Netgear Nighthawk M5 cell router review: Potentially too costly, but good

Ideally suited Costs This day

Because the vivid actuality of 5G begins to own fruit, its many touted makes utilize of are becoming extra definite. A form of capabilities is the creation of a obtain, dwelling-web-style connection almost wherever you would possibly maybe accept a first rate 5G signal. To that cease, Netgear has released the Nighthawk M5 WiFi 6 cell router, which we review here. 

Pocket web 

The Nighthawk M5 is a minute AX1800 instrument, about the scale of a dinky, sq., 250-page e-book, weighs about half a pound, and is aesthetically spartan. A 2.5-hotfoot touchscreen on the tip of the router presents you direct and simple configuration of your community, with but any other frequent alternate recommendations for the cellular connection and other configurations. On the front edge of the instrument there’s a gigabit ethernet LAN port and a USB 3.1 Gen-2 port that pulls double responsibility, charging the M5 and serving as a USB tethering port. Flanking these ports are two lined TS9 ports for exterior cellular antennas, which would be no longer integrated. It has textured, grippy flat facets and a removable soft-contact bottom quilt hiding the instrument’s mercifully replaceable 5040 mAh battery. A SIM card is secured underneath that.

The general equipment is pleasantly compact (for a router), and while I wouldn’t precisely call it pocketable, it’s shut ample that I would possibly maybe lag it largely into my hoodie pocket when challenging tables while out in public with it. That stated, it match somewhat without ache into a compartment in my computer case. Though it’s burly for a hotspot, its dimension-to-efficiency ratio is largely impressive. 

What’s interior 

Its beating heart is a Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G modem chipset, which is one generation older than the very honest accurate third iteration of the Snapdragon X60 modem that the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra carries within its chassis. The X55 is a rather bigger chip built with a 7 nanometer direction of (compared to the X60’s 5nm) that isn’t somewhat as ambiance friendly as its successor. It additionally can’t aggregate mmWave and sub-6 connections admire the X60—that’s, using them simultaneously for higher throughput—truly, the M5 does no longer make stronger an mmWave connection at all. Netgear has forgone this in prefer of adding extra 5G bands in this router. C-Band make stronger is a key characteristic here, because the limits (and runt availability) of mmWave imply that, on the final, this router has extra alternatives for faster throughput, because the C-Band is a lot less inclined to physical impediments, and would possibly honest be grand extra on the market for the come future. 

Characteristic situation 

The good insist a pair of hotspot is that they essentially come with a touchscreen, which manner that, as lengthy as your desires are frequent, you also can honest never accept as true with to fuss with the GUI or an app, which is accurate because I learned the Netgear Cell app to be roughly buggy. Within the case of the Nighthawk M5, you salvage that frequent administration after which some, with configurable band areas, files-and-battery-saving alternate recommendations, output band alternate recommendations, and extra. You’ll silent need to dive into the app or web GUI (I suggest the latter, here) to compose the relaxation extra advanced, but what’s on the market by strategy of the touchscreen is silent extra total than you’d request, and that’s good. 

As a router, the Netgear Nighthawk M5 is rather elemental. It helps Wi-Fi 6—the interference-busting, IoT-friendly usurper protocol meant to take over from the growing old 802.11ac (now renamed Wi-Fi 5) identical old—and by extension it additionally makes utilize of the new Wi-Fi safety identical old WPA 3, which improves the security of your Wi-Fi community most particularly by rendering the complexity of your password largely inappropriate. The M5 additionally entails a few safety parts admire web filters, entry scheduling, and in addition you also can situation up port forwarding/filtering or configure which cellular band areas you’d select to join to, and it even helps VPN Passthrough and UPnP. 

Other than the cellular-particular issues, these are all rather identical old parts for an usual router, but no longer necessarily for a cell hotspot. Thanks to those parts even supposing, you would possibly maybe feasibly utilize the Netgear Nighthawk M5 as your simplest connection to the accept; whether or no longer you would possibly maybe desire to is a wholly varied request, clearly. It’s hard to accept a cell belief that won’t severely throttle your connection after a obvious situation files restrict, and the M5 costs far bigger than routers with significantly better efficiency. Obviously, these are the considerations of a city slicker; for those certain to the road or living in rural areas, web entry is on occasion rarely better than the imperfect used days of dial-up. As 5G coverage expands, alternatively, switching from hardwired web or satellite tv for computer web to cellular-essentially essentially based entry also can honest be the extra honest option, as demonstrated by the moderate 30Mbps download velocity reported on, to illustrate, T-Cell’s standalone 5G community or 53.4Mbps on the faster Non-standalone entry community, by cell analytics agency Open Signal in February of this year.  

