If you live in a connected home with multiple wireless clients competing for bandwidth, it might be time to consider a Multi-User Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) router , such as the Netgear Nighthawk X4S Smart Wi-Fi Router (R7800), which lists for $269.99.

Good port selection; Lots of management settings; Solid 5GHz and Multi-User Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) throughput in testing

Pricey; Middling file-transfer speeds in our tests

Kitguru Says: The Netgear Nighthawk X4S D7800 is far from perfect. The software pales in comparison to some competitors' efforts, and the USB performance could be better. But in its favour, we got some really good results over both standard 3×3 and quad-stream 4×4 802.11ac, particularly at long...

Excellent 3×3 802.11ac wireless performance; Good network performance over all wireless channels at short and medium range; Full of useful hardware features

Uninspiring software interface; USB performance misses the mark

Phenomenal modem router, have had zero issues with it since purchasing 6 months ago. Super easy to set up and customise. No drop outs or dead zones in my entire house. If you're thinking about buying, I can tell you that you won't regret the Nighthawk AC2600

I have been impressed with the Netgear equipment I have purchased in the past, so Netgear had an automatic leg up in the Court of Router Selection. It has worked flawlessly for a couple of months, and for that it gets five stars.

The Netgear Nighthawk X4S AC2600 WiFi VDSL/ADSL D7800 MU-MIMO modem router is aimed at ticking all the boxes for gamers and heavy users as well as for those who are keeping an eye on tomorrow's needs.

The Netgear Nighthawk X4 R7500 is an 802.11ac router rated at providing combined throughput of 2,300Mbit/s across its 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. That breaks down as 600Mbit/s on 2.4GHz and 1,730Mbit/s on the 5GHz band.

Modem routers need not be chunky things, and Netgear intends to prove it, letting us play with its Nighthawk X4S, a network device designed to keep the speeds up with the size down. Does it pull it off

Small size; fairly standard footprint; Not chunky at all; and wouldn't look strange in a home; Stickers for antenna locations makes for no confusion; Great locations for accessory ports; Excellent reception range

Painfully slow browser setup; Forced to run two network names if you want the full 2.5Gbps connection; with no way of banding the two together

The Nighthawk X4 has plenty of speed but to take advantage of the higher throughput you’ll need extra equipment

Not all routers are the same: for the more general purposes, the many modem routers available under $100 can also be good, but if we look for quality at all costs and we are immersed in a highly demanding environment (the gaming industry is one of these), we can not choose any router/modem, but we...

Netgear's X4S is as far ahead of the curve as a router can get at this point. With 160MHz technology being the next full step ahead for large performance increases, this router is ready to handle whatever you throw at it.