Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000

GREAT CONSUMER FEATURES AND A MORE REASONABLE PRICE THAN AN AC5300 ROUTER.

IF YOU DON’T need something quite so extravagant as a full AC5300 router, an AC3200 is just a small step down in terms of performance and a big step down in price. Although it may seem like there’s a big di erence, in a practical sense, there’s not that much. Almost no wireless devices support the 1024QAM and 4X4 MIMO that give AC5300 its speed. Most devices will talk to an AC3200 router just as fast as they would an AC5300. It’s only when you get very large numbers of devices connecting at once (we’re talking eight or more) that you might see a noticeable di erence in performance. Which brings us to the Nighthawk X6. A space-agey looking six- antenna device, it lacks support for MU-MIMO but will develop two 1,300Mbps wireless AC networks with user load balancing across them. It also has the standard four wired gigabit LAN ports and two USB ports.

While Netgear feels like it has been a little le behind when it comes to UI design, it still has some really great rmware features that set it apart. In particular, ReadyShare and its integrated OpenDNS parental controls are excellent. ReadyShare is the benchmark for shared le access, with SMB, FTP and DLNA access to content on an attached USB drive, as well as remote access (via app or FTP) and even a PC app called ReadyShare Vault that will back up a PC to a shared hard drive. e parental controls are also fantastic, with proper user-level access control and content ltering.

You won’t nd some of the more advanced enterprise features here, and Netgear’s mobile apps are merely all right, but for home users, it certainly has a lot to o er.