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Introduction and design
The Netgear Nighthawk X4 is a quad-stream 802.11ac router promising faster wireless speeds than we've seen so far from triple-stream routers. Technically, 802.11ac allows for up to eight separate 5GHz wireless streams, each of which can send data at 433Mb/sec. With three antennas, a router can offer a theoretical maximum of 1300Mb/sec, as long as a connected client similarly has a triple-stream 802.11ac receiver.
This speed is already far superior to the maximum transfer rate of 802.11n wireless, but with the extra channel, you should expect even faster speeds, up to 1733Mb/sec.
Combined with improved 600 Mb/sec 802.11n wireless, its powerful 1.4GHz dual-core processor, twin USB ports and an eSATA port, the Nighthawk X4 is a seriously powerful piece of home networking kit. But it carries a high premium – retailing for £230 (around $360, or AU$460) it's one of the priciest 802.11ac routers you can buy (though you can, as ever, get it cheaper if you shop around online). So, is the extra speed and performance worth it?
Design
The Nighthawk X4 looks almost exactly like the original Nighthawk model, save for the addition of an extra antenna. It uses the same black, angled design, with only a few subtle differences. The antennas are now positioned around the unit, possibly for better performance, and this gives the router a look almost like a robot, with arms on each side.
It stands out, and is a whole lot better than the boring box designs that have been endlessly recycled by networking firms for what seems like forever.
As before there are a large number of LEDs at the front, 13 in total, to relay status information to the user. Most of the time, it feels like overkill, with so many lights flashing on and off, but they can be turned off, which is preferable if you want to leave the Nighthawk X4 in a corner and not get in the way.
Inside, the 1.4GHz processor is quite a boost from the 1GHz processor inside the original Nighthawk. Additionally, there's a separate "offload" processor that runs at 500MHz to handle additional functions.
Of course, as well as the four 5GHz 802.11ac streams, the Nighthawk X4 works just fine if your laptop or USB wireless adaptor only supports fewer streams, 802.11n, or earlier standards. The AC2350 figure is rounded up from the 1733Mb/sec of 802.11ac combined with the 600Mb/sec enhanced 802.11n performance.
A subtle change has been made to the positioning of the USB 3.0 ports, which are both now located on the left-hand side, with an eSATA port on the right. With three storage expansion options, Netgear is describing the Nighthawk X4 as Network Storage Ready on the packaging, quite an interesting claim, since the file management functionality built into most router software is often severely lacking.
Software and features
The software is just about the same as before. Netgear's interface has a rather sparse look to it, not helped by the prevalence of white in its visual design. Compared with the software on the Asus RT-AC68U, it looks plain boring, but it's certainly not lacking in features.
One new addition is an improved QoS setting, which can run a bandwidth check on speedtest.net directly from the router, and can retrieve device information from a database to make a better judgment on the speeds it should allocate.
The ReadyShare section, for managing clients and shares on connected USB devices, is fairly good too, although it still doesn't quite match a dedicated NAS.
However, while power users like to tinker with every setting to squeeze as much performance as possible from routers, in Netgear's own survey, the company found, on average, only 6% of users ever bother to log in to a router's on-board software. While the number is likely to be higher for more savvy users who purchase a high-end model such as the Nighthawk X4, the overall focus is now on mobile and desktop apps that can be used to control a router, as it's so much easier than having to log in via a browser.
Netgear's Genie software fills this requirement, with versions for iOS and Android as well as Windows desktop software. It doesn't provide access to every setting – users who are more likely to use mobile software to control a router might not need access to its advanced features, but for general use it provides much of the same information.
It's okay, but there's a lot of room for improvement. The iOS version crashed once in use, and like the on-board software, doesn't have a particularly pleasing aesthetic style. It looks a bit naff, in truth. There's so much untapped potential for networking companies to create amazing mobile apps, it's a shame Netgear (and others) haven't put in the real effort to make them work.
But looks can be deceiving and the on-board software is still reasonably good. Setup is particularly simple. You log in by entering www.routerlogin.net into a browser, and the router automatically configures itself, including downloading any firmware updates.
Testing and performance
In order to see any benefit from the 4x4 antenna configuration in the Nighthawk X4, you need a client device that also supports four 802.11ac streams. As of writing the number of laptops that support the faster 802.11ac speed is zero, and likewise, there are no USB adaptors. No doubt, in time new laptops will appear that support quad-channel 802.11ac, but right now most laptops can only transfer at 3x3 speeds, or lower.
In order to test the faster speed, Netgear sent me a pair of Nighthawk X4 routers. With one connected via Ethernet to my server, a second router configured as a bridge, and a client connected to that via Ethernet, I could create a 4x4 802.11ac wireless network, and test the speed accurately by moving the routers different distances from one another.
Given the lack of any quad-capable client hardware, I also tested the Nighthawk X4 with a standard 3x3 receiver, as well as the 2.4GHz 802.11n speed.
I used a pair of Macs for testing, mainly because of some great software called Wi-Fi Perf. This program runs on both computers, sending data directly between the two over a network. With this tool, there's no chance the speed of the storage device could bottleneck the performance level, as with a standard file transfer.
Wireless performance
The results are encouraging for 4x4 802.11ac wireless, with a clear performance advantage over 3x3 speeds. This is most noticeable at medium distance, where many 802.11ac routers slow down from the fast speeds you get at short range. Even at long range, there's a speed improvement.
