Netgear Releases New Nighthawk Router With MU-MIMO

[Julio Urquidi]

The AC2300 Nighthawk R7000P is a 3x3 Broadcom-based version of NETGEAR’s classic Nighthawk R7000, supporting MU-MIMO and maximum link rates of 1625 Mbps at 5 GHz and 600 Mbps at 2.4 GHz.

Running off a 1 GHz dual-core processor, the R7000P wireless router also includes five GbE ports (four LAN and one WAN), for physical networking, and two USB ports (one 3.0 and one 2.0) for adding storage and backup using Netgear’s ReadyCloud and ReadyShare applications, respectively.

Other features include Dynamic QoS for prioritizing network traffic, Smart Connect for automated band selection, Beamforming+ helps target wireless devices for stronger connections, and VPN support for secure remote access to the router and the home network.

Netgear also adds several apps to Nighthawk R7000P’s package. Netgear Up helps optimize router placement during installation, while Netgear genie provides remote access management when R7000P owners are away from home.

Netgear’s Nighthawk R7000P is now available with an MSRP of $199.99.

 

[Makaveli]

View attachment 7992​

The AC2300 Nighthawk R7000P is a 3x3 Broadcom-based version of NETGEAR’s classic Nighthawk R7000, supporting MU-MIMO and maximum link rates of 1625 Mbps at 5 GHz and 600 Mbps at 2.4 GHz.

Running off a 1 GHz dual-core processor, the R7000P wireless router also includes five GbE ports (four LAN and one WAN), for physical networking, and three USB ports (two 3.0 and one 2.0) for adding storage and backup using Netgear’s ReadyCloud and ReadyShare applications, respectively.

Other features include Dynamic QoS for prioritizing network traffic, Smart Connect for automated band selection, Beamforming+ helps target wireless devices for stronger connections, and VPN support for secure remote access to the router and the home network.

Netgear also adds several apps to Nighthawk R7000P’s package. Netgear Up helps optimize router placement during installation, while Netgear genie provides remote access management when R7000P owners are away from home.

Netgear’s Nighthawk R7000P is now available with an MSRP of $199.99.

They should have updated the cpu like the RT-AC1900P and double the RAM to 512mb. To me that would offer more benefit than MU-MIMO.

1.4Ghz CPU
512MB RAM
MU-MIMO

and MSRP at $249

I would have upgraded my original R7000 for it but for MU-MIMO alone not really. I can benefit from the fast cpu and ram right now.

And i'm aware the target market will be people purchasing new routers vs upgrading. But why would I choose this over the RT-AC1900P?

 

[thiggins]

I agree this is a puzzling move. Functional MU-MIMO has little practical benefit for most users. Broadcom has not figured out how to get MU-MIMO working yet. So why, NETGEAR?

 

[RMerlin]

I agree this is a puzzling move. Functional MU-MIMO has little practical benefit for most users. Broadcom has not figured out how to get MU-MIMO working yet. So why, NETGEAR?

Quite a few odd things with this product. Note also the presence of a second USB 3.0 port, for instance. Makes me wonder what SoCs are really used in there. Time to fish for HW details...

Anyone coming out with a MU-MIMO capable product based around Broadcom in December 2016 should design it around a BCM4366E to make any sense. I doubt that the BCM4366E would be a drop-in replacement to the BCM4360 used by the R7000, so yes, definitely a puzzling product.

 

[pete y testing]

definitely a puzzling product.

agreed and apart from it looking like a r7000 why reuse its name

 

[Makaveli]

Quite a few odd things with this product. Note also the presence of a second USB 3.0 port, for instance. Makes me wonder what SoCs are really used in there. Time to fish for HW details...

Anyone coming out with a MU-MIMO capable product based around Broadcom in December 2016 should design it around a BCM4366E to make any sense. I doubt that the BCM4366E would be a drop-in replacement to the BCM4360 used by the R7000, so yes, definitely a puzzling product.

To me its seems like some guy in an office approved this and said it would be good. Instead of getting feed back from actual users. Anyone reading these post at Netgear head office?????

or an engineer actually had similar ideas to my original post and it was cut down by bean counters?

who knows!

 

[sfx2000]

Quite a few odd things with this product. Note also the presence of a second USB 3.0 port, for instance. Makes me wonder what SoCs are really used in there. Time to fish for HW details...

Anyone coming out with a MU-MIMO capable product based around Broadcom in December 2016 should design it around a BCM4366E to make any sense. I doubt that the BCM4366E would be a drop-in replacement to the BCM4360 used by the R7000, so yes, definitely a puzzling product.

I wonder if they're moving over to the BCM49408 - might explain the extra USB and what not... nice little chip in any event - 4 * Cortex-A53's along with the typical onboard switch (and 2.5GB SGMII support - NBaseT anyone?)

The 49408 along with the BCM43465 seem to be good stuff for 2017 maybe...

 

[RMerlin]

I wonder if they're moving over to the BCM49408 - might explain the extra USB and what not... nice little chip in any event - 4 * Cortex-A53's along with the typical onboard switch (and 2.5GB SGMII support - NBaseT anyone?)

The 49408 along with the BCM43465 seem to be good stuff for 2017 maybe...

That's the "business" version of the BCM4908 - would make even less sense to me as part of a product refresh. Just the ARM architecture switch involves some major software-level changes, even more at the hardware level due to the other changes involved.

I have yet to see any BCM4908-based product. Pretty sure if that was used here, Netgear would make a lot more noise about it. That platform is a major step forward versus the BCM4709.

A BCM47094 with a a pair of BCM4366E would be more plausible IMHO.

 

[RMerlin]

Did some FCC fishing:

https://fccid.io/PY316200351

 

[RMerlin]

The original post is apparently incorrect. Netgear's own spec sheet mentions one single USB 3.0 port, and one USB 2.0 port, also shown on pictures:

https://www.netgear.com/images/datasheet/networking/wifirouter/R7000P.pdf?cid=wmt_netgear_organic

So, my money is on a BCM47094/BCM4709C0 with BCM4366E.

EDIT: unless they put a Quantenna in there, but I... doubt it

 

[sfx2000]

So, my money is on a BCM47094/BCM4709C0 with BCM4366E.

Probably - broadcom will continue to make the 4709 until people stop buying it (which is good..)

Saw a mention on that FCCID also for an R6900P...

Comment - wish they wouldn't recycle model numbers like this, as this will lead to confusion at many levels - from forums, to 3rd parties, to their own Support staff..

(Which R7000 is it?)

 

[RMerlin]

Comment - wish they wouldn't recycle model numbers like this, as this will lead to confusion at many levels - from forums, to 3rd parties, to their own Support staff..

Agreed. While not as radical as Linksys with their 9 (did I miss some of them?) revisions of the WRT54G, it's still quite confusing, and will lead to people trying to flash the wrong firmware on their router. Or expecting a specific feature, not realizing that this one single letter added at the end will make all the difference.

I'd be ok with an R7010, R7050, etc... - less confusing than just appending a single letter, or hiding the change in a HW revision sticker found only on the side of the box / bottom of the device. But I suspect a marketing drone would point out that it's harder to get customers to remember four digits than just one big, round number.

 

[thiggins]

Corrected the USB port information in the first post. Sorry for the error.