Nighthawk R7000P AC2300

I've been using the Nighthawk ROUTER- AC2300 for the past few months and figured and figured I'd write down my thoughts.

Model: R7000P 

NIGHTHAWK SMART WIFI ROUTER

Hardware specs:

• CPU: Broadcom BCM4708C0 dual-core ARM Cortex A9 @ 1 GHz
• Ram:256 MB
• Flash:128 MB
• Radio:2.4GHz  BCM4360KMLG 3x3 11abgnac SoC  Skyworks SKY85319-11 2.4 GHz front end (x3)
• Radio:5GHz BCM4365E 3x3 11abgnac SoC w/ MU-MIMO- QPF4519 Quorvo 5 GHz front end (x3)
• Switch: In BCM4708C0

It is definitely not the fastest router on the market but it has most of the same features that routers that cost twice as much have. So I think that for this price it's an excellent value with plenty of features, speed and range. What caught my eye was the fact it was built with gaming, streaming,  mobile devices in mind and  works with Amazon Alexa & the Google Assistant. My favorite feature of this router has to be MU-MIMO technology. This new feature is not always available in more expensive routers which sets this router far ahead of it's competition.MU-MIMO allows multiple users and multiple devises connect to the router at the same time and each one is a priority and maintains full speed and range without sharing bandwidth with others.The Nighthawk AC2300 Smart WiFi Router has Beamforming+, built-in high-powered amplifiers, and external antennas. It’s fast and reliable for me at both short and long ranges. It does a great job of distributing a stronger signal into the back bed rooms, so the XBox 1 can get apps and I can watch YouTube and Netflix. There are 7 bright LED lights to show a good/normal signal and it works well right out of the box, with no hard tweaking required.

For parents it has "Circle with Disney" It is a way for parents to manage content and time online, on any connected device. There is  smart parental controls you can easily  set time limits on daily internet time for apps, and websites or even pause internet by device or by user with the press of a button. 

I connected my new Steam Link to the Nighthawk. I picked the 5 GHz WiFi band over the  2.4 GHz band. The 5 GHz band dose have a shorter range, but there is less interference from  neighbors and other wireless devices. I got really good resuilts. I will go into my steam link exprices at later date. I would say the only draw back to this router is that it is really big and the antennas require a lot of space. I would definitely recommend this router to anyone with a larger home. The Nighthawk has plenty of power to cover large spaces as far I can see.

Things to remember

All wireless routers have AC in their name, followed by a number. AC naming convention doesn’t tell you the real-life speed of the wireless network that you get when buying one WiFi router or another.

MU-MIMO works only in the 5GHz Wi-Fi band. There may not be many devices that can take advantage of MU-MIMO  today, plus if you live in a small apartment or do most of your browsing from the same room, MU-MIMO won’t provide any extra benefits over a non MU-MIMO router.

Wireless vs. Wired connection – a wired Ethernet connection may eliminate the possibility of wireless interference.

Differences in hardware phones and tablets have less sophisticated WiFi antennas than say a laptop or PC.

The strength of the Nighthawk R7000P wireless signal will be affected by distance, and walls, floors, metal, and electronic equipment. So make sure that the router is in open, in well-ventilated areas, as its performance will be reduced if it is overheating.

The 802.11a/n standard allows for further range, the 5.8Ghz frequency is quickly blocked by solid objects, severely cutting down your range.