Netgear launches 1st WiFi 7 router with speeds of 19 Gbps

Netgear launched its first WiFi 7 router with its Nighthawk line and speeds of up to 19 gigabits per second (Gbps).

The Nighthawk RS700 Router is the company’s flagship entry into the WiFi 7 market. The new technology could double the speed of Wi-Fi over previous generations while adding capacity and reducing latency or interaction delays, Sandeep Harpalani, vice president of product management at Netgear, said in an interview with GamesBeat.

The Wi-Fi demands of modern, hyper-connected homes continue to push the boundaries of current Wi-Fi standards. With the emergence of faster multi-gig internet speeds now available to more and more households, the growing number of connected devices per household, and the ever-increasing growth of bandwidth-hungry 4K/8K video streaming, HD Zoom calls, hybrid collaborative graphics-intensive work , highly interactive real-time gaming and AR/VR applications and experiences, WiFi continues to evolve.

While WiFi 6E opened up the 6GHz band as a superhighway for the latest, fastest devices, WiFi 7 delivers on that promise by unleashing unprecedented speeds and performance. The tri-band WiFi 7 router dramatically reduces latency for real-time responsiveness for next-generation AR/VR gaming or smooth UHD Zoom calls and 8K streaming for multiple simultaneous users.

The RS700 also features a 10Gb Internet port, to support the fastest Internet speeds of today and tomorrow, as well as a 10Gb and four 1Gb LAN ports for fast, flexible wired connections. The router comes with one year of Netgear Armor powered by Bitdefender, which provides an automatic security shield for all connected devices.

The Nighthawk RS700 router features a new thin chassis with high-performance antennas that provide 360-degree coverage, optimized to support up to 200 simultaneous client devices throughout the home. The 3D antenna design provides the best connection for all types of homes, from sprawling ranch styles to multi-story brownstones. It can send WiFi signals to the furthest range, up to 3500 square feet.

“With the launch of our Nighthawk RS700 router, we are setting the tone for the adoption of the next one
generation WiFi,” said David Henry, president of Connected Home Products and Services at Netgear, in a statement. “The RS700 has been purposefully constructed for the highest possible performance. We have leveraged our decades of RF expertise to maximize antenna range within a compact design that minimizes interference while blending perfectly into any home environment.”

The router includes link aggregation for simultaneous multi-gig Internet and LAN access, providing a graceful transition for a home network to upgrade to a multi-gig network. A USB hard drive can be connected for network storage to facilitate backups or large file sharing, as well as high quality media streaming.

While powerful in their own right with fast speeds and wide coverage, RS700 routers can be connected together via Nighthawk Mesh to provide wall-to-wall Wi-Fi speed even in the largest homes. The router also allows for four separate networks to maximize performance. In addition to a main and guest network, users can create a priority network for low-latency applications such as streaming and gaming, ensuring a lag-free experience without interference from slower devices. Smart home devices can be isolated from the IoT network to prevent a potential intrusion from affecting the other networks. These features will be available in future software releases.

The Netgear Nighthawk WiFi 7 Tri-Band Router RS700S will be available in the US from Q2 2023 for a retail price of $700.