Netgear is expanding its range of Wi-Fi 7 routers. The top model RS700 and the previous entry-level router RS300 are joined by the RS200 and that RS500 two other family members. How do they fit into this group?
Apparently the router market offers a lot of niches. In any case, Netgear has further expanded its range of Wi-Fi 7 routers. The top model Nighthawk RS700 (RRP 800 euros) and the RS300 (RRP 350 euros) have recently been added RS200 with an RRP of 320 euros and the RS500 with an RRP of 425 euros added.
It is interesting how the manufacturer differentiates the models. As a reminder: The RS700 offers 4×4 MIMO on the three supported frequencies (2.4, 5 and 6 GHz) and, thanks to the double 5 GHz module, has a total of four WLAN radio units. The RS300 slimmed down from 2×2 to three frequencies and three WLAN modules.
Curtain up for the two new arrivals: Der RS500 also has three WLAN modules including 6 GHz. However, its antennas support 4×4 MIMO on 5 GHz, while 2.4 GHz and 6 GHz have to make do with 2×2 MIMO. The logic: 2.4 GHz only offers little capacity anyway. WLAN clients at 6 GHz are currently still rare. That leaves the 5 GHz band, which is probably where most of the power-hungry WLAN clients are. This is where a 4×4 MIMO module with beamforming can be of greatest benefit.
Interesting MIMO configuration
What Netgear derives from this for its smallest Wi-Fi 7 model to date is remarkable: The RS200 does not use 6 GHz. For the remaining two frequencies, the RS200 takes over exactly the WLAN modules and antennas of the RS500. Say: It operates at 2.4 GHz with 2×2 and at 5 GHz with 4×4 MIMO. So it made sense for us to present these two models in a double test.
Especially since both siblings too identical connections have: There is one LAN and one WAN port with 2.5 Gbit/s as well as three additional GbE sockets. Link aggregation, the combination of two 1 GbE sockets for 2 Gbit/s throughput, is also supported – for LAN and WAN. However, this also occupies the fast 2.5 GbE ports. Otherwise, there is a USB 3.0 socket, which, like the sister models, offers storage sharing but no printer support.
The other functions such as firewall, guest network, OpenVPN and DynDNS also correspond to their siblings. Mesh support is missing – it is reserved for Netgear’s Orbi series. The Subscription options for Smart Parental Controls and the network protection and VPN service Armor correspond to the offering on the RS300.
Given the WLAN frequencies and bandwidths, the results of our benchmarks (see above) are not surprising. This also applies to the power consumption, which is slightly lower with the RS200 at 8 watts in idle mode and 9 watts during transmission than with the tri-band model RS 500 (9 and 13 watts, respectively). Overall, both models are a useful addition to the Netgear router family.
Conclusion: Who are these routers suitable for?
With the Nighthawk RS200 and RS500, Netgear offers two powerful additions to its Wi-Fi 7 series.
The Netgear Nighthawk RS200 is the cheapest model in Netgear’s Wi-Fi 7 range. What’s good is that it focuses on high throughputs in the 5 GHz band and offers many functions and ports. The fact that 6 GHz is missing is a shame.
The Netgear Nighthawk RS500 is quite well balanced between WLAN performance and budget conservation. Overall, it is aimed at ambitious WLAN users who already operate several Wi-Fi 7 clients, especially at 5 GHz.
Source: www.connect.de
