Netgear Nighthawk X6s Ac4000 Tri-band Gigabit Wifi Router Review

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Netgear's newest add-on to its sweetness-looking Nighthawk line of routers ups the bandwidth a fleck over its previous models (and almost tri-band AC routers for that matter) and is the first AC4000 router I've had a run a risk to examine. Dubbed the X6S (See it on Amazon) / (Run across information technology on Amazon Uk), this is a tri-band router with ii 5GHz bands and one legacy 2.4GHz band for older devices, and information technology also sports "Wave 2" Ac features such as MU-MIMO also as the power to take it exist controlled by Amazon's Alexa personal banana.It's pricey at $300, but that's nigh average for a flagship tri-band setup these days. It'due south designed for really large houses with 15+ devices connected, then if you're a bachelor living in a studio, it's besides much router for you. It's going upwards against the fastest routers from Asus, Linksys, and D-Link mainly, and will appeal to large home owners, people with a ton of devices, and folks who just want a really future proof router.

Design and Features

Nix has inverse in the Nighthawk's design section, and that's a good thing. This router is long and depression, with six attached antennas that flip out and into position, but can as well be flipped down affluent along the top for transport. It'due south one of the all-time router designs out there currently, in my opinion, as information technology looks aggressive without beingness over the acme, massively huge, or just boring and conventional. The only flaw with the pattern is because it's and then flat, all the LEDs that sew together the eye portion of information technology tin can't be seen easily, unless you are standing right in front of it looking downwards. I rarely, if e'er, glance at these lights, but it would exist helpful if they were positioned on the front of the router so I could glance beyond the room when my Cyberspace starts acting upward.
As I wrote above, the chief "next gen" characteristic of this router is that it supports MU-MIMO, so if you accept compatible wireless adapters it's able to serve upward to three clients at the aforementioned time on both of its 5GHz bands for a total of six separate streams. Since it'due south a tri-band router you go dual 5GHz bands capable of up to one,625Mb/south, and upwards to 750Mb/due south on its 2.4Ghz ring. The catch is that in society to achieve speeds anywhere near the rated numbers, you'll to be running three adapters or clients at once, and they volition all need to be using wireless adapters that support 1024-QAM, and the only 1 I can notice is this i from Asus. So as you lot tin can see, the vast majority of home users will never come across anything even close to these speeds, but that'southward non really any different from how thing have been in the router world for some time now.

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Out back the router has the usual suspects, with iv Gigabit Ethernet ports and one Gigabit WAN port. There is one avant-garde feature though, which is two of the ports tin be aggregated for higher bandwidth. In order to use this feature y'all'll demand a specific NAS drive or switch that supports it though, and you tin't just connect two cables to your laptop or desktop to accomplish the extra bandwidth. It's primarily for deployment in enterprise and SOHO environments, then most home users volition take no employ for this, simply business concern folks might.
There are also two USB ports - ane USB 2.0 port for printer sharing, and ane USB 3.0 port for file sharing, aka a "poor man's NAS." There'due south also a reset switch, ability connector, and a switch to turn off the LEDs in example they are too bright. The summit of the router likewise has a WPS switch for easy pairing, and a Wi-Fi on/off switch for when you proceed holiday and are as well lazy to just unplug information technology.

Powering the whole shebang is a 1.8GHz dual-core processor and three Broadcom SoC chips, which Netgear refers to as "offload processors." There's also 512MB of RAM in there.

Finally, it's DLNA compatible for movie streaming, and y'all tin control this router with Amazon's Repeat/Alexa devices as well as Google Home. The actual commands it tin understand are incredibly express however, and are listed hither. It also supports Smart Connect, which puts all three bands under one SSID and then "intelligently" connects devices based on available bandwidth and compatibility. I've used it in the past and it works pretty well, and is great for homes with 10+ devices as nobody has to worry about trying to figure out with network to use.

Admin

I've covered Netgear's software in previous reviews, and information technology's unchanged. I've never been a fan of the color scheme information technology uses, which is reminiscent of an AOL chat room and is not a good match for such a sleek and powerful router. I don't know why Netgear hasn't updated this software simply it is years old at this point and it shows. To its credit it works just fine, and it'due south like shooting fish in a barrel to utilize and things are laid out logically.

