CES 2021: Netgear Launches Tri-Band RAXE500 Wi-Fi 6E Router

[MacRumors]

Netgear today announced the launch of the Nighthawk RAXE500 Tri-band Wi-Fi router, which is Netgear's first router using upgraded Wi-Fi 6E technology. Wi-Fi 6E takes advantage of the new 6GHz band, which is free from interference and congestion and allows speeds up to 10.8Gb/s.

Wi-Fi 6E's spectrum is ideal for households that have a multitude of Wi-Fi connected devices in use because it allows networks to support more devices.

"The proliferation of Wi-Fi over the last few decades first stressed the 2.4 GHz band and then eventually the 5 GHz band with Wi-Fi 4, 5, and 6," said Phil Solis, research director at IDC. "As regulatory bodies around the world open up the 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi 6E networks will provide enabled devices with the breathing room to use large channels even in dense and congested areas with higher average data rates and lower latency."

The Nighthawk RAXE500 offers up to 200 percent more available spectrum than dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) routers, and since there are few devices on the 6GHz band, it allows for lower latency. There are four streams of 6GHz, four streams of 5GHz, and four streams of 2.4GHz to reduce network congestion.

There's a 64-bit 1.8GHz quad-core processor in the Nighthawk RAXE500 along with a 2.5G Ethernet port and five additional Gigabit ethernet ports.

Netgear plans to begin selling the Nighthawk RAXE500 in the first quarter of 2021, and it will be available from the Netgear website for $600.

Article Link: CES 2021: Netgear Launches Tri-Band RAXE500 Wi-Fi 6E Router

 

[Le0M]

 

[JosephAW]

And which Apple devices support WiFi 6?

 

[yurc]

 

[Radeon85]

Everytime I look at my RAX200 it reminds me of Star Wars 😄

 

[MrGuder]

Star Wars
Can I contact baby Yoda?
Grogu where you at?

 

[Radeon85]

And which Apple devices support WiFi 6?

The whole iPhone 12 lineup, AX at least.

 

[Squuiid]

Finally 6E hitting the mainstream. Wouldn't touch Netgear (nor TP-Link, ASUS, Linksys for that matter) with a bargepole though.
Going to be a while before anything one should consider buying is available.
Ubiquiti, Eero, Google WiFi, Ruckus, Meraki, Aruba and the like.

 

[yurc]

And which Apple devices support WiFi 6?

Mac Mini M1 are one of them.

 

[Maconplasma]

Oh damn! I just spoke to Netgear's tech team that does a streaming show and asked them about new products at CES. They said nothing special but remained hush hush. I recently bought the latest Orbi Wifi6 and love it but I do kinda wish it had Wifi6E.

 

[Mike_Trivisonno]

Does is come with a baby Yoda?

 

[Attirex]

 

[joecomo]

I wonder what the purposes of these starship routers is.
In larger apartments/houses their reach is never sufficient, they look like ****
and burn a lot of energy with their powered up processors with no discernible benefit.

Decentralized solutions like unifi-APs seem to be much better - although in fairness
they do not even support Wifi 6 (without the E).

 

[macduke]

If you want a beefy, mesh WiFi 6 router, then I recommend this bad boy. I settled on this after doing research for a very long time: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B083Q45V1V/

I finally upgraded from my AirPort Extreme AC awhile back and this thing has been great. I just changed it to the same SSID/password as my old router and only had a few issues with WeMo for like a day that somehow worked itself out and had to only fix one smart home thing by reconnecting it. Was way easier than I thought. It has a dedicated wireless signal between the two mesh devices and now I can plug in my PS5 and my Apple TV upstairs other ethernet and get an even faster connection with lower latency. I like it because you can really dive in to configure everything if you want to, and it's cheaper than other WiFi 6 routers I've seen with good reviews. Worked fine with my Ring system, which I had read other mesh systems can have problems with. The range is also amazing. Through the woods down in a creek bed a couple hundred feet back and 70-80ft lower than my house, I was pulling 200Mbps on speedtest.net over WiFi. In a neighbors house diagonal across the street (they are parents in my wife's daycare so we see them during the pandemic) I could get my home WiFi inside their house.

 

[joecomo]

Mac Mini M1 are one of them.

but without the E

 

[HarryWild]

Surprise how big it is! It would be impossible to hide! Get mesh type routers! Much better!

 

[Scott H]

For a price of $600 this better be one fantastic Netgear router.

 

[Maconplasma]

Is this the first time people here have seen this router design from Netgear? The digs at how it looks proves it. It's not a new style. They have multiple models that look exactly like this.

 

[centauratlas]

The last two Netgear routers we had were unreliable. They would drop connections at random, that was the R6700 and RAX200. I hope this one has improved reliability.

I finally swapped the RAX200 out with a ASUS Zen Wifi AX (ASUS ZenWiFi AX Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 Router) and it has been night and day.

Eventually I'll swap it out with a 6E when we have devices that need it, but not yet.

 

[Squuiid]

The last two Netgear routers we had were unreliable. They would drop connections at random, that was the R6700 and RAX200. I hope this one has improved reliability.

I finally swapped the RAX200 out with a ASUS Zen Wifi AX (ASUS ZenWiFi AX Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 Router) and it has been night and day.

Eventually I'll swap it out with a 6E when we have devices that need it, but not yet.

Netgear’s firmware team is awful and as a result their products are garbage IMO. Hardware on the whole is good, they just don’t have good software practices.
The only stable Netgear is probably the R7800 but that’s rather out of date with the advent of Wi-Fi 6.

My choice will likely be the 6E version of this when released.

UniFi6 Long-Range

High-performance, indoor/outdoor WiFi 6 access point with extended signal range. Features: 5 GHz WiFi 6 band (4x4), 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 band (4x4) 3.0 Gbps aggregate throughput rate Horizontal, downward-tilted antenna pattern to widen coverage area (1) GbE RJ45 port (PoE In) Powered with PoE+...

store.ui.com

But I admit, it’s not for everyone.

 

[Maconplasma]

The last two Netgear routers we had were unreliable. They would drop connections at random, that was the R6700 and RAX200. I hope this one has improved reliability.

I finally swapped the RAX200 out with a ASUS Zen Wifi AX (ASUS ZenWiFi AX Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 Router) and it has been night and day.

Eventually I'll swap it out with a 6E when we have devices that need it, but not yet.

I think this new 6E model is replacing the RAX200 which is nothing but pure trash! I tried that router and it was longest and worst 48 hours I've ever experienced trying to get a piece of electronics to work. I returned it bought the Orbi RBK852 package and haven't looked back. The Orbi works! The RAX200 had way too many problems with firmware. Plus the build quality seems cheap, and it's a bit under-powered as this new 6E model.

 

[Hastings101]

pic

First thing I thought of when I saw this. There's no way this thing won't take off and fly the moment it's turned on

 

[aakshey]

The whole iPhone 12 lineup, AX at least.

The entire 11 lineup too. And all iPads released in 2020 as well I think.

 

[routine_analyst]

Sure wish there was a system developed by a company that's valued nearly 2 trillion dollars that aims to make systems "just work" while also making things look visually appealing .....................

 

[Johnny907]

The price of Wifi routers is getting ridiculous. Not sure when the market decided it would tolerate $200+ starting points on residential wifi routers, but only a couple years ago 600 bucks bought a commercial grade external router with half a mile range.