Netgear Nighthawk R7000 router review

NETGEAR NIGHTHAWK R7000 ROUTER

Speed: Up to 2 Gbps
Compliance: IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac
Security: Push button, 128-bit WEP
Other features: Dual Band, 4 Gigabit ports, 3 antennas, USB 3.0

Netgear is better known for supplying its hardware to ISP’s like BT and Virgin (in the UK at least). Solid and reliable are two words that spring to mind but that’s where the plaudits normally end. Their routers don’t have the reputation or swagger of brands like ASUS with their super-villain looks.

However, the Nighthawk R7000 changes all that…

It’s lines are sleek and angular – black with a matt finish, 3 external antennas add a dimension of sleek aggression and flickering lights like there’s something special “under the hood”.

And there is – there really is. This router is most certainly not short of features and boasts a fantastic Broadcom BCM4708A chipset – delivering ‘Turbo QAM’ – giving a wireless n speedbump to 600 Mbps (up from 45 Mbps). Combined with the 1300 Mbps of 802.11ac – you end up with speeds of 1900 Mbps!

Netgear have also set the standard to beat in terms of CPU – including a pair of 1GHz CPU’s (the first router to do so!).

Beamforming

The nighthawk R7000 comes with Beamforming – this means that very cleverly the router can tell where your connected devices are and boost the signal in that direction – rather than sending a signal out in every direction!

Other features

The Nighthawk R7000 comes with a couple of USB ports for mass storage devices – unfortunately one is USB 3.0 and one is USB 2.0 and in all honesty, this left us scratching our heads – why not 2 x USB 3.0???

It has WPA/WPA2 security, WPS and guest network support. You can also have a customised URL for a personal FTP server (nice touch netgear!).

Setup

Setup is easy and fairly run of the mill. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of some of the ASUS models.

It has standard WPS and if you want to use the pin – you can.

REVIEW OVERVIEW
SUMMARY
It’s simple – Netgear designed the R7000 to simply be the fastest and rangiest wireless router available in 2016! It has the fastest throughput we’ve ever tested and the performance of the USB attached mass storage is out of this world.
Setup
Features
Performance
Value for money
4
OVERALL SCORE




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