The Netgear Nighthawk RS600 is without doubt one of the first wave of WiFi 7 dwelling routers in the marketplace. Whereas the RS600 is technically marketed because the mid-tier possibility in Netgear’s lineup, it’s greater than succesful at delivering quick wi-fi web throughout your property.
For Apple customers, the relevance of WiFi 7 has come to the fore with the launch of the iPhone 16, that are the primary Apple units to tout WiFi 7 help. On this evaluate, we’ll take a look at out the Netgear RS600 speeds on WiFi 7 utilizing the iPhone 16 Plus …
Design and construct high quality
The match and end of the router may be very excessive, with strong construct high quality that’s proportionate to its worth level. The most effective performing routers will usually characteristic an exterior association of spiky antennae to eke out probably the most velocity and vary doable. The RS600 opts to take aesthetics into consideration, housing the whole lot inside a refined hexagonal form. This ends in a practical-but-appealing black obelisk design, that may match nicely into most individuals’s dwelling areas. I believe these visible factors matter as most individuals are pressured to place their routers in a visual place in a room, like on a shelf or comparable.
The RS600 housing is fairly compact too, measuring about 30 centimetres tall and 15 centimetres large. It takes up the identical quantity of house as a big hardback ebook, which allowed me to cover it away from view solely in a nook media cupboard. That is considerably smaller in dimensions than another WiFi 7 succesful routers, just like the beast that’s the Asus BE98, whose footprint is nearly double the dimensions because of its bigger base, plus a tangle of outwardly-exposed antennas. In distinction, the RS600 matches nicely into my networking shelf, and is successfully silent in operation, so I wouldn’t realize it’s there.
The router places all the I/O on the again. All of its ports are lined up neatly vertically on the again aspect, with the entrance that includes corresponding LED indicators for every port. The indicator will mild up white if units are utilizing the complete velocity of that port, or orange if at a diminished velocity. This implies you may see at a look when you have plugged all of your Ethernet cables into the suitable spots. Nevertheless, when you discover lit white and orange LEDs distracting, I sadly couldn’t discover a setting to show off the standing lights.
Setup and app design
Setup utilizing the Netgear Nighthawk app on the iPhone may be very easy. It’s near plug-and-play. You observe a number of steps utilizing the wizard on the telephone, and that’s about it. At one level, I did encounter a setup error, which as a evaluate it was type of good to see how the app would deal with a failure case. The app directed me to show off the broadband modem, and restart. Certainly, on second attempt, the whole lot went easily and not using a hitch.
I used to be migrating from an present WiFi community, in order quickly I arrange the RS600, I renamed the default SSID and password to match these of my previous router. This meant all my units linked mechanically, with out having to enter community passwords once more on the whole lot. That is simply achieved utilizing the app UI, or you may log into a complicated management panel in an internet browser in your Mac to tweak extra superior configuration settings.
The app is serviceable, if primary. It has some conveniences like the power to ship notifications to provide you with a warning when new units be part of the community for the primary time. You’ll be able to setup per-device profiles if you wish to get a bit extra fancy, like visitor networks and the like, however I didn’t hassle with any of that.
The app is barely too pushy in forcing the Netgear Armor safety subscription in your face, which I discovered of little worth given the worth charged. To be clear, the subscription is solely optionally available, however you’ll be reminded you don’t have it each time you launch the app with a pink textual content warning message. Admittedly, assuming the whole lot is working, you shouldn’t must launch the Nighthawk app fairly often after preliminary setup.
Wi-fi connections with WiFi 7
WiFi 7 is the most recent technology of the WiFi customary, boasting much more theoretical bandwidth and quicker speeds for wi-fi community units. It consists of options like multi-link operation (MLO), which negotiates one of the best wi-fi channel to make use of within the present surroundings to keep away from interference. The WiFi 7 spec helps channels as much as 320 MHz large, which is twice the 160 MHz most of WiFi 6E.
However theoretical efficiency and real-world efficiency are very various things. Partitions, flooring and distance simply lower down on what speeds you may count on in observe. It additionally will get difficult with what producers promote, in contrast to what’s doable below the area of the spec.
Proper now, Apple’s solely WiFi 7 succesful machine is the iPhone 16 lineup. However whereas the RS600 can broadcast on channels as much as 320 MHz, the iPhone 16 really doesn’t characteristic ‘full’ WiFi 7 help. Apple stored this considerably quiet, however the iPhone 16 radios solely talk on as much as 160 MHz spectrums, not the brand new 320 MHz channel enabled by the WiFi 7 spec. We’ll have to attend for future Apple units to have the ability to take full benefit of what routers just like the RS600 is able to.
Nevertheless, we will nonetheless report some spectacular outcomes. In my testing, the iPhone 16 Plus linked to the RS600 persistently achieved quicker knowledge switch speeds than a MacBook Professional, and far quicker than older iPhone fashions.
