We review the brand new NETGEAR Nighthawk Tri-Band WiFi 7 Router, the RS700.
Spearheading the WiFi 7 revolution with cutting-edge technology and unimaginable power, the Nighthawk RS700S harnesses the power of WiFi 7 to unleash speeds up to 19Gbps, 2.4x faster than WiFi 6. With 320MHz channels and multi-link operation, you now experience lower latency and dramatically enhanced WiFi performance. Leveraging NETGEAR’s 25 years of WiFi expertise, the RS700S features a sleek new body, 3D antenna design, and a significantly smaller footprint. And, a 10 Gig internet port unlocks the fastest speeds of today and tomorrow. Experience the very best of next-gen gaming, AR/VR and 8K video – all streaming flawlessly in your home.
Features
- Unlock the next generation of highly interactive gaming, 4K/8K streaming, UHD video conferencing and AR/VR entertainment with blazing fast WiFi 7 speeds up to 19Gbps and lower latency for real-time responsiveness.
- Supports the new WiFi 7 standard – 2.4x faster than WiFi 6. Fully backward compatible with older WiFi devices.
- Sleek new body and high performance antenna design leverages over 25 years of NETGEAR engineering expertise for a significantly smaller footprint and up to 3,000 sq. ft. of 360-degree WiFi coverage.
- 10 Gig internet port unleashes the fastest download speeds of today & tomorrow. Connect to the latest cable or fiber internet service plan up to 10Gbps.
- One 10 Gig and four 1 Gig LAN ports designed for ultra-fast wired connections.
- Powered by Broadcom’s powerful BCM6726/3 WiFi 7 chips to deliver enhanced performance and groundbreaking speeds across all your devices.
- NETGEAR Armor provides an automatic shield of security for your WiFi and connected devices (PC, phone, camera, TV, baby monitor, etc.) for real-time protection against hackers and added privacy with VPN. 1-year subscription included.
What’s in the box?
The box contains the RS700, power supply, Ethernet cable and quick start guide.
A Closer Look
Setting up the RS700
Setting up the RS700 was really easy – just install the Nighthawk app and follow the steps. The initial setup took about 10 minutes, but that included doing a firmware update!
Any devices connecting to the RS700 are scanned for vulnerabilities via NETGEAR Armor.
You can also see specific information about the devices, including the connection speed. In this case, my Mac Mini, via WiFi was connecting at 2215 Mbps.
This was a speed test of my Internet connection via the RS700.
You can also control and configure the RS700 from it’s webpage.
Final Thoughts
The RS700 looks very good – it can sit in the corner of your room and could be mistaken for an expensive piece of audio equipment.
Setting up the router is relatively straightforward and fairly quick – just follow each of the steps and you should be up and running in no time.
There are a lot of different configuration settings you can make – so do take the time to go through them all before you start connecting your devices as the web front end provides a lot of useful information as well.
There are a number of ports on the back of the RS700, including Ethernet ports that can be used in aggregation mode if you have wired devices that support that facility.
Having a year’s worth of NETGEAR Armor thrown in is very useful too and gives you that added layer of protection.
The RS700 is by far the fastest router I have ever tested – I can’t wait until I have more devices that support WiFi 7 so I can get even faster speeds. It can support up to 200 separate devices connecting to it – now I have a lot of devices at home, but I don’t have anything near that, so its good to know I have plenty of spare capacity.
If you want a router that is blazingly fast, easy to set up and configure, covers a large area and has the very latest technology available today, then the RS700 is the one for you – you won’t be disappointed!
The Netgear Nighthawk Tri-Band WiFi 7 Router, the RS700 is available now priced around £799.99.
