Netgear Nighthawk X4S overview: A beast of a router, and top-of-the-line spherical

Netgear Nighthawk X4S review: A beast of a router, and the best around

With the addition of quad-stream broadcasting on every frequency bands and beamforming, the Nighthawk X4S has a whopping most bandwidth of two.53Gbits/ sec, with 800Mbits/sec on the 2.4GHz band and 1,733Mbits/sec over 5GHz. However, this presents a difficulty. The one method to get the very best wi-fi speeds is by the use of a 4×4-stream, MU-MIMO-compatible group adapter, nevertheless no such ingredient exists. You presumably can use two routers in bridge mode, nevertheless this isn’t guide of real-world use. It at current comes at a price of £170 on Amazon UK (or $198.99 on Amazon US).

Netgear Nighthawk X4S: Effectivity and choices

We examined with an AC1900, 3×3-streamWi-Fi card, one in every of many quickest NICs you can purchase as we communicate. It may’t max out the Nighthawk 4S, nevertheless it signifies what effectivity might be like correct now.

In our close-range exams, file-transfer speeds over 802.11ac – 73.3MB/sec – have been considerably quick, albeit not as fast as some tri-band fashions. Taking bandwidth overheads into consideration, 17.1MB/sec over 5GHz 802.11n was an outstanding consequence. Prolonged-range outcomes over 802.11ac have been solely widespread, at 22.2MB/sec, nevertheless 14MB/sec over 5GHz 802.11n was one in every of many quickest speeds we’ve seen from a wi-fi router. When the exact {{hardware}} arrives, the Nighthawk X4S must be blazingly fast; correct now, it’s ready to take care of its private in the direction of the opponents.

Naturally, there are 4 Gigabit LAN ports for quick wired effectivity, along with a Gigabit WAN port for a separate cable or fibre modem. With every ADSL and VDSL modems onboard, nonetheless, you gained’t need two separate containers subsequent to your cellphone line till your ISP forces you to utilize its private {{hardware}}.

The eSATA port is an odd inclusion: whereas it is perhaps useful for legacy devices, the two USB 3 ports on the side will possible be quite a bit sooner. We measured file transfers at 82.3MB/sec, which is nearly quick enough for the router to double as a NAS machine while you join an exterior onerous disk. Connecting a printer to the second USB port will flip it into an Apple AirPrint-enabled machine.

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