Netgear Nighthawk M5 Router Review: Wildly Expensive, but Powerful Leave a comment
Since I moved out of my home in Athens, Georgia, in 2017 and into an RV (and later a rural farmhouse), I’ve relied completely on cell broadband for my connectivity. I began off with a Verizon MiFi sizzling spot but rapidly realized it wasn’t sufficient. I purchased an MVNO plan with limitless knowledge on AT&T, and later I added an identical—although with knowledge caps—plan on T-Mobile.
With the exception of the Verizon system, all of the MVNO plans I’ve used require you to carry your personal system. (MVNOs, or cell digital community operators, are carriers that do not have their very own wi-fi networks.) You can technically use your cellphone for this. I’ve, and nonetheless do with Google Fi, but my web expertise took a flip for the higher once I acquired the Netgear Nighthawk M1 router. With an Ethernet port and MIMO antenna ports to enhance reception through a third-party antenna, I used to be in a position to squeeze extra out of the restricted community speeds you get in rural America.
I nonetheless use the M1. In truth I’ll be importing this story utilizing the M1. But after dropping it and cracking the case, I can now not use the Ethernet port. And whereas I just like the Gl.inet Spitz (7/10, WIRED Recommends) I nonetheless have readily available, it lacks a built-in battery, which is helpful while you’re touring.
Enter the Nighthawk M5, the most recent mannequin in Netgear’s 4/5G router line. It’s basically the M1 but with a touchscreen and 5G help. Unfortunately, it will get a value enhance too—it is now a hefty $800. Still, for those who rely on cell broadband for web, it might be well worth the funding.
Rural Broadband Needs a Hot Spot
If you will have good cable, DSL, or fiber web coming to your private home, there is no cause to get a cell sizzling spot. But for those who stay in a rural space the place cell broadband is the one possibility, a cell sizzling spot just like the Nighthawk M5 supplies you with a lot better wi-fi vary round your private home (or RV), far longer battery life, and permits extra units on the community than utilizing your cellphone. You do not want a cell sizzling spot, but it positive is sweet to have.
As with all issues cell, we advise shopping for the Netgear Nighthawk M5 unlocked so you need to use it on no matter networks you like. Most of the listings I’ve seen for the M5 are unlocked, but I anticipate AT&T will ultimately supply a locked model. (It has completed so with all of the earlier Nighthawk M-series routers.) I examined the M5 utilizing an AT&T chip offered by Netgear and a T-Mobile chip I pay for; the M5 is certified to work with AT&T, but it additionally helps T-Mobile.
The finest function of the Nighthawk M5 is that it helps C-band 5G, which provides you higher 5G reception (in case your provider helps C-band). What you do not get is mmWave 5G. That’ll be a damaging for anybody wanting to make use of the M5 in a metropolis the place mmWave is supported. But for rural areas, I believe the shortage of mmWave help is an efficient factor. To use it, the M5 would want to help totally different radio frequencies, which might imply no MIMO antenna help. Since mmWave is nearly nonexistent exterior of cities, I’m comfortable to swap it for higher antenna help for the frequencies that truly can be found in my space.
The M5 within the Wild
The Nighthawk M5 is concerning the measurement of a slice of American cheese and an inch thick. It’s barely bigger and thicker than the M1, although not sufficient that you simply’d discover except they’re facet by facet. Like its predecessors, the M5 is a sq., black plastic hockey puck with an Ethernet port, a USB 3.1 Gen-2 port for charging and tethering, and TS-9 antenna ports on the again of the system.
On prime of the M5 is a small 2.5-inch touchscreen show that provides management over a lot of the settings you will commonly use, together with organising your community and controlling which units are linked. For superior settings you’ll be able to hook up with Netgear’s configuration panel in your browser.
Setting up the M5 through the touchscreen was extremely easy, and I had no points getting linked and personalizing my community information. Once it was arrange, I had no bother connecting any units. I turned to the web-based interface for extra difficult duties like altering the IP vary for units or utilizing a customized DHCP server. There are additionally cell apps for iOS and Android.
