The home networking demand is growing on a daily basis, so at AVForums we decided to put the new 'Nighthawk' Wireless router under the microscope.

Design; Wi-Fi Range; Briiliant QoS

Price

The Nighthawk , is Netgear's latest router in the company's premium dual-band 802.11ac router line-up. The router looks as cool as its name suggests, with a trapezoid design and flared sides. The shape is reminiscent of the famed fighter jet of the same name.

Sharp design; Great throughput at 5GHz; Excellent range; Wonderful QoS; Full VPN capability

Less-than-expected throughput at 2.4GHz band; Painful Bridge mode configuration; Slow to apply settings changes

I bought Netgear AC1900 to upgrade the Etisalat provided Aztech router, because of the coverage issue. Netgear is fast , very easy to install and they constantly upgrade the software to fix bugs. I enables wireless AC and works perfectly. The one negative about this product is the coverage.

Very easy to install and simple user interface

The coverage is not so good

My family really enjoys our new wifi router. The set up was really easy, and we have about 15 devices connected to our internet. It has increased our internet speed significantly and we enjoy our purchase.

KitGuru says: Once you look past the peculiar styling you'll find an impressive piece of hardware

High 802.11ac transfer speeds; Simultaneous 5GHz+2.4GHz; Easy set-up; USB 3.0 port for add-in storage; USB 2.0 printer support; Impressive QoS options for consumer market; Decent set-up software with heaps of options; Weird and wonderful styling (if you like that sort of thing)

Expensive; Poor 2.4GHz 802.11n performance; mainly because of the tiny A6100 USB adapter; Takes a while to save changes in set-up; Limited appeal for professional market; Weird and wonderful styling (if you have conventional tastes)

Bought this for my father-in-law. He lives in a winding farmhouse, with lots of rock and solid walls. This router beat out all the rest to project through his entire house, even into the basement, even outside. The signal is strong, the speed is fast. Nighthawk indeed.

Sitting at the peak of Netgear's consumer router mountain, the Nighthawk R7000 is a high-powered unit that's aimed at gamers and anyone else who wants to supercharge their home network.

Stand-out design; Excellent short-range speed; Useful mobile features

Long-range performance wasn't great

I use the Nighthawk in Spain with Vodafone ONO and a CBN (Compal Broadband Network) CG7486E router. It sits in a room above where the CBN router is and the signal strength is excellent.

Fast when it works

Stops working just about every night

Was happy after spending about 50 minutes with Netgear cust. service upon first purchase. Speed great and wireless. Then had to reset router after 2 days (no connection). Then everyday. And even multiple times per day. Final after 5th week, it quit working altogether.

Quiet

Build Quality; Expensive; Performance; lemon

Outlandish design, but rip-roaring performance leads to a well-deserved A-List award for Netgear's flagship router