I examined a number of instances at “brief vary”, “medium vary” and “longer vary” distances and took averages to get the next readings. Brief vary was throughout the similar room because the router, solely a few toes away. Medium vary was about twenty toes, within the nook of an adjoining room via a wall. With the router located downstairs, I did my lengthy vary take a look at by going upstairs to the bed room, with the connection needing to succeed in via the ground under. Testing was carried out utilizing iPerf.
The iPhone 14 Professional on 5 GHz WiFi 6 achieved brief vary speeds of about 720 Mbps, comparable speeds at medium vary and a drop to about 550 Mbps on the lengthy vary take a look at.
The M3 MacBook Professional with 6 GHz WiFi 6E was unsurprisingly quicker, attaining about 980 Mbps at brief vary, 850 Mbps at brief vary, and 600 Mbps at lengthy vary. It’s anticipated that 6 GHz penetration via objects is a bit worse than 5 GHz, which might be why the lengthy vary take a look at result’s nearer to the iPhone 14 Professional than at different distances, albeit nonetheless quicker.
So, how does WiFi 7 on the iPhone 16 Plus fare? Regardless of the telephone packing a lot smaller radios than a MacBook Professional, it outdid the MacBook Professional at each distance.
The brief vary velocity broke the 1Gbps barrier, averaging at 1580 Mbps, 50% greater than the MacBook Professional and double the iPhone 14 Professional’s wi-fi efficiency. In my testing, I noticed a peak of 1728 Mbps.
Medium vary was equally spectacular, examined at about 1390 Mbps common speeds. That is 60% quicker than WiFi 6E on the laptop computer.
The enhancements fall off considerably as distances enhance. Within the lengthy vary take a look at, the iPhone 16 Plus achieved round 520 Mbps on common. That is really barely slower than the 14 Professional outcome, however pure variations within the surroundings have lots of affect at these longer distances. Outcomes on each of the telephones at this distance fluctuated dramatically. I might think about common efficiency over the long run can be roughly the identical. The laptop computer gained out at lengthy vary in comparison with the 16 Plus, in all probability as a result of it has house for a lot beefier radios, that may keep a stronger connection from additional away. I might count on a comparable (future) WiFi 7 MacBook would simply beat it, after all.
At diametrically reverse locations in my home, each telephones circled round 150-200 Mbps speeds. The working vary of the RS600 wi-fi was spectacular, although. I used to make use of a mesh system, one for every flooring of the home. Because of the lengthy attain of the router, my wi-fi community wants are at present happy by a single RS600 router positioned downstairs.
It highlights although that the final pattern with WiFi enhancements of the final decade stays true; impressively quicker speeds in shut proximity, with the speeds falling off as you get additional away.
Wired connections
The RS600 is missing barely within the variety of super-high-speed Ethernet ports out there. It has has two 10 Gbps succesful Ethernet ports on the again, however one can be the devoted Web port. Whether or not you have got >1 Gbps broadband or not, it’s a must to dissipate that port. Within the current day, having quicker than 1 Gbps broadband speeds is fairly uncommon. However, even when you can’t exploit all the doable bandwidth at the moment, you’re very a lot future-proofed.
That leaves another bodily 10Gbps port on the router. If in case you have high-speed knowledge storage, or a house server (maybe a brand new Mac mini with the ten Gbps possibility), they must occupy that singular 10 Gbps port. If in case you have a couple of, you’ll must share via a swap.
In any other case, the router has three extra Ethernet ports to attach peripherals, however they’re capped at 1 Gigabit velocity. After all, most stuff doesn’t want greater than a gigabit-per-second of bandwidth, however it considerably defeats the purpose of a WiFi 7 router if the whole lot you have got linked by way of a wire can’t hit the WiFi 7 speeds. It could have been nicer if these ports have been at the very least rated for two.5 Gbps speeds, to offer you extra headroom for newer networked connected storage units or comparable. Opponents just like the TP-Hyperlink BE9300 sports activities 4 2.5 Gbps LAN ports, as an illustration.
Conclusion
The Netgear Nighthawk RS600 is nice and has grow to be my new dwelling router, however it feels onerous to advocate unreservedly proper now. If in case you have a working WiFi community that you’re proud of, it appears like leaping the gun to vary out to WiFi 7 gear for the sake of it … most stuff simply gained’t be capable of benefit from the speeds but.
Apple doesn’t even have full 320MHz WiFi 7 computer systems to purchase but. However clearly, the shopping for determination is situational. In case your present wi-fi community is missing in vary or velocity, and you’ve got gigabit (or quicker) web to your property, and perhaps you have got a NAS otherwise you simply bought a brand new Mac mini with a ten Gbps Ethernet port, then getting a brand new WiFi 7 router just like the RS600 out of the blue turns into a no brainer.
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