The Netgear Nighthawk 5G is the first true 5G hotspot in the US. Currently, it's only available to selected AT&T users who are getting it for free. But this spring, it will be available more broadly for $499. Netgear and AT&T haven't provided a spec sheet for the hotspot, and they haven't provided a device for us to test. We haven't even seen one fully turned on, including in Netgear's suite at CES. We did, however, see a device running, with its screen disabled, at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit in December, and have some initial impressions.
Growing Pains
The Nighthawk is about the size of a paperback book. It has "all-day" battery life, according to Netgear senior product manager Minaz Fazal, and it supports up to 20 Wi-Fi devices using 802.11ac networks. The hotspot doesn't have an Ethernet output port because, "5G already runs very hot, and adding Ethernet would have added to that," according to Fazal.
We've so far seen one speed test coming from a 5G user, thanks to a Reddit poster in Indianapolis. His speed came in around 200Mbps, which is similar to the speed we saw in demos in December. With an average of 375 megahertz of millimeter wave spectrum in the top 100 US cities, AT&T should be able to achieve speeds of 2Gbps or greater, but according to our sources, early base station firmware has been holding the carrier back.
The 5G chipset in the Nighthawk 5G is Qualcomm's early X50 unit, which won't support the low-band, long-range national 5G network AT&T intends to set up toward the end of this year. Instead, it only supports short-range, high-speed millimeter wave 5G. Low-band 5G will require Qualcomm's X55 chipset, which will probably appear in a new hotspot later this spring.
Beyond 5G, the Nighthawk has a Qualcomm X24 modem for the best possible 4G speeds—AT&T calls this "5G E," although it isn't actually 5G. The X24 can push speeds of up to 2Gbps on 4G networks, although realistically on US carriers, we should expect speeds of more like 100Mbps.
AT&T's 5G service plan doesn't look much different from 4G to start. For the current testers, it's free to use. Starting this spring, service will cost $70 per month for 15GB of data. That's less expensive than AT&T's current LTE offering, which gives you 10GB for $50. But as the average US home uses 174GB per month, according to Xfinity, this service won't work as a home broadband replacement.
The Nighthawk 5G also costs double what AT&T's Nighthawk M1 hotspot costs, but it lacks the M1's useful Ethernet port, and it's sure to be supplanted soon by 5G hotspots with better speed and service plans. With these limitations, it's hard to recommend.