The Netgear Nighthawk X10 is for anyone thinking about a long term investment in their home network or for tech enthusiasts who want the future, today. Whilst this is more pricey then other available routers, it offers a long lifespan because of the kind of throughput it is capable of and it has an...

Future proof; Awesome media sharing feature

Price tag

Specs to note: Let's get one thing out of the way – this router is a beast. The four antennas look positively space-age, and feel rather plastic-y. That said, the body itself feels hardy.

I was using a Netgear R7000 for many years, it covered my whole 2200sqft home with 2.4G, and about 2 rooms with 5G. My ISP speed is 200/25, and that R7000 gave me about 210/23 while under 5G connection, and around 50/22 with 2.4G connection.

Updated: 2/10/2017 - Since we initially launched this article, Netgear assisted with resolving a technical issue we were experiencing with 802.11ad connectivity and performance with the Nighthawk X10 router we had in for testing.

Netgear's R9000 Nighthawk X10 is a needy Wi-Fi router. In order to experience its superfast local Wi-Fi speed, you first need an 802.11ad-enabled laptop and a high-end 10Gbps server. Chances are good you have neither.

Supporting the new 802.11ad Wi-Fi standard, the Netgear X10 can deliver unprecedentedly fast wireless speeds; It also features ultrafast wired connections for high-end servers; It has speedy network storage performance, and the built-in Plex server for media streaming works well

The router is expensive and bulky; The web interface is sluggish, unintuitive and doesn't allow for in-depth Wi-Fi customization; There are currently few devices that can take advantage of its high-end features, and its 802.11ad signal has extremely short range

The Netgear Nighthawk X10 AD7200 Smart WiFi Router (R9000) is the second 802.11ad router we've tested. Designed for large homes, this gargantuan router is chock-full of networking goodness, including Multi-User Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) data streaming, circuitry for 60GHz 802.11ad...

Speedy 60GHz throughput; Excellent 5GHz performance; Very fast file-transfer speeds; Supports Multi-User Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), 802.11ad, and 160MHz networking technologies; Feature-packed

Very expensive; So-so MU-MIMO throughput in testing; Lacks detailed Quality of Service (QoS) settings

Good product, easy to setup. Wifi is not better than my previous nighthawk x6 and not likely to be materially better than any ac3200 class router with MU-MIMO but has greater range of connectivity options which is why I bought it.

Once upon a time you could squeak by in life with a $60 router, which would do the simple job of blanketing your house in a respectable cloud of wi-fi. But in 2017, a satisfactory home network isn't just a single cheap box tucked away in a corner.

It's fast

The price; the lights; and that terrible UI

The NETGEAR Nighthawk X10 R9000 is unquestionably a very powerful wireless router. It's absolutely packed with features for the home or business user. Add a decently sized USB storage device and it can act as your NAS too.

Super-fast 802.11ad WiFi; Class-leading 802.11ac performance at close range; Comprehensive administration options; Up to eight wired networking ports; Port aggregation of two Gigabit connections for fast performance; 10 Gigabit SPF+ port; Two USB 3.0 ports for storage or printers; Powerful...

Expensive; Mesh networking options like NETGEAR Orbi can cover a greater area with WiFi

Netgear Nighthawk X10: The fastest router money can buy, but it has no integrated ADSL modem and it's very, very expensive

Incredibly quick; Powerful enough to run a Plex Server on its own; Six Gigabit Ethernet ports

Very expensive; Hugely pricey; Enormously costly