Netgear Nighthawk RS600 router review: False-step futureproofing

If you’re salivating at the thought of signing up to an NBN 2000 plan, you’re going to need two key things. The first is HFC or, better yet, FTTP technology connecting your home to the NBN. And the next critical consideration is device upgrades to get the most out of that extra speed. If you keep up to date with phone and/or tablet upgrades, you should already be sorted on that front.

But simply owning cutting-edge devices won’t cut it for achieving max speeds if you don’t have the right networking equipment. Cue the entry of routers like the Nighthawk RS600, which boasts a futureproofed 10Gbps internet port and WiFi 7 connectivity. Sure, you’ll have to pay for the pleasure, but WiFi 7 networking gear is becoming more common.

Before we get into how the RS600 fares, here’s a look at today’s most popular NBN plans from our comparison engine.

What we like about the Netgear Nighthawk RS600

The first tick for the Nighthawk RS600 router is its design. Height-wise, it’s a shrimpier Xbox Series X at just under 26 centimetres. You could feasibly lay it flat, but it’s designed as a vertical-standing router with internal antennas. Speaking of internals, the RS600 is packing some serious power.

There’s a clearly labelled 10Gbps internet port, which also supports internet aggregation with one of the three gigabit Ethernet ports. The fourth Ethernet LAN port also offers up to 10Gbps speeds, which is handy for a single device that could benefit from faster local file transfers (like network-attached storage). Speaking of network-attached storage, if you don’t have a dedicated device, you can use the RS600 as an impromptu NAS by connecting a compatible hard drive to the USB 3.0 port.

Because of the clearly marked ports on the back, the physical part of initial configuration is straightforward. The same is true of the rest of setup if you download the Nighthawk companion app ahead of installation, which does a great job of guided setup. Once online, the RS600 will automatically install any available firmware updates, which only took a few minutes on my NBN 100 connection.

There’s a web portal to access more advanced settings, but most users should be able to happily stick with the companion app for monitoring and basic updates. One setting you won’t have to go looking for is Quality of Service (QoS), which is a networking feature that intuitively allocates finite internet bandwidth to connected devices to preserve low-latency experiences (e.g. voice/video chatting or online gaming) and streaming at higher resolutions.

Initially, I thought the RS600 didn’t have QoS at all, which would be disappointing for a premium router. But my tests indicate that QoS is an invisible setting that’s permanently on, which is honestly how it should be for most homes (when it works well, which it does here). I tested the QoS by performing uncapped multi-gigabyte downloads on a PlayStation 5 Pro while streaming a mix of 1080p and 4K content, and the RS600 adjusted the PS5 Pro download speeds automatically to preserve the streaming quality.

Streaming is just one example of an everyday internet use case where the RS600 shines. But the same is also true of web browsing, uploading files, wireless and wired local file transfers, voice calls and video chat, as well as latency-sensitive online gaming. Most impressively, the RS600 offered automated backward compatibility for my WiFi printer, which has a knack for not working with modern networking equipment because of its older security standards.

What we dislike about the Netgear Nighthawk RS600

The first detractor of the Netgear Nighthawk RS600 router is its price. While hundreds of dollars cheaper than the $1,000 or so TP-Link Archer GE800, the $799 asking price ain’t exactly cheap, even for WiFi 7 routers. Admittedly, the 18Gbps shared speed potential for its WiFi 7 makes a strong value argument, as do the two 10Gbps Ethernet ports. Conversely, it’s a shame that of the four available LAN ports, only one of them is 10Gbps, while the others are relegated to gigabit speeds instead of 2.5Gbps.

While initial setup is, admittedly, a straightforward process, there is a smoke-and-mirrors effect for how long it takes. There’s an oft-repeated “Wait a few minutes while we make sure that your mobile device is connected” screen that feels more like it is hiding background configuration more than it’s actually doing what it says. All in, it took close to 30 minutes to complete the guided setup, which is about three times longer than modern standards.

It doesn’t help that there was a capital-letter typo in the default password, which I only got around because I tested with all lower-case letters instead of the first-letter capitalised password I was told to use. What’s more frustrating is the end-of-setup push to install Netgear Armor—an Americanised spelling of a security subscription that costs $99.99 per year—and the RS600 confession that Smart Parental Controls cost extra after a 30-day trial. Paywalled functionality isn’t what you want to be greeted with after dropping $800 on a new device.

The Nighthawk companion app is handy for most changes, but with default settings, it also sends more notifications than anyone who dares to subscribe to a few active Discord channels. That’s okay if you prefer a home network that errs more on the side of safety than convenience, but it felt like overkill to me. More concerning was how apparent overzealous security made it impossible to access my NAS when I had it set to a static IP address.

But by far the biggest disappointment was how the RS600 performed in my initial speed tests. If you’ve got a device in range of the speedy 5GHz band or faster-but-shorter-range 6GHz band, speeds are impressive. But step into the 2.4GHz band—either for range or WiFi interference reasons—and the download speeds in particular start to tank. On one hand, I admire the automated willingness of the RS600 to shift wireless bands for (theoretically) better performance. But on the other, the longer-range 2.4GHz band at its worst had an 87% hit to download speeds, which isn’t what I’d expect from a premium Nighthawk router.

Netgear Nighthawk RS600 – Final Thoughts

There’s a lot to like about the Netgear Nighthawk RS600 router, most notably in terms of everyday internet usage and plenty of untapped performance for future internet speeds and products. But in terms of the practicalities of today’s internet landscape, the $800 asking price is closer to extreme than entry-level and makes the missteps resonate larger than they otherwise would. It’s a solid pick if you want a WiFi 7 router, but it’s worth waiting for a sale to bolster the RS600’s overall value.

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