Netgear Has a New, Slightly Cheaper Wi-Fi 6E Router

We had been impressed with Netgear’s WiFi 6E Nighthawk RAXE500 router, however it’s additionally $600 and is supposed for bigger homes. Now Netgear has a less expensive possibility, the $400 Nighthawk RAXE300, which is designed for smaller houses that also want ultra-fast (and futureproofed) wifi.

Like the RAXE500, the Nighthawk RAXE300 is a tri-band WiFi 6E router. It makes use of the normal 2.4GHz and 5GHz band in addition to the newer 6GHz one (which is what makes WiFi 6E the following era of wi-fi).

Traditionally, a tri-band router options two 5GHz channels and a 2.4GHz channel. The Nighthawk RAXE300’s benefit is that it eschews that second channel for the next-gen 6GHz band, which presents decrease latency. Netgear says the RAXE300 presents a mixed wi-fi velocity of as much as 7.8 Gbps in houses as much as 2,500 sq. ft.

Earlier generations of the Nighthawk routers had adjustable antennas you may pivot relying on your house format. But in its newest Nighthawk fashions, Netgear positioned the antennas in a method that’s optimized particularly for house use. The consolidation additionally helps remove the Nighthawk lineup’s earlier spider-like aesthetic.

The RAXE300 helps as much as eight wi-fi streams at a time—two streams of 6GHz, 4 streams of 5GHz, and two streams of two.4GHz. Four Ethernet ports can be found on the again of the router for tethering consoles and computer systems, plus a 2.5Gbps WAN port and a USB-C plug for connecting one thing like an exterior arduous drive.

The RAXE300 is just not low cost for a wi-fi router, as a result of being on the innovative simply prices lots, however it’s at the very least one of many extra reasonably priced Wi-Fi 6E choices in the marketplace—for now.

Boost Your Games

As a part of its CES bulletins, Netgear is introducing a brand new service impressed by its Nighthawk routers, however for its lineup of mesh wifi Orbi routers. The service known as Netgear Game Booster, and the app helps the routers prioritize community efficiency for enjoying—what else?—video video games.

Nighthawk Pro Gaming routers have lengthy had gaming-first options constructed into them to assist each pro-level and novice avid gamers get essentially the most out of their mediocre web connections. But as extra households undertake mesh wifi to assist get quicker wifi in additional elements of their houses, Netgear is bringing a few of these gaming options to its mesh routers.

Since ping is every thing, Netgear’s Game Booster allows you to peek at a Ping Heatmap to see which international servers have the present greatest charge for logging on. There’s additionally a Network Priority characteristic, which supplies the console or PC latched on to these servers extra precedence over different on-line units. And for these searching for an additional little bit of safety, Game Booster features a router-level advert blocker, which removes adverts and limits monitoring throughout web sites and permits the curation of a common blocklist.

Game Booster launches within the first quarter of 2022 and can be accessible from throughout the Orbi app with an lively membership, which prices $50 a 12 months after a 30-day free trial. The Orbi tri-band Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers sequence 750 and 850 would be the first to assist Game Booster, together with the quad-band Wi-Fi 6e routers in sequence 960.