- I am Andru Edwards and you're watching Gear Live.
(upbeat music)
The next generation of home wifi is upon us
with the release of WiFi 6.
Netgear's new Nighthawk AX8 router is here to
bring into the new age of faster and more
consistent wifi speeds with all the benefits
that WiFi 6 has to offer.
In this episode, I tell you all about
the Netgear Nighthawk AX8 and why you might
want to throw your current router away
and upgrade to this.
What is going on Tech Squad?
Andrew Edwards here, Editor in Chief of
Gearlive.com.
If you are into tech and gadgets,
feel free to hit the subscribe button
down below along with the bell notification
icon so you don't miss any future videos.
As I mentioned, today we're talking
the brand new Netgear Nighthawk AX8
WiFi 6 Router.
Like I said in the open, WiFi 6 is here.
It is available now.
It's the next generation of wifi.
So, not only will I tell you about the
new AX8 router from Netgear,
but I will also tell you about what
WiFi 6 can do for you in your home.
Before I get started, a big shout-out
to Netgear for sending over the AX8 router
and for sponsoring this video.
The most important aspects of any router
are speed and range.
And Netgear has your back on both.
Starting out with speed, the Netgear AX8 router
features up to 6 gigabits of speed
with 8-stream connectivity.
This is going to make 4K or even 8K
streaming a breeze as long as your internet
service provider is giving you a fast
enough connection.
At this rate, with those 8 wifi streams
you are getting 4x more device capacity
than you were getting with previous
conventional routers.
With more and more internet connected
devices being used in our home,
having a router that can manage all of
these connections is becoming more
and more critical as time goes on.
The AX8 has over 1.8 GHz quad-core processor
and 2 USB 3.0 ports
for connected hard drives or other devices
to the router, itself.
And this basically allows you set up your own
NAS devices, Network Attached Storage,
basically using any USB external hard drive.
When it comes to range, the Nighthawk AX8's
unique design is what makes the range so good.
There are four headed antennas
in the wings of the router
and they are pre optimized
for the best possible performance.
To give you an example, here in my home
I have a little over 2,400 of square feet.
And I usually use a mesh wifi system,
which is basically multiple nodes,
multiple routers spread out throughout the house
in order to avoid any sort of dead spots.
My expectation moving back to testing
a single router was that dead spots
would come back and connectivity would be
hit or miss in certain areas of the house.
But, nope!
Not with the AX8.
One router and I am able to access a
strong consistent speedy wifi anywhere
I go in my home.
The AX8 is an absolute beast when it comes
to specs but it is also important to have
great software on a router.
This router works with the Nighthawk app
which lets you keep watch on connected devices,
quickly change settings, and even set up
parental controls.
The Nighthawk AX8 is also compatible with
both Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant and
that means you are able to control
your router using just your voice, as well.
Netgear has also made security a priority
on the AX8.
So, you can get automatic security updates
which is always downloaded in the latest
security patches as soon as they're available.
It also supports VPN clients, so you can
protect your privacy and anonymize your data
at the router level.
Now there are times where you want to have
your devices wired.
I have a bunch of wired devices in my home.
In fact, I had my home rewired
about a year ago to support 10 gigabit
ethernet speed inside the house.
My internet connection was two gigabits
up and down and internally
we've got 10 Gigs available.
So, on my home network I have roughly
105 internet connection devices.
Not all of them are wifi.
I would say about half are actually
wired into the home network.
And the Netgear AX8 has cool support
for wired devices, as well.
On back, you'll find six gigabit ports,
which allows you to connect more wired devices
for faster file transfer
and uninterrupted connections.
Now what's cool here is that you can actually
aggregate to the ports and combine them to
double the speed on your home network.
You can also aggregate ports for your
internet connection so if you have
multi gig speeds like I do.
Again, I have two gigabit internet speeds
coming into the home.
I can actually aggregate two of the one
gigabit ports to allow for my multi gig
internet connection to be supported
right on the router.
So we have established that the
Netgear Nighthawk AX8 is a strong
and powerful router, but let's talk
about WiFi 6 for a moment and what
that brings to the table.
First, WiFi 6 is significantly faster
than the previous generation of wifi.
This is what we were talking about earlier
about the inclusion of WiFi 6 in this router
is going to keep things speedy fast and
you'll notice the difference.
Next, WiFi 6 will be less congested.
Due to a change with how data is transmitted,
WiFi 6 can handle more simultaneous connections
with more efficiency, meaning it can handle
more devices without choking.
And finally, WiFi 6 can even improve
your battery life.
As long as you're using a wifi cisco
compatible device, you'll see improved
battery life when connected to a
WiFi 6 router.
Since data is transmitted faster and further
your device doesn't have to work as hard
to maintain a connection and that means
the battery life will be better.
Now WiFi 6 was the one thing that I'd say
that I really couldn't test as much because
I literally only have a few devices that
support WiFi 6 and they're all versions
of the same device.
That device being the Samsung Galaxy S10e,
Samsung Galaxy s10 and the
Samsung Galaxy s10 plus.
These are the only devices
shipping here in the US, right now
that I can get my hands on
that support WiFi 6.
But even just comparing speeds
when I was on the older router,
to the new Netgear AX8, you can see
a vast difference in speed.
So, with its WiFi 6 functionality,
extended range, the useful app,
voice control, VPN support and
antenna design the Netgear Nighthawk AX8
is a solid choice if you're looking to
bring a next generation router
into your home.
If you are worried about all your
older devices, don't be.
Just like all other generations of wifi,
WiFi 6 is also backwards compatible.
It will work with any devices that support
802.11a, b, g, n or to 802.11ac.
By the way, I did mention the
Samsung Galaxy s10 family of devices.
If you want to know more about
those phones, I will leave links to
my review up here in a card
along with down in the description below
if you are looking to pick up a new
smart phone that supports the new
WiFi 6 standards.
Any questions or comments you have
about the Netgear AX8 or
WiFi 6, in general, drop them
down in the comments below
and I will meet you there
for further discussion.
Thank you so much for watching.
As always, guys, I appreciate your support.
I'm Andru Edwards and I
will catch you in the next video.
(upbeat music)