Netgear Nighthawk RAX80

amazon Netgear Nighthawk RAX80 reviews

Netgear’s Nighthawk RAX80 8-stream Wi-Fi 6 router, along with the Asus RT-AX88U, was the first 802.11ax Router to appear in our lab. Shaped like a futuristic ship, the RAX80 boasts an impressive feature set that includes five gigabit LAN ports, link aggregation, a powerful 4-core processor, and, of course, 802.11ax wireless technology, also known as Wi-Fi 6. At $399.99, the RAX80 isn’t cheap, but it delivered an impressive score in our throughput tests, and its file transfer performance is the top head. However, you don’t get the powerful QoS options that are game-friendly and the anti-malware tools you get with the Asus RT-AX88U, and as is the case with the RT-AX88U, you’ll have to wait for Wi-Fi 6 customers will hit the market to take full advantage of all that the RAX80 has to offer.

About Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi 6, also known as 802.11ax or High-Efficiency Wireless (HE), is the newest Wi-Fi protocol. The evolution of 802.11ac technology, 802.11ax promises increased throughput speeds (up to 4.8Gbps), less network congestion, greater client capacity, and better range performance thanks to several technologies. New and improved wireless. Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) improves overall throughput by dividing Wi-Fi channels into sub-channels. That allows up to 30 users to share the channel at the same time. Target Wake Time (TWT) is designed to reduce power consumption by allowing devices to determine when and how often they should wake up to begin sending and receiving data.

Wi-Fi 6 also leverages previously unused radio frequencies to help boost 2.4GHz performance, and it uses fine-tuned uplink and downlink bandwidth management to provide QoS (Quality of Service) advanced. It also provides uplink and downlink MU-MIMO streaming (802.11ac only supports downlink MU-MIMO) 802.11ax is backward compatible. It will work with devices using older 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi technology, but only 802.11ax clients can fully utilize the performance and features. It’s advanced, and they are few.

Space-y Design

The black and charcoal gray RAX80 looks like what you’d expect to see around in a Star Wars movie. It has two “wings” that fold to give the Router its odd shape, and each wing contains two high-performance Wi-Fi antennas. Fully extended, the Router measures 6.7 x 11.5 x 8.0 inches (HWD), and when folded, it measures 2.7 x 10.5 x 8.0 inches. It can be placed on the desktop surface or mounted on the wall.

On the back of the Router are five gigabit LAN ports (two of which can be used together for link aggregation), one WAN port, two USB 3.0 ports, a reset button, an LED on/off button, a button power source, and a power jack. For comparison, the Asus RT-AX88U is equipped with eight LAN ports. At the top of the Router, towards the rear, is a thin LED strip that indicates power, WAN, LAN (five), USB (two), Wi-Fi, and WPS. Here you will also find a Wi-Fi on/off button and a WPS button.

The RAX80 is equipped with a 4-core CPU running at 1.8 GHz, 512 MB RAM, and 25 MB flash memory. It is a 4×4 AX6000 Router that can reach maximum speeds of up to 1.2 Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 4.8 Mbps on the 5GHz band. In addition to the Wi-Fi-6 features mentioned above, it supports 160MHz channel bandwidth, beamforming, MU-MIMO data transmission, and Smart Connect band control. It also supports Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands.

The RAX80 is managed using the web console or the Nighthawk mobile app for iOS and Android devices. The mobile app provides real-time network updates, push notifications, basic Wi-Fi and Internet settings, and guest network settings. You can pause and resume access for each device with the push of a button, measure upload and download speeds over the Internet with Speedtest, and monitor data transfer statistics with Traffic Meter.

The web dashboard lets you do everything you can with a mobile app and more. It has advanced settings like port forwarding, port activation, VPN services, and link aggregation. It has ReadySHARE Storage and Vault settings for managing attached drives and backing up data.

Here, you can enable Dynamic QoS, set bandwidth limits, block access to websites and web services, create access schedules, and block devices from accessing the network. The player-centric QoS settings and anti-malware tools you get with the Asus RT-AX88U are missing.

Comfortable

As is the case with most routers today, the RAX80 is very easy to set up. You can use the Nighthawk mobile app or the web console (I used the web console). After connecting the Router to the cable modem and desktop, I plugged it in, opened the browser on the PC, and typed http://www.routerlogin.net to launch the setup wizard. I created the admin password, answered two security questions, and waited a few seconds for the Router to connect to the internet and look for firmware updates. Once I confirmed that my firmware was up to date, the installation was complete.

Lack of 802.11ax clients on the market, I have not been able to test the full capabilities of the RAX80 yet. However, I tested its 160MHz throughput on the 5GHz band using an 802.11ac laptop equipped with Intel’s wireless AC-9260 chipset, which supports 160MHz channel bandwidth. Its score was 930Mbps in the proximity test (same room), a bit slower than the Asus RT-AX88U, also tested in 160MHz mode, but still 35% faster than the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 and 36% faster than TP-Link Archer C5400X, both tested at 80MHz. In the 30-foot 160MHz test, the RAX80 achieves 416Mbps, slightly slower than the RT-AX88U but 20% faster than the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 and 26% faster the TP-Link Archer C5400X.

As I did with the Asus RT-AX88U, I also tested the Netgear RAX80 using our regular 802.11ac Wave 2 test laptop, which supports 20/40/80MHz channel bandwidth but not 160MHz. Its 88Mbps score on the 2.4GHz proximity test is slightly behind the Asus RT-AX88U but can’t keep up with the TP-Link Archer C5400x and Asus Rapture GT-AC5300. Its score of 42Mbps at 30 feet is the slowest of the bunch.

In the near 5GHz test, the RAX80 clocked at 538Mbps, beating the Asus RT-AX88U but not beating the TP-Link Archer C5400X. The Asus Rapture GT-AC5300’s 601Mbps is still the fastest in its class. At 30 feet, the RAX80’s score of 326 beats the TP-Link Archer C5400X but not the Asus RT-AX88U or the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300.

The RAX80 performed excellently in our file transfer tests, where we measured read and write speeds using a portable USB 3.0 drive and a 1.5GB folder containing a mix of photo files, videos, music, and office documents. Its 76MBps write speed is slightly slower than the Asus RT-AX88U but more than twice as fast as the TP-Link Archer C5400X and Asus Rapture GT-AC5300. The 96MBps read speed is the fastest we’ve seen so far.

Is it worth it?

The Netgear Nighthawk AX8 RAX80 is well worth considering if you’re adamant about securing your home network in the future. It works admirably, and its file transfer performance is excellent. That said, it’s more expensive than the Asus RT-AX88U, and it doesn’t offer as many features. As with the RT-AX88U, you’ll have to wait for the Wi-Fi 6 client to hit the shelves to appreciate the RAX80’s capabilities fully. If you can’t wait or aren’t ready to upgrade your wireless client to Wi-Fi 6 or 160MHz technology, consider the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 instead. It’s one of the fastest routers we’ve tested and had an extensive feature set.

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