Netgear - Nighthawk Pro Gaming Ad7200 Tri-band Wi-fi Router Review

The latest add-on to the Netgear family of Wi-Fi routers, the NightHawk Pro Gaming XR700 ($499.99), is a massive tri-band router with an as large price tag. Like the Nighthawk X10 AD7200 Smart WiFi Router (R9000) that nosotros reviewed terminal year, the XR700 supports 802.11ad 60GHz Wi-Fi technology. It also offers 10Gb Ethernet connectivity and link aggregation, is equipped with half dozen LAN ports, and has robust gaming controls. Although the XR700 is a solid performer, it's not as fast every bit our Editors' Option for gaming routers, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300, which costs $100 less.

Gamer-Friendly Design and Features

With its sleek black enclosure, cerise trim, and see-through mesh pinnacle, in that location'south little dubiety that the XR700 is designed for gamers. At 2.5 by 9.6 past 12.seven inches (HWD) it'southward bigger than both the TP-Link Archer C5400X ($279.99 at Amazon) and the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 routers and will accept up a good deal of room on your desktop.

I/O ports are plentiful and include a gigabit WAN port, a 10Gb SPF+ LAN port for use with a high-speed 10Gb switch or for connecting to a 10Gb network, and six gigabit LAN ports (two of which can be configured for link aggregation). There are also two USB 3.0 ports on the correct side of the enclosure. The router sports four nonremovable amplified active antennas and a row of xv LED indicators for power, net (WAN), all three radio bands (2.4GHz, 5GHz, 60GHz), the ii USB ports, the 10Gb port, the vi LAN ports, and guest Wi-Fi. To the right of these LEDs are a WPS button and a Wi-Fi On/Off button.

The XR700 is powered by a quad-core i.7GHz CPU, 512MB of flash memory, and 1GB of RAM. Information technology's considered an AD7200 router because it is capable of data manual rates of 800Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, 1,733Mbps on the 5GHz band, and 4,600Mbps on the 60GHz band. Every bit with the Nighthawk R9000 and the TP-Link Talon AD7200 Multi-Band Wi-Fi Router ( at Amazon) , the XR700 supports 802.11ad networking, also known as WiGig, which operates on the 60GHz band. While capable of much faster throughput speeds than yous'll get on the 802.11ac 5GHz band, WiGig can't penetrate walls and is therefore limited to same-room communications. In club to take advantage of all this speed, all clients must take Wi-Fi circuitry that supports 802.11ad networking. When nosotros reviewed the TP Link Talon dorsum in 2016, nosotros bemoaned the lack of bachelor 802.11ad customer devices, and almost a year and a half subsequently, they are withal hard to come past.

The XR700 supports Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) streaming, which transmits data to clients simultaneously rather than sequentially. But again, the client devices must support MU-MIMO to take advantage of the enhanced throughput. It besides supports beamforming, which transmits signals directly to clients, and Smart Connect, which lets the router automatically choose the best radio band based on traffic and signal force. As with the X10 router, the XR700 supports 160MHz Wi-Fi, which doubles the 80MHz aqueduct width on the 5GHz band to achieve faster throughput speeds, and it supports automatic backups to Amazon Drive, a cloud-based storage service, and allows y'all to manage and share photos, videos, and sound files using the Plex Media Server app.

The XR700 uses the aforementioned splendid web-based interactive management organisation every bit the NightHawk XR500 . Powered by Netduma's DumaOS, it lets you monitor network activity, configure network settings, allocate bandwidth, optimize your network for gaming, and more than. The Dashboard displays graphs of CPU and bandwidth usage, guest network status, Wi-Fi and cyberspace status, and installed apps. On the left is a menu containing tabs to access Geo-Filter, QoS, Device Manager, Network Monitor, Hybrid VPN, System Information, and Settings.

Geo-Filter settings tin can help reduce lag by limiting the distance to the host servers y'all're connecting to. Only set your home location on the map and a distance range to prevent players and servers outside of that area from entering and hosting your game. You tin can customize Geo-Filter profiles for each system on your network and assign different ranges for different games. QoS settings allow you to limit upload and download bandwidth speeds for each connected device by clicking on the device proper noun and using the slider to change the bandwidth pct. You can give higher priority to games that are lagging and use the Anti-Bufferbloat setting to make sure smaller applications receive adequate bandwidth even though they are not prioritized.

