Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 System review

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In the mesh networking space, Netgear is well known and regarded for its range of Orbi-branded products, but it's not its only play in this market. The Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 System promises speedy Wi-Fi 6 performance and EasyMesh certification for potential compatibility with other mesh systems at an appealing price point for that kind of technology. It's easy to set up and comes with optional subscriptions for home security packages too.

However, once it's all up and running, and compared to many other mesh networking systems, its overall performance falls way short of what it should be capable of providing.

Design

Design

• Simple nodes and satellite
• Ethernet ports on each satellite
• Power sockets are annoyingly wide

• Read our full review of the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 System's design

  Having reviewed the low-cost but good value Netgear Orbi RBK13 recently, the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh nodes couldn't help but feel very familiar. They use the same flattened node design as the RBK13s, but in a stark black finish instead. They're the dark side equivalent of the Orbi range, in essence.

  Black isn't a bad colour for home decor, and like the smaller Orbi nodes there's some capacity to hide them away if you don't like the look of more obvious networking equipment. The primary router and satellite nodes all work off a single coloured LED to indicate status, so there's not too much of a blinkenlights problem here.

  You're also not awash with too many complicated cables. The primary router has an input ethernet and output gigabit-capable ethernet port, while the two satellites have single output gigabit sockets. While some mesh systems are offering up to 10GB ethernet ports, the practical reality in Australia right now under the NBN is that you can't hit better than 1GB downstream anyway, so this is ample.

  Where there is a problem is in the supplied power supplies for each node. I tested with a 3-node kit – 2-node variants are also available – and the power supplies in that kit worked off a power brick that sits sideways on a standard Australian socket.

  It's a monumentally stupid bit of design, because even on a power board with wider sockets, it still takes up the space of two power points. I settled on using them with triangular double adaptors to get them out of the way of other plugs, but this is a problem that Netgear should solve themselves for Australian consumers. Simply flipping the plugs 90 degrees would absolutely eliminate this issue.

Installation

Installation

• Easy installation
• Nighthawk app could use better update notifications

• Read our full review of the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 System's installation process

  Like every other consumer-facing mesh solution right now, the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 uses an app-based installation and monitoring approach. I was a little surprised that this wasn't just the existing Orbi app, but instead a Nighthawk-branded app for iOS or Android instead.

  App-based installs should be simple to follow, and I certainly can't fault the Nighthawk app in this respect. It simply lays out the process of unplugging your existing router, cabling through to the primary node and then powering up before starting to pair. By default, this is via a QR code wrapped in plastic around the primary router, so it's important to not throw that out before you're done configuring your new Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 system.

  Like the Orbi RBK13, you're told to set up the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6's satellites at the same time so that the system can discover them as part of set-up, rather than adding them individually once you have the core router set up.

  In my case, the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 required a firmware update before it would start configuration, and this was one weak point in the app-led approach. Not because it didn't work, but because it sat for quite some time with a simple pulsing animation rather than any kind of progress bar to indicate that it was downloading or installing the update at all.

  It's great that Netgear is updating its mesh systems on a regular basis and that updates are available. Making it more transparent when installation is actually happening would be a big plus here.

Performance

Performance

• Wi-Fi 6 should give it an edge
• EasyMesh should work with other mesh routers
• Actual throughput is not great

• View test results and read our full review of the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 System's performance

  The Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 sells itself on a few technology inclusions that you typically don't see in mesh systems at this kind of price point. For a start, it's a Wi-Fi 6 capable unit with the benefits of 802.11ax built in for combined speeds of "up to 1.8Gbps".

  That's a figure you have to unpack a little. Specifically, the 2.4Ghz band on the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 can hit up to 600Mbps, while the shorter range but more powerful 5Ghz band can kick it up to 1.2Gbps. However, you can't access both bands at once from a single device, so Netgear is really talking about whole-of-system capability here.

  While Australian NBN connections can't typically bump above 1Gbps at the time of writing, that does have some impact if you're more keen on mesh systems to fling data around your own home or small office network, because the best you'd theoretically see would be 1.2Gbps across two 5Ghz Wi-Fi 6 devices.

  Even there, you've got to actually have a Wi-Fi 6 device. There's a handful of phones and laptops that do include Wi-Fi 6, but the reality for most users is that you're likely to have a mix of Wi-Fi capable devices in your network.

  

  That's fine, because the Wi-Fi 6 specification is explicitly backwards compatible all the way back to 802.11b if that's your style. You won't see better than your specification can handle, although the fact that the nodes themselves are Wi-Fi 6 could see some small efficiency gains compared to less capable mesh units.

  However, this presented a challenge in my standard test environment, where we've tested every other mesh system to date. My standard rig for testing is an Apple MacBook Pro 16, and Apple hasn't seen fit to include Wi-Fi 6 on any laptop to date. Oddly, it is present on the Apple iPad Pro. No, I don't know why Apple went that way either.

