Netgear rolls out three pricey new Wi-Fi 7 Nighthawk routers

Netgear announced three new entries to its Nighthawk Wi-Fi 7 router collection today: the RS600, RS500, and RS200. The company says all three routers, which range in price from $229 to $499, will be available today.

The two pricier options, the $499 RS600 and the $399 RS500, are very similar: both are tri-band routers with 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz wireless connections. They each offer 320MHz channel bandwidth on the 6GHz band, which can mean much higher throughput to a Wi-Fi 7 device — a distinct advantage since these devices are starting to become more commonplace. All three of Netgear’s new routers support Multi-Link Operation (MLO), which could benefit Wi-Fi 7 devices by offering more stable, lower latency connections that are key for gaming or VR applications.

Of the two higher-end options, the RS600 gets you the best wired connections; it has a 10Gbps ethernet port for connecting to your ISP and another to send data to your network, with three additional gigabit ethernet ports for other devices. The RS500 offers the same configuration, only with 2.5Gbps ports instead of 10Gbps. 

The more modest $229 RS200 lacks a 6Ghz band but is equipped with the same ports as the RS500. That means you won’t see the same superfast wireless throughput of its higher-priced siblings — it’s clearly meant to be the budget option. You can find much cheaper Wi-Fi 7 routers, though, including the $99 TP-Link Archer BE3600, which offers similar specs at a significant discount.