Netgear Nighthawk Ac2300 Smart Wifi Router R7000p Review

Equally its name suggests, the Netgear Nighthawk R7000P is the successor to one of the almost popular dual-band routers, the Nighthawk R7000, a device known for both its solid wireless performance and for its iconic, stealth plane-inspired design. 3 years afterwards its release, Netgear decided that information technology had to adhere to more than of the 802.11ac WAVE features, so it decided to go along using the Broadcom platform, just it has upgraded some of the key hardware elements, therefore pushing the previous AC1900-class to AC2300 and adding both the support for the MU-MIMO engineering science and for the 1024 QAM modulation.

Furthermore, Netgear also advertises the support for the NETGEAR Armor™ which is powered by BitDefender and acts as an alternative to the TrendMicro (mainly used past Google WiFi, Eero and some Asus routers), and there's too back up for Circumvolve with Disney for better Parental Controls, but both of these features are limited to a free trial and y'all'll take to purchase a paid subscription to continue to utilise them.

Simply, at the aforementioned time, the R7000P doesn't experience like a radical improvement over its predecessor since information technology is difficult to use it at its full power (you need uniform WiFi adapters), simply considering that the R7000 was a game changer for Netgear, I am curious to see if the Nighthawk R7000P's operation rises upwardly to today's exigences.

Design
Without a incertitude, the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 was one of the all-time designed wireless routers of its time, overshadowing its directly competitor, the RT-AC68U by taking inspiration from the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk stealth plane (from where it took the name of the unabridged series). The Nighthawk R7000P looks identical to the R7000, so y'all can await the same angular plastic case covered past a dark grey matte end, with its lateral parts slightly inclined towards the base of operations, exposing ii sets of ventilation grills. The router is even so very large, especially by today's standards, measuring xi.22 x 7.26 ten i.97 inches (while a Google WiFi unit is simply 4.1 10 2.7 inches) and, from the rear area, there are three omni-directional antennas, shaped like fins, which tin can be removed and upgraded.

Some may call up that the decision to continue the aforementioned case design is a skilful i considering so the new router tin can easily replace the old R7000, simply I saw a like approach from Linksys which to its newest WRT router, it simply changed the colour and this tin go tiring for the user after a few iterations. Don't get me wrong, the R7000P can still compete with the latest wireless routers in terms of design, but the new Netgear Orbi and the XR500 evidence that the manufacturer tin even so create a cool designed production, so a fresh looking router tin can make a difference.

Unlike some small-scale, minimalist designed WiFi system units, a larger case can offer a few advantages, such every bit the improve rut management and to ensure information technology, Netgear has as well added ventilation grills on its rear side and a few on the bottom area, near the info label (that mainly contains the SSID/passkey, Serial Number and MAC address). While testing the R7000P, the case did get slightly warm nigh the label and on the summit surface, but information technology never showed whatever signs that information technology may overheat. Similarly to its predecessor, the Nighthawk R7000P can be positioned horizontally on a apartment surface, just, thanks to the ii mounting holes from the bottom surface area, the router can also easily be mounted on the wall (and so information technology doesn't cram your desk). Furthermore, the R7000P weighs ane.65 lbs (a scrap under the WRT3200ACM) and, past pairing it with the four silicone anxiety, nosotros get a stable device which won't budge regardless of the number of cables connected.

Getting dorsum to the top surface, you'll notice the reliable array of LED indicators that have the part of showing the status of the router and of the network: from the left, in that location's the Ability LED (solid white indicates that the router is ready to be configured, while flashing white shows that the firmware is corrupted; the LED volition glimmer amber either when the firmware is being upgraded or when the router returns to the mill default settings), the Net LED (flashing white indicates that the WAN port is receiving and sending traffic), i LED for the two.4GHz and another for the 5GHz radio, one LED for the USB 3.0 port, one LED for the USB 2.0 port and four LEDs for the four LAN Ethernet ports.

