Netgear Nighthawk X4 review: This 802.11ac Wi-Fi router is a disappointing ‘Wave 2’ effort

September 09, 2014

I won’t beat around the bush: Netgear’s Nighthawk X4 Wi-Fi router is a major disappointment. It’s not just slower than the first 802.11ac Wave 2 router to reach the market, the Asus RT-AC87U, it’s considerably slower than its competitor—on every benchmark. The Nighthawk X4’s one saving grace might be its adaptive quality of service (QoS) that analyzes the data flowing across its wireless network and automatically adjusts the priority given to each bit stream. Netgear co-developed this technology with Qualcomm, which supplies the Nighthawk X4’s secondary CPU (the QoS algorithms run on a 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor that also operates the router’s 2.4- and 5GHz 802.11n radios, manages its dual USB 3.0 and eSATA ports, and controls a few other functions). Adaptive QoS is turned off by default, and that’s how I left it for benchmarking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2604029/netgear-nighthawk-x4-review-this-80211ac-wi-fi-router-is-a-disappointing-wave-2-effort.html#tk.rss_reviews