The domicile screen is certainly easy to await at and sympathise, but once you click i-level into anything yous're presented with an old school interface that is non user friendly. I wouldn't want my parents earthworks around in this, in other words. For instance, here's the "Net" tab.

Another pain is that Parental Controls aren't native to the device, and y'all take to download Netgear software and get a free OpenDNS account to utilise it. Most routers simply include parental controls past default, then I'one thousand not sure why Netgear tin can't do the aforementioned. It'south not like it's some sort of revolutionary feature.

Quality of Service is supported, which should theoretically better things like gaming and streaming, but information technology's a "blackness box" of sorts. You just check a box and let information technology do its thing. It consults a "deject based" database of parcel types and prioritizes based on its data, but yous can't manually prioritize ane device over some other, or one app over another. I tin can't really tell if it's working or not as it'southward difficult to test but to Netgear's credit information technology is certainly simple since you merely cheque a box to turn it on.

Overall the admin software is ugly but usable. Information technology makes the router non very user friendly, however. Luckily well-nigh of the states rarely have to ever delve into this stuff to tweak things.

Netgear also offers a mobile app called Netgear Genie that makes administering the router super like shooting fish in a barrel. It's what I would use if I needed to make changes or bank check on things.

The Mobile app's home screen.

The mobile app's network map.

Benchmarks

To exam how the Nighthawk X6S performs, I set up a server/client scenario with Netperf and two Windows 10 PCs, then measured the speed of the TCP connection between them. I measured at both 15 feet with line of sight, and at 30 feet with two walls between the computers. I ran the TCP test at least three times to make sure my results were consistent, and if they weren't, I re-tested until they were, trying at different times of the twenty-four hours until I was satisfied. Though anybody's environs is unlike, and you lot wouldn't be able to replicate my results, they are a practiced way to go a ballpark estimate of how the router performs. I also performed a "existent world" 2GB file transfer test at 30 feet besides.

5GHz Testing

2GB File Transfer at xv Feet

As you can see the X6S'due south 5GHz wireless performance is equally good as any 80211.ac router I've tested, which isn't much of a surprise. At both 15 and 30 feet it wasn't the absolute fastest, simply the delta betwixt information technology and the fastest router is so small information technology's basically a launder. The router's operation too barely changed when moving from line-of-sight at fifteen anxiety to thirty feet with two walls in between information technology and the client. I've written before that some people say with 80211. ac operation actually improves at range due to how the beamforming works on Air conditioning wireless, equally information technology needs some space to really figure out where the client is located and direct the wireless streams in that direction. Though performance didn't improve at distance with the Nighthawk, you can safely say that it didn't really diminish much, which is awesome. Overall the Nighthawk is certainly fast, and is ane of the fastest router'due south I've tested on the 5GHz band. In the file copy test its performance was merely boilerplate, withal.

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2.4GHz Testing

The Nighthawk X6S'south 2.4GHz performance mirrored that of the 5GHz testing, in that the X6S was very close to the fastest routers in performance, especially at 30 feet. Dissimilar the 5GHz testing though, this router's performance actually increased at distance, which is impressive. It was overall close enough to the Asus router to be included in its company.

Purchasing Guide

The Netgear Nighthawk X6S router has an MSRP of $299.99, but like a lot of tech information technology's bachelor at a healthy discount online. It isn't uncommon to come across it for sale for $xl or more off:

• Run across the Netgear Nighthawk X6S on Amazon
• See the Netgear Nighthawk X6S on Amazon (UK)

The Nighthawk X6S doesn't bring anything new to the table really, merely information technology's fast and functional, which is what you want in a router. It's admin software is a bit too clinical for my tastes, but y'all don't need to spend much time in it. Support for Alexa is absurd, however, but I dubiety it'll sway people on the fence. Overall it'due south a great router as information technology'south fast and easy to apply, but as a tri-band information technology's only for households with a ton of devices.

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Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/12/13/netgear-nighthawk-x6s-tri-band-wifi-router-review

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