Side by side to the terminal Ethernet port LED, there are 2 buttons that take LED lights underneath them, one responsible for turning the WiFi On or Off and the other for initiating the WPS pairing. Every bit I said many times before, I practice adopt the traditional array of LED lights instead of the single LED approach of the WiFi systems considering it'southward more intuitive and make it unproblematic to sympathise everything that happens with the router, without having to constantly consult the transmission. On the rear side of the router, Netgear has positioned a small recessed Reset button (press and hole information technology for seven seconds to return the R7000P to factory default settings) and next to it, there are iv LAN Ethernet ports (RJ45, Gigabit).

A scrap more to the right, there'southward the WAN port (Gigabit), a USB 2.0 port (could all the same be useful for connecting a printer), a Power On/Off button and a proprietary Power port. If y'all remember the frontal USB 3.0 port from the Nighthawk R7000, well, Netgear decided to also keep it on the R7000P, then, you become quick access if you have to connect a NAS storage or USB drive (surely, it could besides lead to a mess of cables).

Hardware
Within the case, the Netgear Nighthawk R7000P is noticeably dissimilar than the R7000, but information technology even so uses the Broadcom platform, being equipped with a dual-core Broadcom BCM4708C0 chipset clocked at 1GHz (which is not really that different than the dual-core BCM4709A0 too clocked at 1GHz of the R7000), 256 MB of RAM (Samsung K4B2G1646F-BCK0), 128 MB of flash storage from Spansion (S34ML01G200TFI00 622BB613) and it uses the BCM4708C0 every bit a switch chip.

So far, information technology's nigh identical to the R7000, merely the area where the R7000P got significantly improved was at the wireless bit for the 5GHz radio, which went from the Broadcom BCM4360 of the R7000 to the improve BCM4365E KMMLG 3×three SoC, that supports MU-MIMO (information technology also comes with the QPF4519 Qorvo integrated FEM). The 2.4GHz wireless chipset remained the same Broadcom BCM4360.
The Nighthawk R7000P is advertised as an AC2300 form router, so it features a maximum theoretical data transfer charge per unit of 600 Mbps on the ii.4GHz ring and a maximum theoretical data transfer rate of 1,625 Mbps on the 5GHz radio band (to get the best possible wireless functioning, yous demand to accept a wireless adapter that supports 1024-QAM, otherwise the device won't perform better than an AC1900 grade router).

Features and Performance
The Nighthawk R7000 was very well equipped for its time, merely the R7000P had to make a pace forward and prefer i of the more than popular Wave two features, the MU-MIMO engineering (Netgear added the 160MHz support only to its R7800). This ensures that multiple clients connected via WiFi volition become served simultaneously instead of fighting for the bandwidth (the compatible clients are even so very scarce, just, surprisingly, MU-MIMO seems to gain more than footing every day, although in its lesser forms, such as 1×i or 2×ii). The R7000P has kept the back up for BeamForming+, which ensures that the signal is directed (and enhanced) towards the customer, then it improves the stability of the network and significantly reduces the effect of the interferences.

And I also noticed that the router takes advantage of the Smart Connect feature that automatically assigns the connected devices to their suitable WiFi band. While some routers also pride themselves with this feature, it'southward not always properly implemented and you may still finish up overcrowding 1 band and underusing the other, but Netgear seems to have done a good job in this case and R7000P is very constructive in this regard. Some other features that are worth mentioning are the Netgear Armor (powered by BitDefender) that works as an Antivirus, provides protection confronting phishing and malware, and information technology also scans all your devices for vulnerabilities (cracking if you have IoT gadgets connected to the LAN network); the second feature is the Circumvolve with Disney for enhanced Parental Controls. The problem with Netgear Armor and the Circle with Disney integration is that the former offers simply a trial for xc days, while the latter offers a basic free package and the full admission requires a monthly fee. I'm non really a fan of monthly / yearly subscriptions, just they do offer some degree of convenience for the users that don't desire the hassle of dealing with additional hardware or custom software solutions.

