Just the other day I was checking out the FCC filings, and saw Netgear has three new filings; specifically the R7500v2, R7800, and R8500.
Based on the public R8500 filing, I am assuming it is a Broadcom driven solution being named the “Nighthawk X8 Tri-band Router.” Various D-link filings showed up in the past few days as well with internal shots of their Broadcom MU-MIMO solutions which were announced at CES 2015. The R8500 will operate “up to 600Mbps” on the 2.4 GHz band and “up to 1733.3Mbps” for each of the two 5 GHz bands. The unit has four internal antennas for one 5GHz radio and four external antennas for the 2.4GHz and other 5GHz radio.
From what I have learned from using the Linksys EA8500, is that the Qualcomm hardware performs good, yet runs cooler in temperature than what Broadcom has put out. This is a plus in my book, and takes me to the next two models filed the other day.
The R7500v2 of all three FCC filings is the only one to have the internal images public. As I was expecting, the v2 keeps the powerful Qualcomm-Atheros IPQ8064 at its core, but the other chips are next to impossible to make out. The QCA8337 Ethernet chip is the same, and I can make out that one of the two wireless radio chips is also a Qualcomm chip, but I cannot make out what chip exactly. The filings also make clear the until supports “up to 600Mbps” on the 2.4 GHz band and “up to 1733.3Mbps” on the 5GHz band. I am guessing Netgear has dropped Quantenna in this hardware revision to be able to get actual MU-MIMO functionality right out of the box with 100% QCA solution?
However, Netgear has another Nighthawk model on the way in the R7800. This “Nighthawk X4S” router. Any guesses as to what the “S” stands for?
Based on the public R8500 filing, I am assuming it is a Broadcom driven solution being named the “Nighthawk X8 Tri-band Router.” Various D-link filings showed up in the past few days as well with internal shots of their Broadcom MU-MIMO solutions which were announced at CES 2015. The R8500 will operate “up to 600Mbps” on the 2.4 GHz band and “up to 1733.3Mbps” for each of the two 5 GHz bands. The unit has four internal antennas for one 5GHz radio and four external antennas for the 2.4GHz and other 5GHz radio.
From what I have learned from using the Linksys EA8500, is that the Qualcomm hardware performs good, yet runs cooler in temperature than what Broadcom has put out. This is a plus in my book, and takes me to the next two models filed the other day.
The R7500v2 of all three FCC filings is the only one to have the internal images public. As I was expecting, the v2 keeps the powerful Qualcomm-Atheros IPQ8064 at its core, but the other chips are next to impossible to make out. The QCA8337 Ethernet chip is the same, and I can make out that one of the two wireless radio chips is also a Qualcomm chip, but I cannot make out what chip exactly. The filings also make clear the until supports “up to 600Mbps” on the 2.4 GHz band and “up to 1733.3Mbps” on the 5GHz band. I am guessing Netgear has dropped Quantenna in this hardware revision to be able to get actual MU-MIMO functionality right out of the box with 100% QCA solution?
However, Netgear has another Nighthawk model on the way in the R7800. This “Nighthawk X4S” router. Any guesses as to what the “S” stands for?