Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 System Review

Since I moved out of my parents’ house I’ve had problems with my internet connection. First my roommate refused to pay for a decent plan, next I got stuck with ADSL in apartments from the 60s, and now that I finally have access to private FTTB in an apartment built this millennium, the layout of my place is thwarting me. Who puts internet access upstairs anyway?

It just goes to show that the NBN and what you can actually get from it is entirely luck of the draw. If you’re like me and lucky enough to get a good connection type, or access to private fibre then there’s still going to be something else trying to hold those download speeds down. 

That’s probably why you’re here reading this right? For all intents and purposes your internet should be fast but there’s something missing and you’re hoping that a mesh WiFi network like Netgear’s Nighthawk will fill that void. Or maybe your connection is awful and you’re trying to make it less so - either way this mesh network system may be helpful for you but that will depend on what you’re currently working with.

Lucked Out

Everyone’s home and the internet solutions that come along with it will be different, simply because there are too many possible variants that may affect your connection. In order to understand why the Nighthawk may work for you let me start with some context on my set up.

As previously mentioned I lucked out by having an FTTB connection on TPG’s private fibre network which means that congestion is far less prevalent for my building than for those on typical NBN. There’s also only about six apartments in the complex connected to the fibre, so you’d think that my speeds should be giving Roadrunner a run for his money.

Despite hitting the veritable jackpot in the Sydney Apartment Living Internet Lottery, I still deal with interference coming from major electronics, concrete walls, and stupidly placed internet ports around the flat. I’m always fighting a battle to get the absolute best speeds consistently across the entire apartment, and across different devices.

I’ve tried a few options to get consistent speeds, so far I’ve had promising results using an Ethernet PowerLine adapter - read more about that in my review here. While it helped it wasn’t exactly a holistic solution to the download disparities across the apartment, instead I tend to just use the 5GHz WiFi on my network as the main connection.

This is where mesh networks generally kick in to help. They’re able to fill WiFi blackspots and provide a larger radius of coverage than traditional single modem/router networks.

Here are some speed tests I took in different locations through my apartment using the modem that came with my TPG connection.

For reference the modem lives in the bedroom, the study is two doors down and downstairs is measured as the furthest possible distance from the modem without walking out the door.

Here are speed tests in the same locations after setting up the Nighthawk mesh WiFi.

Out of Luck

The Nighthawk Mesh WiFi system has dual-band capacity, but there is no obvious way to select between bands. Instead the connection is determined automatically by the system, which in this case is its downfall.

On average my laptop would reach 47% of my maximum speeds on 2.4GHz, 77% on 5GHz and 63% using the Nighthawk system. My phone achieved 31%, 89% and 8%, respectively. If we’re looking for consistency across devices then these numbers are quite damning. 

Note that the device does use beamforming, so arguably the system may have decided that my phone didn't need crazy fast speeds and instead concentrated on getting that sweet WiFi juice to my laptop. Regardless, during tests the 5GHz connection continued to consistently be the fastest option for both laptop and phone browsing, but let’s delve a little deeper.

Comparing speeds on my laptop, there was a download speed increase of between 12Mbps and 18Mbps from the 2.4GHz connection. While compared to the 5GHz band, the Nighthawk decreased speeds by 50Mbps in some instances and increased by up to 6Mbps in others.

On my OPPO Find X2 Pro however download speeds on 2.4GHz ranged between 4Mbps and 69Mbps, and between 85Mbps and 92Mbps on 5GHz. After switching to the Nighthawk system these ranged from 5Mbps to just 12Mbps. That’s up to 87Mbps slower using the mesh WiFi as opposed to just using the provider supplied modem.

Overall the Nighthawk made a significant improvement in download speeds from a 2.4GHz connection, but when compared to the speeds on the 5GHz band the results are murkier. Some rooms are faster while others are dramatically slower, my laptop faired well but the speeds on my phone were maxing out at an NBN 12 level when I’m on an NBN 100.

Final Thoughts

The results are a mixed bag, which makes it so difficult to recommend the system. There are a lot of pluses - the set up took ten minutes and was simple to follow, there’s a range of analytical data available on the app such as; in depth network statuses for WiFi connections around you, signal strength analysis and channel interference. But none of these matter if the system can’t do what it says it will and create faster, more reliable connections.

As someone striving for consistency across locations and devices the Netgear Nighthawk Mesh WiFi 6 system simply didn’t live up to expectations. Four out of six times I would be better off just using the 5GHz connection on my TPG modem that cost $129, rather than paying $649 for faster browsing in a couple locations.

If I didn’t have the option of using the 5GHz WiFi band then I would certainly be singing a different tune. These tests showed that the Nighthawk Mesh WiFi system improved speeds four out of six times when compared to the 2.4GHz band.

If you’ve already got a dual band modem, and no real WiFi blackspots to speak of then the Nighthawk is unlikely to make a difference significant enough to warrant spending $650. On the other hand if you have a singular band modem you’ll be likely to see better speeds around 66% of the time.

Still though, $650 is a lot of money to spend on a product that in some cases can only achieve 5% of your maximum speeds - even if that is an improvement from what you’re currently getting.

Anula Wiwatowska

Offsite Editorial Lead | Instagram

Anula is the Off-Site Editorial Lead for WhistleOut Australia, and an award winning tech journalist. She has been writing about the Australian telco industry, and consumer technology for over five years, and has been known to tell her Uber driver which phone they should upgrade to next.

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