Annotation: If y'all were wondering whether Netgear has implemented some form of mesh engineering science, the reply is no, only y'all can check out the Netgear Orbi, which is regarded as one of the fastest WiFi systems available. To examination the wireless operation of the R7000P, I took two computers, one is a Desktop PC equipped with the PCE-AC88 WiFi adapter (volition act equally the client and will be able to fully utilise the power of the router) and the other is a potent laptop which will be continued to the R7000P via a CAT6 Ethernet cable.
Note: The R7000P was upgraded to the v1.three.one.44_10.1.23 firmware.

On the kickoff test, I connected both clients to the 5GHz network and, from the client to the server, at v anxiety, I managed to measure an average of 861 Mbps, while at 15 anxiety, I measured effectually 805 Mbps and at 30 feet, the speed went downward to 654 Mbps. This blazon of operation is possible because of the perfect compatibility with the PCe-AC88, so I decided to also test the router using the PCE-AC68 adapter and these are the event: at 5 feet, I measured an average of 753 Mbps (nevertheless a smashing throughput), but the existent difference came at 15 feet, where I saw a subtract to 597 Mbps and at 30 feet, where the speed averaged at 348 Mbps.

From the server to the client, using either adapter, I got pretty much the same results: at 5 anxiety, I measured an average of 286 Mbps, while at xv feet, the speed went slightly down to 267 and, at xxx feet, I measured an boilerplate of 222 Mbps.
On the adjacent footstep, I decided to switch to the 2.4GHz network and, all the same using the PCE-AC88, from the customer to the server, I measured an average of 176 Mbps, while at xv feet, I measured an average of 158 Mbps; at 30 feet, the speed actually went slightly up to an average of 164 Mbps.

From the server to the client, things remained surprisingly like: at 5 feet, I measured an boilerplate of 174 Mbps, while at 15 feet, I measured an average of 150 Mbps; at 30 anxiety, the speed went down to effectually 141 Mbps. As for the wired throughput (LAN to LAN), the effect were decent: the router delivered an boilerplate of 891 Mbps from the customer to the server (TCP) and 856 Mbps from the server to the client (TCP); as for UDP testing, I got 868 Mbps from the client to the server and 470 Mbps, vice versa. Lastly, I decided to bank check out the storage performance using a T5 Samsung SSD drive (256 GB) and, moving a two.5 GB multimedia binder, I got an boilerplate of 22.1 MBps while writing the folder and an average of 76.vii MBps for reading it (every bit can be seen, the writing performance is severely underwhelming).

Software and Installation
The WiFi systems were among the showtime to adopt a mobile device-only user interface and, since this implementation has received positive feedback from the users, a lot of manufacturer had to adopt this new tendency and at present even the traditional router uses a mobile app for both configuration and administration purposes. The R7000P is not an exception, so it can be configured via either the defended mobile app or through the web-based interface. Of class, I chose the former, and so I installed and ran the Nighthawk awarding on my Android phone. On the beginning step, I was required to create a Netgear account (you tin can utilise two-step verification for extra security and link it to your Facebook business relationship – it seems to exist necessary for remote admission from anywhere in the world) and, after, I had to connect to the router'due south WiFi network (Netgear also provides some instructions for the hardware installation).

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Netgear Nighthawk R7000P

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Pros

• Dandy Wireless Operation On The 5GHz Band (Dependant On The Client's WiFi Adapter)
• MU-MIMO Technology
• The Web Based Interface Is Feature-Rich
• Smart Connect
• Decent Looking Case (But It Needs A Redesign)

Cons

• The Spider web Based Interface Is Tedious At Times
• Underwhelming Storage Performance
• Information technology Is A Scrap Expensive

Mark is a graduate in Informatics, having gathered valuable experience over the years working in IT as a programmer. Marker is also the main tech writer for MBReviews.com, roofing non only his passion, the networking devices, but besides other cool electronic gadgets that you may find useful for your every day life.

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Source: https://www.mbreviews.com/netgear-nighthawk-r7000p-review/

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