Netgear R7000 vs R7500 Nighthawk which one to buy?

[Mac Rules]

Hi All,

I have decided that I need to upgrade our apartment's wifi and have managed to find a good price on the two routers mentioned, the R7000 (AC1900) and the R7500 (AC2350) with around $10 difference!

I have done a lot of research online and generally can only find negative reviews of the R7500 especially when compared to the R7000, one example being here.
However I am someone who does not like to buy a slightly worse product if I am in a position to get a newer, "better" one, thus I am struggling with this decision.

Despite the negative press I can't help wonder if it might be improved by firmware and that for only $10 difference I might kick myself for not going for the R7500 further down the line.

It would be great if I could open this up to the forum, if there are any users of the above two routers who could share their experience of stability, speed, range (esp 10-15m from the router ie upstairs in the kids room).

Looking forward to your thoughts.

 

[Ipadlover29]

I do own the r7000 and am very pleased with it. The speed and range is great. After reading some reviews about the r7500, it doesn't seem that great. I mean on paper with all the specs it has it does look great. Like you said it looks like mostly issues with firmware and in the future it could get better with updates. Personally I would look at the r7000 and the Asus rt-ac68u.

The only things I don't like about the r7000 is that user interface could be easier to use and navigate. I also don't like having to wait a few minutes when I change the settings for them to save.

How much are you getting the r7000 for?

 

[CoastalOR]

Another user of the R7000. It has worked great for me, no problems. Performance and range has been an improvement from my flat Airport Extreme. I also like the extra configuration options. I bought the R7000 in early January 2015.

 

[campyguy]

I'm following this thread over on DSLReports' forums: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30252080-Equip-Wireless-Router

Several users are offering that new models will be hitting the street soon, and I concur. The R7000 is a great, cost-effective and solid router. I like the newer stuff that's coming out as those new-and-shiny products lead to lower prices for the older-but-solid products. I'd buy an R7000 but I don't need to - we already own two of them but would snag a couple more when they go on sale!

 

[Mac Rules]

I do own the r7000 and am very pleased with it. The speed and range is great. After reading some reviews about the r7500, it doesn't seem that great. I mean on paper with all the specs it has it does look great. Like you said it looks like mostly issues with firmware and in the future it could get better with updates. Personally I would look at the r7000 and the Asus rt-ac68u.

The only things I don't like about the r7000 is that user interface could be easier to use and navigate. I also don't like having to wait a few minutes when I change the settings for them to save.

How much are you getting the r7000 for?

Thanks, I went for the R7000 in the end, turns out my local store did an additional 20% off so in the end got it for 138CHF (140USD/91GBP).

As you all have reported, it has been a joy, our signal strength is much improved and we get consistent speeds all over the house - in short I am very happy with it.

Thanks all for your comments!

 

[PitBullCH]

Hi MacRules,

Thanks, I went for the R7000 in the end, turns out my local store did an additional 20% off so in the end got it for 138CHF (140USD/91GBP).

One other thing to maybe consider is whether it's a model where you can replace the stock firmware with one of the open source alternatives - DD-DRT or Tomato for example. I have an R6300 running DD-WRT for most of this year without any issues, and it allowed me to turn up the radio power somewhat to improve Wi-Fi reception in the far reaches of the house.

R7000 is certainly usable with DD-WRT and there are recent builds for it (which is a good sign), but this is not the case with the R7500 where I can see a last build from November last year and I believe there were issues with the drivers.

BTW greetings from Switzerland