The Device Manager displays a network map that shows all connected devices. Click on any device on the map to access its IP and MAC address settings and block or enable access to the network. The Network Monitor tab lets you lot view a graphical chart of upload and download bandwidth usage for all devices on the network, and the System Information tab opens a screen with statistics for CPU, RAM, and wink memory usage and lets you see what kind of network resource your applications are using.

Use the Settings tab to configure Internet, Wireless, LAN, and Invitee Network settings. You can too utilize Content Filtering settings to block admission to specific sites, create an admission schedule, and enable electronic mail alerts when someone attempts to visit a restricted site. You don't, all the same, become the robust historic period-appropriate parental controls that come up with the TP-Link Archer C5400X. Advanced Settings allow yous configure Port Forwarding, Port Triggering, VPN Services, Remote Management, and Static Routing options. Missing is the built-in protection from malware and viruses that you get with the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300.

Keeping Upward With the Pack

To install the XR700, I started past unplugging my cable modem to reset it, so connected the XR700 to the modem and to a host PC. I powered up the router and typed www.routerlogin.net in my browser'southward URL bar to launch the Setup Magician. I selected my LAN port type (1Gb or 10Gb) and waited a infinitesimal or ii while the magician detected my connection and checked my cyberspace speed. I created an Ambassador business relationship, answered two security questions, and created names for the ii.4GHz and 5GHz bands. I updated the firmware and was done.

See How We Exam Wireless Routers

The XR700 turned in respectable scores on our performance tests. It managed 101Mbps on the 2.4GHz close-proximity (same-room) test, barely edging out the Netgear NightHawk X10 and coming in simply behind the TP-Link Archer C5400X. The Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 led with a score of 128Mbps. On the 30-foot test, the XR700's score of 75Mbps was identical to the Rapture GT-AC5300'south result. The NightHawk X10 scored 73Mbps and the Archer C5400X scored 76Mbps.

On our 5GHz close-proximity test, the XR700'southward score of 539Mbps was a chip slower than the Archer C5400X and the NightHawk X10. The Rapture GT-AC5300's 601Mbps remains the fastest score we've come across. At a distance of xxx feet, the XR700 delivered 308Mbps, squeaking past the Archer C5400X, but not the Rapture GT-AC5300. The NightHawk X10 took top honors with a score of 392Mbps.

To examination the XR700'southward MU-MIMO throughput performance, nosotros used three identical Acer Aspire R laptops equipped with Qualcomm's QCA61x4A MU-MIMO circuitry. On the close-proximity MU-MIMO test, its score of 157Mbps was nearly identical to the NightHawk X10'southward (156Mbps), but significantly slower than the Archer C5400X (220Mbps) and the Rapture GT-AC5300 (225Mbps). On the xxx-human foot test, the XR700'due south score of 104Mbps was but a few points shy of the Archer C5400X and the NightHawk X10. The Rapture GT-AC5300 led at 135Mbps.

On our file-transfer tests, in which we utilize a 4.9GB binder containing a mix of multimedia and office files to test write and read speeds, the XR700 produced a write score of 42MBps, beating the Archer C5400X and the Rapture GT-AC5300, but not the NightHawk X10, which scored an impressive 77MBps. Results on the read test were similar: The XR700's score of 44MBps was a scrap faster than the Archer C5400x and the Rapture GT-AC5300, merely not near equally fast every bit the NightHawk X10's lofty 89MBps.

High-Terminate Gaming, at a Price

With the Netgear NightHawk Pro Gaming XR700, yous become a bunch of gamer-friendly features and the latest wireless technology, including a 60GHz band for 802.11ad Wi-Fi, a dedicated 10Gb SPF+ LAN port, and MU-MIMO data streaming. The router's slick DumaOS-powered management panel lets you monitor network use and optimize online gaming functioning through bandwidth allocation and reduced lag when connecting to game servers. It doesn't, however, offer the anti-malware and rich parental controls that yous get with other high-end gaming routers.

If you tin can live without 802.11ad and 10Gb Ethernet connectivity, our Editors' Pick, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC5300, costs $100 less and offers better performance. It also comes with parental controls and malware protection courtesy of Trend Micro'due south Game IPS and eight gigabit LAN ports, two of which are optimized for gaming.

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Further Reading

• Business Choice Awards 2020: Routers and Servers/Network Attached Storage
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• 12 Tips to Troubleshoot Your Internet Connectedness
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• Save 35 Percent on TP-Link AC1750 Smart Wi-Fi Router

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Source: https://au.pcmag.com/wireless-networking-1/60035/netgear-nighthawk-pro-gaming-xr700-review

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