Efficiency as a broadband replacement 

To check the Nighthawk M5’s throughput, I ran TCP file transfer assessments from six parts in and outside my dwelling, checking out throughput on the 5GHz band using the Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) protocols, then on the 2.4GHz band using Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n)—the latter is susceptible to be feeble by most of your IoT gadgets, and even supposing it’s most likely to make utilize of Wi-Fi 5 on the 2.4GHz band, most router producers don’t make stronger it. For my client instrument I feeble a Lenovo Yoga (2019) with an Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 NIC, while an M1 MacBook Air, hardwired with a Plugable 2.5Gbps USB-C-to-Ethernet adapter, stood in because the server. Every moderate changed into as soon as taken from six particular person assessments at a given intention. What I learned changed into as soon as a router extra capable than I expected, even supposing it fell attempting being a replacement for the elephantine community apparatus that’s my doomed ISP-supplied modem-router combo and my Eero mesh system.  

Throughput within the identical room because the M5 averaged a formidable 651Mbps using Wi-Fi 5, and 605Mbps with Wi-Fi 6. That is rapid. By comparability, essentially the most attention-grabbing router that outperformed it at this vary changed into as soon as an Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 at 917Mbps, but that’s a immense gaming router supposed for the very most attention-grabbing most likely throughput, and is our excessive-water stamp for most of the comparability checking out in this review.

The M5 outperformed all other routers tested (on raw throughput) at shut vary, along with an Eero Genuine (2nd Technology), which came in at 562Mbps on the Wi-Fi 5 protocol, and a Linksys EA9500 with a imply 380Mbps at 3 feet. The memoir changed as we moved far flung from the M5, even supposing, with its throughput losing by bigger than half on the 5GHz band on my front porch, with one exterior wall and 20 feet of birth air within the intervening intention. None of the opposite routers experienced wherever shut to that colossal a drop in efficiency here or wherever in my checking out intention on the 5GHz band, but it changed into as soon as in a position to cease above 100Mbps in every single intention I tested interior my dwelling, while it failed to achieve my yard with usable signal (essentially the most attention-grabbing capability I’ve managed to salvage any form of first rate signal abet there would possibly be to bounce it with a mesh system. 

On the 2.4GHz band, the M5 changed into as soon as passable indoors, but slower than the final other routers tested on most assessments except in my basement and upstairs space, the place it no less than outperformed the Asus router, which has unhappy ranged efficiency on the 2.4GHz band, no less than the place the Wi-Fi 4 protocol is anxious. 

That’s the intra-community efficiency—passable, but no longer stellar, in an limitless intention with many partitions; but in a extra appropriate ambiance, is a 5G connection legit ample to totally replace a wired connection to an ISP? To check this, I ran a 2-hour connection check at testmy.accept, situation to poll my connection every 5 minutes, as a lot as 24 occasions. The outcome changed into as soon as a connection that did on occasion dip underneath 100Mbps, but come what would possibly averaged 120.71Mbps, while my DSL connection never made it above 50Mbps (I’m currently paying for a 100Mbps belief). As I expected, there changed into as soon as grand extra deviation in throughput on the 5G downlink, but it changed into as soon as rather loads faster than my rather creeping DSL, and that isn’t even using a C-Band connection, which as far as I will hiss, is no longer on the market at my dwelling. 

In gaming, I wasn’t in a position to join to other gamers on my Nintendo Swap—I kept receiving a NAT traversing error—but I learned it surprisingly serviceable for some on-the-scuttle Counter Strike: Global Offensive play; even supposing, with ping inserting out around 100-140ms, you with out a doubt won’t desire to make utilize of it for competitive play. In accordance to Netgear, activating Universal Slide ’n’ Play fixes the Swap NAT insist, but I changed into as soon as unfortunately no longer in a position to salvage a particular result on making that substitute. No online MarioKart for me, then. 

