Lots of price pain for only a little gain

If you still think the top-listed Nighthawk AC1900 Smart WiFi Router (model R7000) is overkill, Netgear says you have no idea.

The networking vendor today introduced the the upgraded version of its flagship home router, the Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band WiFi Router (R8000), which ups the Wi-Fi capability a significant notch.

First tri-band router

First and foremost, the new Nighthawk R8000 is the first tri-band router on the market. Very similar to the R7000, the new R8000 is a dual-band router that support the top Wi-Fi speeds, which are 600Mbps and 13000Mbps for the 2.4Ghz band and 5Ghz band, respectively. However, it’s the first that comes with two 5Ghz bands instead of one to offer a combined bandwidth of up to 3200Mbps at a given time, as opposed to the 1900Mbps of any other top 802.11ac router on the market.

The idea behind having two 5Ghz bands is for the Nighthawk X6 to allow more 5Ghz clients to connect to the router at the higher speed before performance degradation occurs. In other words, this new router can technically double the real-world Wi-Fi speed on the 5Ghz compared to that of a regular dual-band router.

Powerful hardware

The new router has similar powerful hardware to the R7000. It’s powered by a dual-core 1Ghz processor and support USB 3.0. It comes with the usual four Gigabit LAN ports and one Gigabit WAN (Internet) port. The new router, however, comes with six external antennas instead of just three to promise a long wireless range on top of fast Wi-Fi performance. It supports the latest 5G Wi-Fi (802.11ac) XStream technology from Broadcom.

Innovative antenna design

Still big and bold like its predecessor, the new R8000, however, now comes with a very innovative collapsible antenna design. You can fold the included six antenna down onto to make the router less bulky. Technically, the router works fine with the antennas closed down, but it offers better range when they are opened up.

The antennas are also placed on the sides of the router and are completely away from the ports, which are on the back. The ports themselves are now all out in the open, making it much easier to work with.

Premium pricing

The new AC3200 Nighthawk X6 Smart Wi-Fi R8000 router is slated to be available on July 11, though you can pre-order it now. It’s slated to cost $300, which is currently the most expensive among high-end routers on the market. In Australia, you’ll pay AU$399, with the X6 available for pre-order now to ship by the end of July.

Check back soon for a full review.