  To give the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 the best chance to represent its capabilities, I therefore split testing duties between the MacBook Pro 16 for RSSI checking and the iPad Pro for Internet speed tests. As I already had the MacBook Pro 16 set up, I also ran speed tests on its Wi-Fi 5 capable hardware… and found differences that were effectively negligible between the two.

  All tests were conducted in my home and around my home office. It's vital to note that Wi-Fi interference reasons can vary depending on your environment, but I'm very well aware of where the dead zones are on my property, and why they exist in the first place.

  In my case, my home office sits in an extension that was built over what used to be an external wall. What once kept the local wildlife out now works very effectively to kill any stray Wi-Fi signals coming through from regular routers, so I've long been a fan of the mesh network approach.

  I tested with a 3-node model of the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6, placing one near my home's NBN 250 HFC connection, another in a room nearby and then the final node in my home office. It's the exact same set-up I've used with every mesh system tested to date.

  First, I measured RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) to check signal sharing and strength using the MacBook Pro. Here's how the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 compared.

  Signal strength was OK between nodes, but not quite what I might have expected from a Wi-Fi 6 system, even if I was only testing on a Wi-Fi 5 capable platform. Having 3 nodes in place definitely helps in my situation, but in a smaller dwelling with less of a dead zone you might be able to get away with just 2 nodes instead.

  Signal strength is one metric, but the detail that will matter to most consumers, and indeed many small businesses, will be how well the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 can manage sharing around Internet connectivity. To test this I used
  Finder's Broadband Speed Test through my Aussie Broadband 250/25 HFC NBN connection.

  Again though, I faced a significant comparison challenge on two fronts. For my earlier mesh tests, I was running on a 100/40 connection, because that was what was available to me at the time. Prior to that, it was a 115/5-at-best Telstra HFC connection. Boiling it down to just the NBN connections, I had to convert the speeds achieved relative to the maximum available on the line at that time to a percentage.

  Here again there was a challenge, and this wasn't Netgear's fault. My testing time was in the middle of NSW school holidays, and HFC is a shared medium. Working out of a home office, I'm all too well aware that my broadband suffers during this time with so many more users streaming media and going online during daylight hours. My broadband speeds were nowhere near capacity during my test times, and I had to accommodate for that as well.

  To get a baseline, I tested first with the MacBook Pro 16 connected directly via ethernet on a gigabit-capable adaptor to gauge an "average" achievable speed over my connection, irrespective of wireless performance. For this test, that averaged out to around 130Mbps down, way below the line's capacity. Uploads were still around the 25Mbps the line should hit, so I didn't average those out.

  With all those caveats in mind, how did the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 compare?

  Predictably for the close and mid-range connections the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 performed well, but in the Wi-Fi dead zone, it didn't compare all that well against units that in some cases only comprised two nodes, not three for better coverage. There was enough signal to work from to be sure, but I expected more.

  There was a larger problem with the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 throughout my review period, however, because this is a system that just adored dropping Wi-Fi connections for specific devices.

  A Google Nest Home Max in one room consistently got kicked from the network, only reconnecting on a reboot, and the same was true for a couple of Linksys Wemo switches in the house. It wasn't just limited to stationary devices either, with an Apple iPad Air 2019 consistently losing connectivity even as other devices around it maintained a link.

  Toggling Wi-Fi on and off fixed that issue every time it cropped up, but I'm placing the blame on the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 there, because experimentally switching to either a Google Nest WiFi or Linksys Velop as a mesh source completely eliminated that problem. Needless to say, for a system that's designed to make your home or small office Wi-Fi better, this shouldn't be an issue in the first place.

  The Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 will also be EasyMesh certified later in the year, which opens up the prospect of working with other mesh-capable gear, such as the D-Link COVR-1102 or Telstra Smart Wi-Fi Booster. However, it's just a prospect at this stage because the unit as tested wasn't yet fully certified, so I couldn't experiment with any cross-brand mesh usage just yet. EasyMesh has a lot of scope to make buying mesh networking gear a lot less painless with less vendor lock-in… but we're not there yet.

Should you buy the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 System?

If you were just to read the box for the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6, you might think that it was a next-generation mesh networking bargain, given its Wi-Fi 6 capabilities and EasyMesh future.

However, the reality of actually using the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 shows that this is a system that needs seriously more data shifting muscle than it's got.

Now, it's always feasible that future firmware upgrades like the one it insisted on at launch could solve some of those woes, but I can only assess what's in front of me at the time of testing. Based on its performance figures and asking price, the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 cannot be recommended.

Pricing and availability

Price

RRP $649

Where to buy

eBay

The Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 is available with two nodes as the MK62 pack for $449, or in a three-node configuration as tested for $649.

Specifications