Netgear is using CES to debut its first Wi-Fi 6E router, which is capable of speeds up to 10.8Gbps.
The Nighthawk RAXE500 Tri-band WiFi is slated to go on sale this quarter for $599. The product also takes advantage of the new 6GHz band, which sets Wi-Fi 6E devices apart from the standard Wi-Fi 6.
If you’re not familiar, Wi-Fi 6 devices were originally designed to use the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz bands. But last year, the FCC approved an upgrade by enabling the technology to also use spectrum in the 6GHz band.
The industry has since been incorporating the additional spectrum with new routers certified as Wi-Fi 6E. On Monday, Netgear introduced its own model with the Nighthawk RAXE500, which the company is marketing to households suffering from Wi-Fi network congestion problems.
“WiFi 6E resolves these congestion issues by adding previously unavailable 6GHz Wi-Fi spectrum that can be used to broadcast Wi-Fi signals and connect to more devices with faster speeds and reliability,” the company says.
The new router can offer a home Wi-Fi network up to a 200% boost in capacity. The 6GHz band also promises to offer less interference, and thus lower latency, according to Netgear’s own benchmarks.
In total, the router comes with 12 streams, which are equally divided among the 6GHz, 5GHz, and 2.4GHz bands. The hardware also comes with five Gigabit Ethernet ports, along with two USB 3.0 ports.
The other feature onboard is a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, which is designed to optimize the speeds on the router. According to Netgear, the hardware can even stream 8K content. The company plans on selling the Nighthawk RAXE500 through online resellers.