Netgear Nighthawk X10 R9000 AD7200 Router Review: Not For Your Average Consumer
Introduction
Netgear has sent us the Nighthawk X10 R9000 for review which is one of the fastest routers on the market with a whopping $400 price tag. The Nighthawk X10 R9000 supports the new 802.11ad WiFi technology standard which is rated for data throughput up to 4600 Mbps, or three times faster than the typical AC speeds. I do want to mention that 802.11ad is not the true successor to 802.11ac, 802.11ax is, and if everything goes according to plan, we should start seeing 802.11ax devices during the second half in 2019.
Moving on, in order to experience its super-fast 802.11ad speeds, you will first need a device that supports 802.11ad and there are only a few devices on the market that support the new 802.11ad WiFi standard. Even if you do have a device that supports 802.11ad, you will need to be very close to the X10 R9000 at all times or as soon as you move away, the speed will reduce significantly. The 802.11ad standard has an extremely short range, no more than 15 feet and since its signal can't penetrate walls, the 802.11ad standard is used only for clients that stay close to the router. 802.11ad is basically designed to replace your video cables such as HDMI and DP and data cables such as USB and thunderbolt so it's definitely not designed to replace 802.11ac.
The Nighthawk X10 R9000 is a big router that's intended for very large homes and it measures 8.81 x 6.61 x 2.91 in (HWD) and weighs 4.11 pounds (1865 g). It packs a 1.7Ghz Quad-Core processor and besides the 60 GHz radio, it supports up to 800 Mbps on the 2.4Ghz band and up to 1733 Mbps on the 5Ghz band. Netgear has also incorporated quad-stream (4x4) 802.11ac which means the Nighthawk X10 R9000 can simultaneously deliver up to 4,600Mbps, 1,733Mbps, and 800Mbps WiFi speeds on 60GHz, 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands, respectively.
The build quality of the Nighthawk X10 R9000 is top-notch and it feels quite sturdy. Netgear has gone with a rather minimalistic design with the Nighthawk X10 R9000 which I really like. The antennas come pre-attached in the box and there's one small fan in the center at the top of the router that provides cooling to the CPU. Netgear has included a switch that let's you turn off all the LEDs except for the Power light or you can leave them on and stop them from blinking via the Web GUI settings.
There are plenty of ventilation slots at the top and bottom of the router so the cooling design of the Nighthawk X10 R9000 seems to be very good. It can definitely be wall mounted via the two bottom-panel screw slots if you don't have enough space but the Nighthawk X10 R9000 is mostly designed to sit on a flat surface. The reason why I say it's mostly designed to sit on a flat surface is because it weighs 4.11 pounds which is quite heavy for a router to be wall mounted and it's also very large so make sure you install those screws very well.
As far as ports go, the Nighthawk X10 R9000 has a total of seven Ethernet ports, one WAN port and six Gigabit LAN ports and two of these ports can work together to create a single 2Gbps connection. There are also two USB 3.0 ports on the side of the router and the Nighthawk X10 R9000 is the first home router with a 10Gbps SFP+ LAN port. The only way you will be able to experience the full speed of 802.11ad is if you're willing to invest in a 802.11ad laptop and a high-end NAS server that can connect to its 10Gbps LAN port so it simply isn't a device for the average consumer.
The antennas on the Nighthawk X10 R9000 are adjustable but non-removable and you will notice that the antennas are not that long compared to previous Netgear routers but they are thick. Netgear is using four external antennas and Beamforming+ to improve range, extend coverage and reduce dead spots for large homes.
Most WiFi routers normally just blast the WiFi signals in all directions which isn't efficient at all but with Beamforming+, the router and the device talk with each other so the router can directly beam the WiFi signal to the device. This results in a much stronger, faster and more reliable connection that is locked in even when the device is moving around the house.
Netgear has developed a new antenna technology called Enhanced Active Antennas. What Netgear has done here is move the WiFi amplifiers from their usual location which is on the router’s motherboard and up to the top of the antennas. This results in a cleaner and stronger receiving signals from your mobile devices by avoiding any signal loss during transmission between antenna and router board.
Specifications
| Netgear Nighthawk X10 R9000 Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Wi-Fi Technology: | 802.11ac plus 802.11ad | Wi-Fi Performance: | AD7200 WiFi (800 + 1733 + 4600) | Wi-Fi Range: | Very Large Homes | Wi-Fi Band: | Band 1: 800 Mbps @2.4GHz – 256QAM Band 2: 1733 Mbps @5GHz – 256QAM Band 3: 4600 Mbps @60GHz – SC |
| Beamforming: | Explicit Beamforming for 2.4 & 5GHz bands | Number of Ethernet Ports: | Seven (7) 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet ports (1 WAN & 6 LAN) Dual Gigabit Ethernet Port Aggregation |
| Number of USB Ports: | Two (2) USB 3.0 ports |
| Key Features: | 802.11ac Quad-Stream Wave2 WiFi plus 802.11ad WiFi Plex Media Server—Stream your media on all your devices Powerful 1.7GHz Quad-Core processor MU-MIMO ‡—Simultaneous streaming of data for multiple devices Amazon Drive cloud back up ReadyCLOUD® USB Access—Personal & secure cloud access to USB storage anytime, anywhere ReadySHARE® Vault—PC software for automatic backup to USB hard drive connected to the router DLNA® Server—Find & play your media on TVs & game consoles VPN support—Secure remote access to your home network & Internet Enhanced Parental Controls—Manage web filtering & accessibility by profiles or devices NETGEAR® genie® home network manager includes remote access to manage your network away from home NETGEAR Up app — Easily set up, update, and configure your router Open source software available IPv6 Support (Internet Protocol Version 6) On/Off LED light switch |
| Security: | Customized free URL to set up personal FTP server VPN support—secure remote access Guest network access—separate & secure WiFi Protected Access® (WPA/WPA2—PSK) Double firewall protection (SPI and NAT) Denial-of-service (DoS) attack prevention |
| Physical Specifications: | Dimensions: 8.81 x 6.61 x 2.91 in (224 x 168 x 74 mm) Weight: 4.11 lb (1865 g) |
| Processor: | Powerful Quad-Core 1.7GHz processor |
| Memory: | 512MB NAND flash and 1GB DDR3 SDRAM |
| Package Contents: | Nighthawk X10-AD7200 Smart WiFi Router (R9000) Ethernet cable Quick start guide Power adapter |
| Standards: | Two (2) USB 3.0 ports IEEE® 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz 64QAM support IEEE® 802.11 a/n/ac 5GHz1024QAM support |
I spent some time opening up the router and inspecting the internal components and below I have listed all the internal components in the Nighthawk X10 R9000.
