Wednesday, June 25th 2014

NETGEAR Ships the Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Wireless Router

NETGEAR, Inc., a global networking company that delivers innovative products to consumers, businesses and service providers, has once again set a new industry standard for router performance by adding to its award-winning Nighthawk family of 802.11ac routers. The new Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band WiFi Router (R8000) (www.netgear.com/R8000) is the first tri-band WiFi router available for purchase incorporating the powerful new Broadcom 5G WiFi XStream platform.

With six high-performance antennas and three network bands, one 2.4 GHz and two 5 GHz, the Nighthawk X6 delivers the industry's fastest combined WiFi speed, up to 3.2 Gbps (1300+1300+600 Mbps). It balances the network load to ensure the best WiFi performance for each device and deliver the maximum wireless range available today.
Today's homes that combine many new and old WiFi devices need tri-band routers such as the Nighthawk X6 to optimize the speed of each device, whether it is an old laptop or the newest smartphone. Nighthawk X6 intelligently segments slower and faster devices into the most appropriate WiFi band. This network load balancing and segmentation enables the X6 to mitigate interference and more effectively support all WiFi devices, including more "Internet of Things" (IoT) devices.

In a typical dual band router, for example, the video streamer and the Internet gamer have to effectively "time-share" the 5 GHz band. With the Nighthawk X6 Tri-Band Router, however, video streaming and Internet gaming traffic can each operate on separate 5 GHz bands so that each of them gets double the speed of a dual band router.

"Home networks are being weighed down by an exploding number of WiFi devices demanding bandwidth for more and more video content," said Sandeep Harpalani, NETGEAR's director of product marketing for Retail Network Products. "Nighthawk X6 solves these issues by not only providing more WiFi bandwidth but also segmenting slower and faster devices across different WiFi bands, and balancing the number of devices in each band to deliver the best-in-class experience for streaming, sharing and gaming."

Powered by a 1 GHz dual core processor with three additional offload processors, Nighthawk X6 soars above the competition so you'll enjoy a blazing-fast WiFi experience using the latest 802.11ac wireless technology, such as the innovative 5G WiFi XStream technology from Broadcom. By optimizing speeds for all your WiFi devices, you'll be able to game on, stream away, and download mega-sized files without network lag from inside and outside your house, garage and yard.

Nighthawk X6 supports NETGEAR Beamforming+, a smart, signal-focusing technology that improves WiFi connections by locking onto a wireless device on the network and pinpointing WiFi signals directly at the device. As you move, Beamforming+ adjusts for distance, delivering the best experience for fast downloads, clearer Voice over Internet (VoIP) calls, uninterrupted HD video, and lag-free gaming. The boost in speed, reliability and range of WiFi connections is delivered on all three WiFi bands.

Nighthawk X6 offers superior capabilities for sharing, storing and securing your treasured files and multimedia content. Content on a storage device attached to Nighthawk X6's SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port can be easily accessed and transferred quickly across the network, making it ideal for streaming video to screens around the home that are DLNA-enabled or AirPlay-compatible. Your content will also be kept safe with NETGEAR ReadySHARE Vault, free application software that takes automatic backup of incremental changes on all PCs in your home network and saves them to a USB hard drive connected to the Nighthawk X6. This new NETGEAR router also offers you peace of mind with VPN support for secure remote access by using a customized free URL, SPI and NAT double firewall, and separate guest network access.

"The tri-band WiFi technology that powers the NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 router provides real-life benefits to today's consumers, whose homes have an increasing number of devices simultaneously streaming HD video to TV, laptop and tablet screens," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst of The Linley Group, a leading source of independent technology analysis on semiconductors. "Capable of delivering up to twice the total data rate of WiFi routers currently in the market, it significantly improves the video-streaming experience for these consumers."

