Netgear Nighthawk X8 AC5300 Router With Active Antennas Tested (hothardware.com)

MojoKid writes: Netgear recently launched the Nighthawk X8 router, which is part of a new round of second-gen wireless AC devices dubbed "Wave 2", carrying the AC5300 moniker. Instead of using a 3x3 configuration with six antennae, this router offers a 4x4 configuration, with four internal antennae and four active external antennae, each with their own blue LEDs to signal their active state. The actual amplifiers are on the antennae themselves, rather than down on the main board, helping to boost the signal and minimize crosstalk and loss associated with modern PCB circuitry. Each 5GHz radio is able to broadcast at 2.1Gbps compared to 1.3Gbps on Gen 1 devices, and the bandwidth on the 2.4GHz channel is also increased from 600Mb/s on Gen 1 devices to 1GB/s. When you take both 5GHz channels at 2,100Mb/s and add it to the 1,000Mb/s on the 2.4GHz channel, you end up with a number around 5,300Mb/s, hence the branding. Performance-wise, the Nighthawk X8 is one of the fastest Wi-Fi routers on the market currently. However, its hefty price point might be hard to justify for most mainstream users. Enthusiasts and small office/home office users looking for ultimate range on a 5GHz channel with lots of clients connected will appreciate this routers throughput and power, however.

Comments

Great

[Anonymous Coward]

It only takes one idiot with one of these to interfere over all useable 2.4G and 5G bands at once so nobody gets a decent connection (i assume the kind of kiddie interested in this wont have obss active as that slows things down). But hey, its got big numbers, right? They should just ban these from the get go.

R8500, not AC5300

[Gravis Zero]

the actual model number is R8500 and "AC5300" is just marketing shitting on the desk. a side note: netgear actually seems to be open source friendly now as they are using version of dd-wrt and openwrt for their routers.