| Netgear X10 R9000 Internal Specs | |
|---|---|
| Model | R9000 AD7200 | Release Date: | 19 October 2016 | Price: | $400 | CPU: | Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-514 | Frequency: | 1.7 GHz, 4 cores | Memory: | 512MB Flash (Spansion S34ML04G200TF100) | RAM: | 1GB RAM DDR3 (Nanya NT5CC256M16DP-DI x 2) |
| 2.4 Ghz Radio: | QCA9984 4-stream 802.11ac MU-MIMO radio Skyworks SE2623L 2.4 GHz power amp (x4) |
| 5 Ghz Radio: | QCA9984 4-stream 802.11ac MU-MIMO radio RFMD RFPA5542 5 GHz power amp (x4) |
| 60 Ghz Radio: | QCA9500 in QCA9008-SBD1 module |
| Tri-Band: | 60GHz (4600Mbps), 5GHz (1733Mbps), 2.4GHz (800Mbps) |
| Wi-Fi: | 802.11ac/ad |
| Switch: | Qualcomm Atheros QCA8337 (x2) |
| Antennas: | Four External |
Let's talk a little bit about the specs inside the R9000.
The R9000 comes with the Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-514 quad-core 1.7Ghz processor and it's using 1GB of DDR3 RAM and 512MB flash.
This is a powerful processor for a router and the Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-514 SoC is normally used in NASes.
The R9000 stays relatively cool thanks to the ventilation holes on the back and at the top.
We are going to benchmark the R9000 in NAS performance, Wi-Fi performance and storage performance.
Performance
The R9000 was tested using the latest firmware version which at the time of writing this review is the 1.0.2.40 version. I've benchmarked the storage performance of the R9000 using the USB 3.0 connection for NTFS and FAT32 read/write. I recorded a speed of 92 MB/s (Read) and 84 MB/s (Write) in NTFS and for FAT32, the write performance was around 85 MB/s and read around 95 MB/s. From all the routers that I have tested, the R9000 easily has the best storage performance.
Next, I’m using a dedicated NAS to benchmark a single 5GB file to the R9000. I was able to copy this 5GB file stored on the external hard drive at around 93 MB/s (Read) and up to 72MB/s (Write). I'm really impressed by the storage performance of the Nighthawk X10 R9000.
I do not have an 802.11ad device to test the performance of the R9000 so I measured just the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz throughput speed. I tested the 5GHz and 2.4Ghz performance at close range and also long range. At close range (10 feet), I recorded a top speed of 587Mbps and at long range (50 feet), it offered 342Mbps which I would consider above average. After testing the 5Ghz performance, I moved on to test the 2.4Ghz performance. At close range on the 2.4GHz band, it averaged around 114Mbps and 53Mbps for long range.
Conclusion
Overall, I have been using the Nighthawk X10 R9000 for a few days now and I have to say that this router is a beast.
It's pretty easy to setup so even if you are someone with no prior experience in setting up routers, the R9000 makes it easy to set everything up.
The 5Ghz range is fantastic and I get full 5Ghz coverage in my garage which I wasn't able to with previous routers.
The Netgear Nighthawk X10 R9000 is an amazing router that comes feature-packed with the latest industry standards but it sports a hefty price tag.
Pros:
+ Supports 802.11ad
+ Aesthetic Design
+ Great AC Range
+ Supports MU-MIMO
+ 10GbE Support
+ Fast Storage Performance
Cons:
- Expensive
- Bulky
If you are in the market for a true high-end smart router then Nighthawk X10 R9000 might be what you need.
It delivers amazing throughput performance and supports features such as MU-MIMO, 160MHz, or 802.11ad.
When it comes to I/O ports, it has six Gigabit LAN ports, an SPF+ LAN port, automatic Amazon Drive backup and Plex Media Server capabilities.
Also, the Nighthawk X10 R9000 is the first home router to have a 10Gbps LAN port.
Keep in mind that there are only a few clients available on the market to take advantage of the 802.11ad WiFi capabilities and 160MHz Wi-Fi features.
With all that being said, we believe the Nighthawk X10 R9000 AD7200 deserves our gold award.
Final Score 8.5
