.1×3.1 inches) so you will most definitely notice it when you enter the room but for a modern type furniture, this router will fit right in.

The NETGEAR router is made to be seated horizontally but you have the option to mount it on the wall. Nighthawk AC1900 R7000 has three detachable external fin-like antennas that optimize the signal and further add to the cool design of this router.
Besides the antennas, on the back of the router there is the RESET button, 4 ETHERNET ports, one WAN port, an USB 2.0, On/Off Power button and the Power Input port.
On the front of the router you can find a bunch of white status LEDs (that are not too bright) responsible for power, internet link, 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi, 2 USB, WPS, 4 ETHERNET LEDs.

The last two LEDs on the right are also buttons: one for WiFi On/Off and the other to enable WPS. On the front of the router you can also find a USB 3.0 port.
All of this features make the NETGEAR Nighthawk one of the best looking routers we had the pleasure to use.

Performance and Connectivity
We’ve seen that NETGEAR Nighthawk looks good but what about its performance?
Well, as the name suggests, the NETGEAR Nighthawk’s physical link rates are 1300Mbps on 5GHz and 600Mbps on 2.4GHz (1900Mbps if combined). All this is possible thanks to the Broadcom BCM4709A0 WiFi chipset that brings the TurboQAM technology which can boost each 2.4GHz stream to up to 200Mbps.
Besides the chipset, the NETGEAR Nighthawk comes equipped with a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU, 128 flash memory and 256MB RAM.
Testing the router’s WiFi capabilities we got some good results. Although it isn’t the fastest AC router, we were impressed by the stability it delivers even at large distance.

On 5GHz for 802.11ac and at 15 feet, the router scored 430Mbps and at 100 feet it scored 300Mbps. Still on the 5GHz, for 802.11n and at 15 feet, Nighthawk scored 190Mbps and at 100 feet, the router scored 180Mbps.
We see that at 5GHz the coverage and stability are absolutely great, streaming videos, playing games, connecting to a multitude of devices was a breeze and we never encountered any problems.
On 2.4GHz and at a close proximity of around 15 feet, the router offers 110Mbps and at 100 feet, it scored 60Mbps.
Now, testing the NETGEAR Nighthawk at 2.4GHz we can see that, unfortunately, the speed is not that impressive although it is still pretty stable.
Note: When coupled with the USB 3.0, NETGEAR Nighthawk makes for a reliable NAS server (40MBps writing and 60MBps reading).

Setup
Setting up the Nighthawk AC1900 R7000 is not as user-friendly as one may expect. You start by using the WPS or the default password and afterwards you are prompted with the Netgear Genie. Genie’s interface shows the number of clients connected, active bands, connected USB devices, whether Parental Controls are enabled and guest network status.

As many other routers, the NETGEAR Nighthawk splits 5GHz and 2.4Ghz into separate SSIDs.
Great features that you can find on this router are the Built-in VPN server, openDNS, Parental Control (system that can help you block certain websites and apply different filters), ReadyShare Vault (scheduled backup to an USB device), NETGEAR genie with remote access, Network Map, EZ Mobile Connect and DLNA media and iTunes music server (allows media streaming from a HDD attached to the router).

The enhanced QoS is another interesting feature Netgear has improved. This feature is great at prioritizing and setting upstream and downstream traffic that works perfect for video streaming or watching intensive data stream sites like Netflix. Although most routers have this feature, we have never experienced such great significant performance gain.
Because the software may seem a bit outdated we recommend looking up the DD-WRT firmware as it will definitely show a great improvement.

Conclusion
So is all the hype around the NETGEAR Nighthawk even after many years after its appearance still justified? Yes it is, it’s a worthy competitor for some other high-end LinkSys routers and Airport Extreme, it has great performance, on 5GHz it performed stellar, has great coverage and stability, looks good, so basically it is one of the best AC routers we tested.

Check the product here:

Mark B

Mark is a graduate in Computer Science, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Mark is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, covering not only his passion, the networking devices, but also other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

www.mbreviews.com