Technical Benefits of Nighthawk X6
NETGEAR has packed Nighthawk X6 with best-in-class technology to offer an unmatched WiFi experience for your WiFi-enabled devices - smartphones, notebooks, tablets, smart TVs, gaming consoles, Blu-ray players, and media servers.
  • AC3200 WiFi technology enables the fastest combined WiFi speeds currently available - up to 3.2 Gbps.
  • Tri-band WiFi intelligently connects devices to the fastest WiFi band possible and increases overall network speed.
  • 6 high-performance external antennas and powerful amplifiers deliver maximum range around your home and yard.
  • 1 GHz dual core processor with three offload processors supports blazing-fast WiFi, wired and USB storage performance.
  • Beamforming+ improves range reliability by focusing and locking on 2.4 and 5 GHz device signals as you move.
  • Smart Connect intelligently selects the fastest WiFi for every device which helps your 802.11n and 802.11ac devices choose the appropriate 5 GHz band for the best performance.
  • VPN support ensures secure remote access to your home network.
  • Five Gigabit Ethernet ports (one WAN and four LAN) offer fast wired connections.
  • SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port offers high-speed, storage-ready access up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0.
  • ReadySHARE Vault, a free software application, automatically backs up Windows-based PCs to a USB hard drive connected to Nighthawk X6.
  • NETGEAR MyMedia enables you to find and play your stored media from anywhere on your network to your DLNA-ready TVs and music system.
  • iTunes server support enables you to play music on AirPlay-compatible devices using iTunes or Apple Remote.
  • NETGEAR genie is a personal dashboard that makes it easy to install, monitor, control and repair your home network from PCs, Macs, and iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.
Pricing and Availability
Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band WiFi Router (R8000) is available for pre-order online today at an MSRP of $299.99 in the U.S.
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16 Comments on NETGEAR Ships the Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Wireless Router

#1
ZoneDymo
damn that price, on the other hand internet is rather important.
Love the look of it as well, now all we need is a review :P
Posted on Reply
#2
Fx
I want this. I have the Nighthawk AC1900 and it has exceeded my expectations and served me well with speeds, reliability, and management ease.

It sounds like it takes that and improves speed much more.
Posted on Reply
#3
chodaboy19
It will be interesting to see if it sells at $300. I have an Asus RT-N66U which I got for around $159 and I thought that was a very expensive router for home use. :)
Posted on Reply
#4
Octavean
Nice,...

Great specs,....

I don't ever really take aesthetics into account as a feature though because such things are superficial and irrelevant to me. It looks like a dead bug on its back IMO but again I don't really care about looks. I'd defiantly get one or would want to if I were in the market for one.

That price is a bit high but probably about right for the class and feature set.
Posted on Reply
#5
Disparia
Cool, with a price like that it's only a matter of time til we see some SOHO-level 10Gb Ethernet products. 4-ports and 2 NICs as a kit for $499 is within the realm of possibility.
Posted on Reply
#6
tehehe
I need multi core wired router with wireless N (don't need anything more than that) for no more than 100$.
Posted on Reply
#8
LAN_deRf_HA
ALMOSTunseenAnd just as I get the R7000.......
It's a better buy with how mature the firmware is. Seriously firmware makes or breaks routers these days and it's never pretty the first few months to a year.
Posted on Reply
#9
Mistral
I'll buy this, but only if the top glows gentle red and it also works well while upside-down.
Posted on Reply
#10
shovenose
Keep in mind these consumer level routers are garbage. An enterprise quality solution such as the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite can do more PPS with more features, and will last longer. You can use any AP with that, then.
Posted on Reply
#11
remixedcat
Or Cisco Meraki! You can do quite nicely with an MX60 and a couple of MR series access points tied into that and the MX appliance can acts as a concentrator and do smart roaming between the access points. (What I'm workin on getting!)

Makes more sense componentizing rather then upgrading the whole thing constantly due to minor changes. Easier to just plug in a new AP!

I think consumer grade companies are getting silly with these teeeny tinnnyyy incremental upgrades and making them look like freakin stealth bombers and having firmware that looks like an alien space ship's control deck. -_-
Also they throw in broken and useless VLAN implementations that don't have important things like trunk ports!!!
Posted on Reply
#12
slim142
Thank God I did not buy the R7000! I knew the sudden price slashes were too suspicious.

Im getting that stealth bomber (R8000). Already tired of my DGL-4500
Posted on Reply
#13
GhostRyder
To much bandwidth POWERRRRRR!!!

Wow this is a really nice wireless router, would love to have one of these things but I could not justify replacing my current one.
Posted on Reply
#14
TheLostSwede
News Editor
I take it that all of you know that this is an AC1900 with a second 5GHz radio, right?
All Broadcom has done is to put in two 5GHz radios and made up some new fancy number to trick consumers into buying something new.
It might make some difference if you have a mixed 5GHz network with a lot of a/n devices and a lot of ac devices, but if you've only got n or only ac, then this is likely to perform no different from a regular AC1900 router.
Posted on Reply
#15
remixedcat
Xirrus does this as well. two radios per ap.
Posted on Reply
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