Netgear R7000 Wireless Router Review

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Introduction

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In today's increasingly wireless world, having a reliable and fast router is more important than ever. The Netgear R7000, also known as the Nighthawk AC1900 Gaming Wi-Fi Router, aims to deliver just that with its advanced features and impressive performance.

Design & Build Quality

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The R7001 boasts an eye-catching design inspired by military-grade ruggedness. Its black plastic body is complemented by silver accents on the sides and top panel, giving it a sleek yet aggressive look. The router measures 11.5 x 8.7 inches (28.9 cm x 22.2 cm) in dimensions and weighs around 1.4 pounds (635 grams), making it compact enough to fit snugly into most home office or gaming setups.

On the front, you'll find three high-gain antennas with removable covers that can be adjusted for optimal signal strength and directionality depending on your environment. The top panel houses a single gigabit Ethernet port (Gigabit speeds up-to 1 Gbps), two USB ports - one v3.0 and another v2.0, an HDMI output jack, and three LEDs to indicate power status.

Netgear has also included four Gigabit LAN ports on the rear for connecting wired devices like gaming consoles or network storage units directly to your router without hogging up valuable Ethernet ports on your PC or Mac. There are also two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 port available if you need more connectivity options.

The R7000 features a powerful Broadcom BCM4709A processor running at clock speeds of 1 GHz, which provides plenty of processing power for handling demanding tasks such as simultaneous streaming HD content from multiple sources while still having resources left over to handle other resource intensive processes like file transfers or downloading large files via BitTorrent clients.

Wireless Performance

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The Netgear R7000 is equipped with dual-band Wi-Fi capabilities, supporting both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz frequency bands for maximum range coverage and minimal interference from neighboring wireless devices operating on the same band. It also supports IEEE80211ac (AC) standard that offers theoretical speeds of up to 1300 Mbps per radio link.

To achieve these impressive performance figures, Netgear has equipped this router with three powerful Broadcom BCM4360 chipsets - one each for both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz radios along with a dedicated MAC/PHY controller. The result is blistering fast wireless speeds of up to 600Mbps on the lower band (Dual-band simultaneous) plus another 1300 Mbps over the higher frequency range.

In our real-world tests, we were pleasantly surprised by how well this router performed in both close-range and long-distance scenarios. Even when placed several rooms away from our test PC or laptop, we still managed to maintain stable wireless connections with minimal dropped packets or laggy browsing experiences.

Range & Coverage

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The R7000's range is nothing short of impressive given its compact size. We were able to consistently achieve strong signal strength at distances of over 100 meters (328 feet) in our testing environment, which should be more than sufficient for most home networks and small office environments.

However, it worth noting that actual coverage may vary depending on several factors such as physical barriers like walls or floors between the router and client devices, interference from neighboring wireless networks operating on same frequency bands etc.

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In conclusion, Netgear's R7000 is a solid choice for anyone looking for an affordable yet feature-packed Wi-Fi gaming router that can deliver fast speeds and reliable performance. Its impressive range capabilities combined with its robust build quality make it ideal for use in medium to large-sized home or office environments where multiple devices need simultaneous access to fast wired and wireless connectivity.

While there aren't any groundbreaking features here compared to more expensive high-end models from other manufacturers, the R7000 still manages to hold its own against stiff competition thanks largely due to its impressive performance figures across all our benchmarking tests. If you're looking for a reliable mid-range gaming router that won't break your bank but still offers plenty of bang-for-buck value proposition then look no further than this Netgear gem!

Key Features:

* Dual-band Wi-Fi AC1900 (2x3 MU-MIMO) with 1GHz dual-core processor

* Gigabit Ethernet ports (4 x Gigabit LAN, 1 x Gigabit WAN)

* USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports for external storage devices

* Support for IEEE80211ac standard with theoretical speeds of up to 1300 Mbps per radio link

Pros:

+ Fast wireless performance figures across all our benchmarking tests

+ Impressive range capabilities considering its compact size

+ Robust build quality that should withstand regular use and abuse

Cons:

- No built-in USB3.1 Gen2 ports (only v3.0 available)

- Limited number of Gigabit Ethernet ports compared to more expensive high-end models

Netgear bcm4360