Netgear Nighthawk RS700S review
You can almost hear Also Sprach Zarathustra playing as you unbox the latest Nighthawk. It may be named after Lockheed's stealthy ground attack plane, but in the flesh it's all 2001's black monolith.
And just like Clark's creation the Netgear Nighthawk RS700S is here to uplift you. It brings with it unheard of technologies that will become the centre of your home for years to come. It shows us the way of the future and… calm down Ian, it's only a router.
The funny thing about Wi-Fi 7 kit, though, is just how advanced it seems over the Wi-Fi 5 and 6 gear we're all using (hint: not that much). Every new generation of wireless internettyness brings some innovations, but we're reaching the point of diminishing returns. With average UK and US homes being in the 1,000 to 2,000 sq ft range, why do you need a system that will cover 3,000 sq ft unless you live in a castle or want to share with your neighbours?
Obviously there are good reasons for wanting more coverage, such as the ability to email while gardening and wanting decent signal strength away from the site of the router and through walls. You could buy a Wi-Fi 6 mesh system for the same price as the RS700S, but you'd miss out on the Wi-Fi 7 features and the admiring glances from your network-savvy friends.
Wireless standard: Wi-Fi 7
Max speeds: 1.4Gbps (2.4GHz), 5.8Gbps (5GHz), 11.5Gbps (6GHz)
Ethernet ports: 1x 10Gbps, 4x 1Gbps
WAN: 10Gbps
Processor: Quad-core 2.6GHz
RAM: 2GB
USB: 1x USB 3.0 Type-A
Dimensions: 281x124x142mm
Weight: 1.64kg
Price: $700 | £800
This latest release of the Wi-Fi standard, AKA IEEE 802.11be, offers twice the speed of v6 and is better at handling network congestion and keeping latency down. It offers a 6 GHz network with a blistering throughput of 11 Gbps, though distance and inconvenient walls will cut this down. What's perhaps more interesting is the 2.4 GHz channel, which offers 1.4 Gbps and has a much longer range, thanks to the ability of the lower frequencies to penetrate solid objects.
To
