Misleading router ranking

[klas]

I used to pick my routers based on ranking, but no more. While the test are excellent and in depth they miss one important aspect, real world usage scenarios which, understandably, is difficult to do in the lab. In the case of Netgear R7000 which I used for a year, I have to say I wouldn't rate this #1 router by any means due to firmware issues and overall performance especially in 2.4Ghz band. I've recently switched to Dlink 880L and it's much more reliable and stable, but of course most people don't know better and trust the ranking. If it's #1, it must be good, right?

Bottom line, these rankings should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[azazel1024]

Amussing you should mention that. If you look at the front page of SNB, they noticed an issue with testing on the "upright" routers because it placed the antennas too high. On retesting, there was a rather dramatic difference, at least in 5GHz downlink, but a modest one on uplink too.

Probably why 2.4GHz isn't really impacted much at all on the retest (them laying on their side with antennas pointed up) is that with dual band antennas, 5GHz has roughly 3dBi more gain than 2.4GHz with similar antennas (the gain of an omni antenna, if it isn't broken out for both bands is generally advertised for 2.4GHz). Downside is, much more compact radiation pattern, so being "above" the test chamber antennas by a modest amount will have a lot more impact than it will on 2.4GHz, which will have a much broader radiation pattern.

More than anything I noticed that the C9 and C8 had HUGE jumps in 5GHz downlink performance and fairly modest gains in uplink to. Seems much closer to my reworld performance testing with the C8 than the old test results.

 

[thiggins]

Bottom line, these rankings should be taken with a grain of salt.

Note that if you dig into the wireless sub-ranks, the R7000 is only top-rated for wireless range.

With wireless, there are no simple answers. Every environment is different.

 

[thiggins]

Amussing you should mention that. If you look at the front page of SNB, they noticed an issue with testing on the "upright" routers because it placed the antennas too high. On retesting, there was a rather dramatic difference, at least in 5GHz downlink, but a modest one on uplink too.

Not sure what your point is in reference to the OP.

 

[azazel1024]

Not sure what your point is in reference to the OP.

My point was just what you had mentioned in your first post in the thread. Every environment is different. That leads to test environments too. Sometimes the best due dillegence and experimentation with a test environment doesn't necessarily stack up either with an individual's actual use of a product, or doesn't generally line up with typical real world performance outside of the test environment.

 

[microchip]

I used to pick my routers based on ranking, but no more. While the test are excellent and in depth they miss one important aspect, real world usage scenarios which, understandably, is difficult to do in the lab. In the case of Netgear R7000 which I used for a year, I have to say I wouldn't rate this #1 router by any means due to firmware issues and overall performance especially in 2.4Ghz band. I've recently switched to Dlink 880L and it's much more reliable and stable, but of course most people don't know better and trust the ranking. If it's #1, it must be good, right?

Bottom line, these rankings should be taken with a grain of salt.

Well, I also use the R7000 and WiFi range is excellent in my case. In fact, it's the best router for range here and I have an AC66U, an Archer C7 and an older TP-Link (don't recall its model name). Just because you had issues with it doesn't mean others also have. I've read many posts on NETGEAR's forum where other people have specific issues which I never experienced. Some report dropping connection, some say a specific device doesn't play well with it and others say they have stability issues. None of which apply here

NETGEAR is not much different from others. Even if ASUS is very popular on this forum, it too has its bag of issues. Testing routers is always done in a "perfect" environment and will virtually never reflect real-world usage, which is very difficult to test as the test is only done with one or a couple of the same devices in a controlled environment. You can't possibly test all devices in all environments. That's not possible