Total, as a standalone entry level, the Nighthawk M5 would possibly maybe legitimately defend its maintain, but I wouldn’t suggest it in a dwelling any bigger than, philosophize 1,000 sq. feet, and potentially no longer for serious avid gamers. Except… 

Fresh, I changed my modem-router combo with the M5 and ran it on the head of my community, with Eero handling all of the intra-community routing. After a day of checking out—streaming 4K or HD video on three Apple TVs, paying attention to music on the three HomePods Mini positioned around my dwelling, taking half in video games, procuring the accept and swapping recordsdata between computers—I learned the Nighthawk M5 bigger than merely capable: It handled the responsibility of offering web entry to my total community with aplomb. Of direction, my community seemed extra obtain, with fewer lengthy pauses and failed requests from shipshape speakers than I accept as true with by strategy of my identical old ISP. If no longer for the price stamp, I would possibly strongly consider replacing my DSL belief with an files belief using this router. More on that option, later. 

Net to-scuttle 

Next, I pleased my wife to come abet with me to a within attain brewery to try the router out within the wild. Whereas we had been there, linked to the router with two telephones, an iPad, and three laptops, we streamed video, music, and surfed the accept, and the Nighthawk M5 didn’t omit a beat. I conducted some extra throughput checking out, and noticed some rather necessary throughput drops versus the same checking out stipulations at dwelling, but being interior a brewery, it’s likely there changed into as soon as necessary interference. Mild, throughput during iPerf checking out on the 5GHz band changed into as soon as successfully in far extra than 300Mbps, and my downlink bandwidth changed into as soon as ample to stream at-least-HD video on multiple gadgets. Given this journey, it’s obvious why Netgear insists on calling this a cell router, rather than a hotspot—it can maybe maybe without ache be feeble by an total office working together in a public intention without counting on the normally tremulous wi-fi connection of a industrial or every using their very maintain non-public hotspots.  

Battery life 

Netgear claims as a lot as 13 hours of battery before you’ll want to recharge the Nighthawk M5; I tested this assertion, and learned it to be no broad memoir. Of direction, it truly took 14 hours of inspiring utilize for me to totally spend the 5040mAh battery. That changed into as soon as with multiple gadgets linked, normally streaming video or music, and rather fixed web procuring. In standby mode, the M5 battery life appears to stretch out into infinity, as it simplest lost a single percentage level over a 3-day length wherein I left it sitting untouched on a shelf––I asked Netgear about this and changed into as soon as told that in their checking out, at pure lazy, the M5 lasted 14 days, inserting it within the territory of used characteristic telephones for battery life. 

There isn’t loads on the market to check this instrument to accurate now, but the Inseego 5G MiFi M2000, which boasts grand of the identical characteristic situation and compatibility, has about the identical battery score (5050mAh, in this case) and runs with the identical chipset. It claims all-day battery life, but that’s rather subjective, while a PC Magazine review establish aside it at 11 hours. For the capabilities of this review, we’ll grab it’s the same ample no longer to with out a doubt subject.  

Backside line 

I came far flung from the Nighthawk M5 extraordinarily impressed. Whereas I don’t mediate 5G is somewhat in a position to be a elephantine-blown replacement to a dwelling web connection for most other folks, this half of hardware is an even explore into a future free from the frustrations of our colossal broadband company cartels. The finest obstacle now appears to be the lumbering telecom giants, whose entry plans simply haven’t caught as a lot as the place the hardware appears to be. For the time being, plans are corresponding to the imperfect used days of cell telephones, with files caps and throttling and overage costs aplenty, with some offering limitless dwelling-web-style plans, but how they correlate to 5G coverage is a thriller to me, as simply getting a 5G instrument doesn’t appear to be essentially the most attention-grabbing prerequisite (I attempted). 

Where the Netgear Nighthawk M5 if fact be told falls flat is its designate, even supposing: for $700, you also need to purchase a very good router or mesh system—heck, for one-third of that designate you also can salvage an limitless router for most desires, and if you occur to’re the thrifty model, grab up a feeble mesh system for even less. Obviously, the M5 doesn’t hit the identical market, but it doesn’t truly salvage successfully if you occur to gaze at other 5G cell hotspots. Of direction, if you occur to’re on AT&T, the predecessor MR5100 itself is almost $200 less despite being, for all intents and capabilities, the identical router. Must you wanted mmWave, the Inseego MiFi M2100 5G UW offers that (albeit without the probability for a C-Band connection) for a hair underneath $400. Now not like those gadgets, alternatively, the MR5200 is carrier agnostic, and that C-Band compatibility is going to peek grand extra utilize than an mmWave connection; so on steadiness, it will be price the extra $200-$300 to any other folks. As they philosophize, even supposing, it’s too successfully off for my blood.