Netgear Nighthawk X6S AC4000 triband router review: Flexible enough to accommodate all devices

Design and First impressions

Well, the company has more or less stuck to the same old Nighthawk router's design and it gives the router an aggressive and futuristic look. The router feels compact and has six attached antennas that flip out into position or flipped down for easy portability. While it looks good the only flaw with the design might be in the lights department. Since the router is flat and that all LEDs are placed on the center portion it is quite hard to see them.

You have to be standing right in front of it and looking down which obviously you won't be doing all the time and these will not help when the Internet starts acting up. Coming to the back and connectivity options, the router offers four Gigabit Ethernet ports and one Gigabit WAN port, USB 2.0 port and a USB 3.0 port. You can connect an external hard drive to a USB port, or connect a NAS device to an Ethernet port. There is also a reset switch, power connector, a switch to turn off the LEDs. The router also comes with a WPS switch for easy pairing, and a Wi-Fi on/off switch.

Under the hood, the device is powered by a 64-bit 1.8GHz dual-core processor and three Broadcom SoC chips are most commonly known as "offload processors." The router offers 512MB of RAM. All in all, from our first glance at the product it sure did convey that it is a powerful router. Moreover, the entire system looked capable of providing lag-free performance, better streaming, and surfing experience. But does it?

Performance

Performance is one of the major aspects to consider when buying a new router. In this aspect, it is also important to understand the bandwidth rates and once we do that we can set some expectations. Well, the Netgear Nighthawk X6S R8000P is said to offer a theoretical or total bandwidth of 4 Gbps. It produces a tri-band 802.11ac network further meaning the bandwidth is spread across three separate bands.
Further, the router assigns the optimal connection to each connected device. The good thing here is that everything is done automatically and intelligently. Well, you don't have to adjust the router or a device manually. The router by nature offers fast speeds on the 2.4 GHz channel with 750 Mbps of bandwidth. On the 5 GHz channel or for dual-band devices, you will get 1625 Mbps max speed. This router also has another 5 GHz which also offers 1625 Mbps of speed.

Further, the router can bond the two 5 GHz channels together meaning a device can access up to 2.3 Gbps of speed internet. Interestingly, the router also comes with MU-MIMO technology which stands for multi-user technology. Well, this propriety technology helps the router to divide the connection to all devices in an equal manner. So if you have connected a smartphone, tablet, laptop and some other device at the same time the router with this technology will make sure that each device gets the same amount of internet connectivity. All the devices will have the same loading or download time

But we have to say that this is not the only router to support those standards. But despite the competition in the industry, Netgear X6S brings in a lot to the table comparatively. Powerful CPUs, advanced connectivity, and an operating-system grade firmware that allows the device to take on the most demanding tasks

Range

Coverage is another concern for many users in modern homes. Fortunately, the X6S works well and offers good coverage. The six antennas of the router come with a special feature called beamforming. Basically, with this feature, the router can communicate with all connected devices. Further the router is capable of controlling the delivery of the maximum amount of signal at any given time.

The six antennas have an omnidirectional system and with the feature, the power sent to each antenna can be increased or decreased as needed.

For example, if somebody on one side of the room is receiving a poor connection, the router can cut power to an unused antenna and increase the power on another one which is in demand.

The router delivers a high-quality network in homes as large as 4000 square feet. In any case, the router does help boost the productivity of users and it maximizes the speed of the internet connection. The beamforming feature additionally increases the range and the overall speed.

Firmware

Netgear X6S comes with its own software known as "genie." Well, this software has been designed to be easy and usable even by novice users. The software will take inputs about the network and it will help in configuring all of the complicated settings. You can set it up easily without knowing anything about networks and get the router running.

Additional Features

Some of the other added features of this router are that it also has a built-in backup system. The router automatically ensures that all of your devices are backed up and even if a hard drive failure occurs there is no data loss. At the time of connecting to the router, you'll be prompted to set up a backup system.

Other notable features include its DLNA compatibility for movie streaming and the router can also be controlled using Amazon's Echo/Alexa devices as well as Google Home. The commands are limited for the most part.

While the router comes feature-packed, one area that it lacks is in the updates part. Netgear should set up an automatic update system with its routers.

Verdict

After spending some time with the product, we have to say that Netgear Nighthawk X6S is indeed one of the powerful routers on the market. It is also one of the rare tri-band wi-fi routers which support super-fast connections with gigabit networking wirelessly. It does serve as a great choice for anyone who is looking for high-speed fiber internet connection.

Besides, the router can cover a huge area, and easily handle multiple users. This product is especially recommended for consumers who are interested in gaming, consumers that like streaming 4K content, or for users who generally keep their torrent files on download all the time. You might have to spend a little extra for the router compared to other normal routers, but this product will make users happy who can't stand dropped connections or disappointing download speeds.