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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
Most routers today are really close to being plug-and-play, and setting up the RAX80 is no different. You could use the Nighthawk mobile application, or you could use the web client that I opted for. After connecting the Router to the cable modem and the desktop, I went ahead and plugged the thing in, fired up the browser on the PC, and typed in http://www.routerlogin.net to bring up the setup wizard. I then set the admin password, answered two security questions, and waited for a few moments while the Router connected to the internet and searched for any firmware updates. The installation was considered complete once I confirmed that my firmware was up-to-date.
The fullest capabilities of the RAX80 have not been tested with a complete 802.11ax client environment in the market. 160MHz throughputs were tested on a 5GHz channel on an 802.11ac laptop with the Intel wireless AC-9260 chipset, which supports a maximum channel bandwidth of 160MHz. Its distance test at 930Mbps occurred indoors, which was slower compared to the Asus RT-AX88U tested in the same 160MHz mode but was still 35% and 36% faster than the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 and TP-Link Archer C5400X, respectively, which were tested at 80MHz. The RAX80 bagged 416Mbps in the 30-foot 160MHz test, which was slightly slower than the RT-AX88U but 20% faster than Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 and 26% faster than TP-Link Archer C5400X.
In the same way I tested the Netgear RAX80 with our standard 802.11ac Wave 2 test laptop not supporting 160MHz but supporting 20/40/80MHz channel bandwidth, it scored 88Mbps on the 2.4-GHz-near test, slightly less than that of an Asus RT-AX88U but far less than those of the TP-Link Archer C5400x and Asus Rapture GT-AC5300. Its 42Mbps score, however, is the slowest at 30 feet.
This barely kept up at 538Mbps at the near 5GHz, beating the Asus RT-AX88U but losing out to the TP-Link Archer C5400X. Still, with 601Mbps, the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 remains a class act. The RAX80’s 30-foot score of 326 beats the TP-Link Archer C5400X but loses out to the Asus RT-AX88U and Asus Rapture GT-AC5300.
The RAX80 did wonderfully well for us in file transfer tests in which we recorded read and write speeds on a portable USB 3.0 drive via a 1.5GB folder filled with a random selection of photo files, short videos, music, and office documents. Its write speed of 76 MBps is marginally slower than that of the Asus RT-AX88U but is more than double that exhibited by the TP-Link Archer C5400X and the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300. The 96MBps read speed is the fastest that we have witnessed so far.
Is it worth it?
Well, the Netgear Nighthawk AX8 RAX80 is never a bad option if you are ever to be willing to secure your home network in the future. It works perfectly all by itself and performs excellently when it comes to file transfers. That said, the Asus RT-AX88U will be cheaper alternatives and offer more features than the RAX80. Again, just like with the RT-AX88U, it’s going to be a while before the Wi-Fi 6 client hits the shelf to really enjoy what the RAX80 has to offer. If you can’t wait or can’t really upgrade your wireless client to Wi-Fi 6 or 160MHz technology, then the Asus Rapture GT-AC5300 is your alternative. It is one of the fastest routers we’ve tested yet, with an extensive set of features.
where can you get a Netgear Nighthawk RAX80 online
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Netgear Nighthawk AX8 8-Stream AX6000 Wi-Fi 6 Router – RAX80-100NAS – Black (Renewed): Buy it now
NETGEAR Nighthawk AX8 8-Stream WiFi 6 Router (RAX80) – AX6000 Wireless Speed (2Gbps) & Cable Modem CM1000 – Compatible with All Cable Providers Including Xfinity by Comcast, Spectrum, Cox: Buy it now