The WiFi 7 standard isn’t final yet, but that doesn’t stop Netgear from making the technology publicly available. The company released its first WiFi 7 router, the Nighthawk RS700S, and it’s clear that speed isn’t the only draw. While the 320 MHz channels promise up to 5 Gbps on WiFi 7, the main draw may be the very low lag – Netgear claims the latency is “100x lower” which should help with gaming, VR, and other sensitive applications. at time. So you may not be in a hurry to connect your PC to an Ethernet jack.
Tri-band router offers coverage of up to 3,500 square feet. ft thanks in part to a new antenna design, and can handle up to 200 connected devices simultaneously. You can create a mesh net if you need to cover a large house. A 10 Gbps WAN Ethernet port ensures that the RS700S can support the fastest home fiber connections, though Netgear curiously limits the four local Ethernet ports to 1 Gbps. You’ll have to use WiFi if you want to get the most out of this hardware.
The Nighthawk RS700S arrives in the US in the second quarter of the year and will cost $700. You’re paying for the privilege of being first. That said, it costs less than Netgear’s WiFi 6-based Orbi 860 two-pack despite much stronger performance in its (admittedly smaller) coverage area. If you’re more interested in raw performance than range, this may be the best value.
The biggest problem is compatibility. Only a limited number of devices have the necessary components to support WiFi 7, and the new format is not enabled. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 of the Galaxy S23 series technically supports WiFi 7, for example, but Samsung’s phones officially support “only” WiFi 6e. And while multi-gigabit Internet service is becoming more common, it’s still pretty rare for the RS700S’ headroom to go unused. You’re buying this router to future-proof your setup, not for immediate speed gains.
All Engadget Recommended products are curated by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publication.