Netgear Nighthawk X4 802.11ac Wireless Performance (Client to server, 4x4)
- 1 metre - 764 Mb/sec
- 5 metres - 603 Mb/sec
- 10 metres - 183 Mb/sec
Netgear Nighthawk X4 802.11ac Wireless Performance (Server to client, 4x4)
- 1 metre - 738 Mb/sec
- 5 metres - 669 Mb/sec
- 10 metres - 364 Mb/sec
But even when using a standard 3x3 receiver, performance is very good, beating many other 802.11ac routers, although it does drop off slightly at long range when sending data from the client to the server.
Netgear Nighthawk X4 802.11ac Wireless Performance (Client to server, 3x3)
- 1 metre - 731 Mb/sec
- 5 metres - 286 Mb/sec
- 10 metres - 78 Mb/sec
Netgear Nighthawk X4 802.11ac Wireless Performance (Server to client, 3x3)
- 1 metre - 711 Mb/sec
- 5 metres - 426 Mb/sec
- 10 metres - 395 Mb/sec
Although the Nighthawk X4 fully supports 5GHz 802.11n wireless networking, it doesn't allow you to specifically create a 5GHz 802.11n wireless network. Due to that, these results are only on the slower 2.4GHz frequency, which from observing results of previous routers, seems to work better at long range than 5GHz 802.11n. The Nighthawk X4 performs fairly well here, but it isn't quite as impressive as the 802.11ac results.
Netgear Nighthawk X4 802.11n 2.4GHz Wireless Performance (Client to server)
- 1 metre - 138 Mb/sec
- 5 metres - 110 Mb/sec
- 10 metres - 62 Mb/sec
Netgear Nighthawk X4 802.11n 2.4GHz Wireless Performance (Server to client)
- 1 metre - 138 Mb/sec
- 5 metres - 98 Mb/sec
- 10 metres - 48 Mb/sec
These results show that quad-stream offers a performance boost over triple-stream 802.11ac, albeit one that's relatively slim. In fact, the 4x4 speeds are the best wireless transfer rates I've ever recorded, by a small margin.
In fact, even when using the Nighthawk X4 with a 3x3 receiver, the performance is better than many other routers. That could be down to the faster processor handling packets better. The real gain from the extra channel and antenna seems to be at mid and long range.
But the overall gain isn't huge. Generally, after testing dozens of 802.11ac routers, I usually expect to see real-world performance of (very roughly) 600Mb/sec from triple-stream 802.11ac. The Nighthawk X4 is excellent then, at short range. However, I can't ignore the fact that right now, nothing can take advantage of 4x4 802.11ac, unless you're using two routers, as I have for testing.
USB speeds
Moving on to the performance from the USB ports, I connected a 2.5-inch hard disk to a USB 3.0 port on the Nighthawk X4 and ran Blackmagic Design Disk Speed Test, as well as transferred a 5GB folder of large files.
The speeds seemed to vary slightly in Disk Speed Test, starting around 15MB/sec both reading and writing, although after a while this leapt up to 32.3MB/sec write and 89.3MB/sec read. The folder transfer completed in less than a minute. It took a lot longer with a folder of smaller files though, which puts the processor under heavier load. But these are very good results, given that until recently, many USB ports on older 802.11n routers couldn't even manage speeds beyond 5MB/sec.
As one final test I measured the Nighthawk X4's power consumption when idle, then when transferring files via USB. At idle, the router consumed 5.2W of power, but with the bus-powered drive connected it jumped to 24.3W. These results are what I expected to see.
Verdict
We liked
The Nighthawk X4 is capable of delivering record-breaking wireless speeds over 802.11ac, and is a further example of what a great improvement this new wireless standard is over previous generations. The performance at range is also a lot better.
At triple-stream speeds, the Nighthawk X4 is a great performer too, matching or beating most of its competitors.
The style of the router is excellent, with the inclusion of fast eSATA and USB 3.0 ports, and its striking black angled design. This matters to a lot of people, given the fact that a router is often placed in a big open space in their home.
We disliked
A year ago, 802.11ac was a white-hot technology, with high prices across the board. It's a bit more mature now though, and you can pick up routers for less than £100 (around $150, or AU$200), which makes the Nighthawk X4 seem really expensive. A little too much maybe, for what amounts to fairly slim performance improvements.
The real killer feature it offers is only supported by a small number of devices right now. While I'm sure more laptops will arrive with built-in 4x4 wireless throughout 2015, as of the time of writing it's only something scribbled onto the box rather than a truly useful asset.
And while I beat nearly every networking company with this same stick, the software really could do with a more modern appearance and design.
Final verdict
Although the Nighthawk X4 is undoubtedly fast, and worth considering if you don't mind spending considerably more for the very fastest possible performance, I'd hesitate to recommend it over any other router on the market. Its biggest advantage is a feature that, right now, nobody can make use of, improves speeds only by a small margin, but adds considerably to the price.
If you're reading this article in 2016, then there will hopefully be plenty of laptops and USB adaptors that support quad-channel 802.11ac to choose from, rendering this point somewhat moot. But it seems like the market for 802.11ac wireless kit will be fragmented with some devices getting slower speeds, given that routers seem to be improving performance faster than clients can catch up.
And the speed difference isn't all that great anyway. The Nighthawk X4 is fast, but it isn't a huge leap ahead of most 3x3 routers, some of which can be found for less than half the price.
Although the software could be slightly better, it's solid and the USB 3.0 performance is excellent. It adds to the feeling that the Nighthawk X4 deserves a tentative recommendation, but I'd argue that if you're desperate for faster 802.11ac it might make sense to wait and see how good the quad-channel routers from other networking firms are in the coming months.
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