Netgear R7800 Nighthawk X4S

Super-speedy performance

£177 from Netgear, netgear.co.uk features 802.11ac (Wave 2) Wi-Fi, MU-MIMO, traffic prioritisation

Any router that approaches the £200 mark has to be a premium choice. This one is intended for large homes with many devices.

It’s a replacement router for anyone fed up with the free one from their ISP, or if you want to upgrade to the latest, speedy 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. It doesn’t have a built-in modem; the more expensive D7800 version is available if you need that. As with many (but not all) routers around its price, the R8700 features MU-MIMO and beamforming, which enable it to broadcast to multiple devices at once and ‘sense’ where your wireless devices are located to direct wireless signals accordingly. Its wireless throughput speeds are some of the best we’ve seen. We clocked it at over 400Mbps between two Macs in the same room.

The R7800’s particularly geared towards gamers and streamers; it’s designed to There are two USB ports for connecting devices such as a printer. prioritise gaming and media traffic, and boasts a 1.7GHz processor to ensure there’s no traffic lag. The other main benefit of the tech inside it is that it will provide complete home coverage; we had no problems picking up signal pretty much everywhere, even in our garden. So, if you are looking for a high-speed router, albeit at a hefty price, this is a great choice.