Netgear is announcing one of the cheapest routers ever, and it comes with support for Wi-Fi 6. The router is called the Nighthawk AX4, and it is an entry-level router. It offers Wi-Fi 6 support, four gigabit Ethernet ports, and up to 3Gbps of data transmission and it costs $199. Of course, it isn’t a cheap router, but it is cheaper by hundreds of dollars than most of the Wi-Fi 6 routers on the market so far.
Wi-Fi 6 support is what makes the Nighthawk AX4 stand out. Wi-Fi 6 is the latest generation of the Wi-Fi standard, and it’s most important feature is its ability to offer more efficient communication with devices, which ought to lead to better performance on busy networks. In the past few months, Wi-Fi 6 routers and devices have begun to be rolled out.
However, most of the routers released with Wi-Fi 6 have been pretty high-end because it’s new tech. With the release of the AX4, the new standard should begin to spread.
TP-LINK had also said that some more affordable Wi-Fi 6 routers are on their way. We haven’t seen them anyway. The Nighthawk AX4, on the other hand, will hit the market later this month.
Other than the Wi-Fi 6 feature, the Nighthawk AX4 doesn’t have anything particularly splashy. The AX4 is a basic router, and it should be able to handle regular networking needs around a home which according to Netgear includes gaming and streaming 4K video. However, the AX4 is nowhere near the excessive amounts of bandwidth available in Netgear’s last Wi-Fi 6 router, the Nighthawk Tri-Band AX12, which included an additional wireless radio and 10.8 Gbps of total data transmission.
