Netgear’s new tri-band, six-antenna router is designed for homes with 9 or more Wi-Fi devices

By Konrad Krawczyk June 26, 2014

netgears new tri band six antenna router designed homes 9 devices netgear 1 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Netgear has revealed its newest home networking creation. Dubbed the Nighthawk X6, the company’s latest router is designed for modern households, many of which have not one or two, but a multitude of devices sharing the same Internet connection.

Netgear developed the Nighthawk X6 with this in mind. Though dual band 2.4GHz and 5GHz routers are not strangers to the world of home networking, Netgear claims that two band routers aren’t equipped to handle the network speed and stability challenges posed today by households equipped with a multitude of Wi-Fi enabled devices.

So, the Nighthawk X6 is outfitted with a second 5GHz band, which, Netgear says, will allow the router to maintain high and stable connection speeds, eliminating drop offs in performance while many devices are connected simultaneously. Netgear also packed in six antennas onto the Nighthawk X6, which is partly where the router gets its name from. Under the hood is a dual-core 1GHz CPU powering the router, supplemented by a trio of offload processors.

Aside from the extra 5GHz band and six antennas, the Nighthawk X6 sports a pair of USB ports. One is 2.0, and the other is of the 3.0 variety. The ports allow you to plug in external hard drives into the Nighthawk X6, which, combined with the company’s ReadySHARE Vault software, permits you to perform automatic backups of whatever is on your network, and save them to the hard drive(s) that you connect to the router. Aside from USB, the Netgear Nighthawk X6 also has five Ethernet ports. A switch on the back of the Nighthawk X6 will allow you to shut off the router’s LED lights, in case you find them too distracting.

Each Nighthawk X6 router will come pre-configured with a unique network password, so there’s no risk of someone hijacking your network and hogging your bandwidth if you forget to set one up, which is a problem that is more common than you might think.

The Netgear Nighthawk X6 can be pre-ordered now, costs $299.99, and will begin shipping July 11.

Editors' Recommendations

Konrad Krawczyk

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…

Computing

Best SSD deals: Samsung 990 Pro discounts

Samsung 990 PRO SSD over a dark background.

As recently as a decade ago, you would most likely be using HDDs for storage, which tend to be quite slow and take up an absolute tone of space, even the smaller form factor ones made for laptops. If you wanted something a bit more fancy, like a modern M.2 SSD, you'd be paying a huge premium even for smaller sizes like 256GB and 512GB. Luckily there have been huge leaps in technology and manufacturing, and these days you can get your hands on the best SSDs for a pretty good price. Not only does that mean that you can save space, but you can also load Windows and your applications a lot faster, something we expect to see in the best gaming PCs and gaming laptops. If you need a new SSD to upgrade a gaming rig, check out RAM deals and GPU deals as well. If you need something that can swap between multiple devices, you'll prefer checking out external hard drive deals.
Our favorite SSD deal

If you're looking for something that's top-of-the-line and won't break the bank, then the Samsung 990 PRO is probably the way to go. It has the newer PCIe 4.0 standard, which makes it a great PS5 SSD if you can get it a heatsink, and it has a read speed of 7450 Mbps and a write speed of 6900 Mbps, so it's lightning fast. The 2TB model here has been discounted down to just $190 from the original $250, so you're saving a pretty solid $60 in the process. There is a 1TB version that's cheaper if you don't think you need that much, as well as a 4TB model that's great for those who have a tendency to hoard data.

Computing

Best Surface Laptop and Surface Pro deals: From $523

Microsoft Surface Go 3 sitting on table.

While the MacBook Air has become synonymous with being a high-quality and lightweight laptop, it does mean that you'd have to be part of the Apple ecosystem. Luckily, there are some great alternatives out there, and Microsoft's Surface lineup is made specifically to compete with MacBook deals. While the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 aren't quite here yet, at least at the consumer level, you can still grab the latest models with some pretty great deals. That's why we've gone out and looked for our favorite Surface Laptop and Surface Pro deals and compiled them all here for you to save you the hassle, although if these don't quite do it for you, be sure to check out other great laptop deals and 2-in-1 laptop deals as well.
Microsoft Surface Go 3 -- $523, was $550

Functioning as a 2-in-1 laptop that can switch between tablet mode and laptop mode, the Microsoft Surface Go 3 won't have trouble dealing with basic tasks as it's equipped with the Intel Pentium Gold 6500Y processor and 8GB of RAM. The 10.5-inch touchscreen with 1920 x 1080 resolution is bright and colorful, and its 128GB SSD is more than enough for your documents. The Microsoft Surface Go 3 ships with Windows 11 Home in Mode, so you can start using it as soon as you unbox it. The device also promises up to 11 hours of battery life before requiring a recharge.

Computing

Best monitor deals: Gaming, office, curved, OLED and more

Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor Monitor

Whether you're grabbing yourself one of these desktop computer deals or just want to upgrade to a new monitor, you'll be happy to know that the market has really boomed in the past few years. Not only have monitors gotten cheaper, but they're also packed with more features and specs for the same price. Also, it's worth noting that even if you're running a laptop, connecting a second screen can be really handy for work or even gaming, so don't completely ignore these deals if you are using a laptop.

As such, now is a great time to pick a monitor up since even the best monitors have some sort of deal on them, including some standout Samsung monitor deals. These will pair well with gaming PC deals, especially the 4K monitors and ultrawide monitors near the bottom of this list.
Best monitor deals