NETGEAR Tri Band RAX200 Router Announced

NIGHTHAWK TRI-BAND RAX200
Fastest WiFi with up to 10.8Gbps combined wireless speed
12-Streams Tri-Band WiFi
OFDMA - 4X increased network capacity for more deviceMulti-Gig Ethernet port 2.5G
Five (5) Gigabit Ethernet ports
1.8GHz quad-core processor

This router is in addition to the previously announced RAX120

The RAX200 is set to be vailable in May 2019 for $600(US)

https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-routers/RAX200.aspx

 

It’s an RAX80 with an extra 5Ghz band and a 2.5 Gb Eth port.

Broadcom:
The RAX80 (AX88U is the Asus equivalent) and RAX200 (GT-AX11000 is the Asus equivalent) are effectively the same WiFi chipset and CPU wise.

Qualcomm:
The RAX120 is the better one this generation analogous to the R7800 of old. Better CPU/WiFi chipset and a 5 Gb Eth port compared to the RAX80/200.

Not sure why they are charging and arm and a leg ($600) for it, internals (CPU/WiFi chipset) are the same as Asus AX11000 which costs $150 less and has more user options/advanced features like using the router as a VPN client for ExpressVPN etc, more granular WiFi controls, better traffic monitoring etc.

TLDR: Asus AX11000 is the same as this internally and has longer warranty and more user features and a better buy at $450 vs $600 for the RAX200. If you really want better hardware it’s the Qualcomm based RAX120.

 

With a 802.11ax router, I assume it makes a lot of sense to dedicate one 5Ghz band for 802.11ax devices (when they're out), and another 5Ghz band for omnipresent 802.11ac devices, and that would allow the 802.11ax devices to utilize the protocol's improvements to its fullest - or am I wrong, and there's nothing bad about 802.11ac & 802.11ax devices coexisting on a single 5Ghz band?

 

On paper it makes sense but in real use I’ve found with over 20 devices for example the R7800 (Dual Band) was still outperforming the R8500 (Tri Band) in regular use with 3-4 people streaming with one person gaming and what not, without much latency impact. Remember even if people have dozens of devices, “actively communicating” devices that require significant bandwidth are generally only 3-4 at a time in a home environment. By that I mean even if you have 4 laptops/4 Tablets and 4 Phones in a 4 people home, each person is actively using only 1 device, rest are idling and only sending intermittent data, and you probably aren’t watching TV while streaming on a mobile device or gaming. Even with a AC/AX mix on one 5Ghz band I wouldnt expect more than a minor increase in latency / impact vs a triband. Might make bigger impact in a more active user environment like a shop/cafe or something.

 

For Smart Connected Homes a Tri Band router could make a bit of an argument in favor of it but a $600 price tag kills it.

My R7800 has all my smart devices on the 2.4 ghz band while the phones,tablets,notebooks and desktop are on 5ghz band and channel 48.

Any rumors on when the Intel AX200 or Killer 1650i will start dribbling out either on ebay,amazon or computer customizers?

 

Not yet but I suspect within the next month because this month's Killer INF Driver package lists the 1650i along with the 1550 driver folder. They use the same driver.

 

FCC Approval Date for the AX200 aka 1650x was March 5th (Jan 28 for the AX201 aka 1650i), so probably within the next two months, most likely next month for unofficial sales. Will show up on eBay and the likes first due contracted factories illegally peddling extra production/occasionally defective units before more official sales channels open up a month or two after. Just like before.

I got my 9260ac on eBay almost 2 weeks into unofficial sales. Kinda risky as sometimes you may be sold factory test-fail units but for $20-30 may be worth it vs Newegg which was selling via a Chinese retailer for like $60 in the early weeks, if you need it quick. Probably similar situation with the new cards.

 

Yeah,I bought a very early Intel 9260 on ebay from China and it is not as good as the 2 Killer 1550 I got right from Rivet a while later.

My 9260 never achieves a theoretical data rate on inSSIDer of 1733 Mbps no matter the distance or closeness to the R7800 router.Even line of sight 6 feet away the best I've seen has been 1300 Mbps.I passed it on to some else free of charge after acquiring another that worked perfectly.

The 2 Killer 1550 I have regularly see 1733 Mbps from 10 feet line of sight on a notebook and 15+ feet going through a sheet rock wall in a desktop.

As for the Killer software;I usually give it a look and then stop it from loading until a newer version is released and given a look.

Over the years I've had several engineering samples of cards and they all worked well.

 

Here's an ebay listing for an RAX200 auction

Ship date is after release date

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NETGEAR-Ni...950928&hash=item2f2e44e5e8:g:zNwAAOSwfTlcnvgX