If you’re a semi-regular Gizmodo reader, you’ve probably seen me bleating on in the past about how important having good wi-fi in your house is. A good router can fix all of your life’s problems. You’ve gotta spend a bit, sure, but it’s worth it. Netgear’s new D8500 takes all the good stuff from its excellent Nighthawk X8 router and adds an internal modem for everything from ADSL to the NBN.
The new Netgear Nighthawk X8 AC5300 Tri-Band WiFi VDSL/ADSL Modem Router (D8500) — holy shit, what a name — combines the tri-band 802.11ac Wave 2 cred of the original Nighthawk X8 router with an embedded ADSL/ASDL2/ADSL2+/VDSL/VDSL2 modem. Unless you’re on cable, this new modem router will handle your Aussie internet connection — everything from lowly copper ADSL to the best possible fibre to the premises installation.
The Nighthawk X8 is a ridiculously powerful router — it has three separate Wi-Fi networks, one for long-range 2.4GHz devices and older gadgets, and two separate 5GHz channels for modern laptops and smart TVs and high-bandwidth wireless devices like the new Google Chromecast Ultra. Like other high-end routers it also has USB ports for you to plug your printers or network-friendly storage into, too.
There’s a whole bunch of fancy techy things going on under the hood like beamforming — that uses the best possible antenna to blast data at your gadgets rather than all the antennas shooting off wildly — and MU-MIMO — which uses separate channels to throw data back and forth simultaneously, speeding everything up nicely — but all you need to know is that the D8500 is stupid fast.
Prepare your wallet to be absolutely, utterly and permanently disfigured by the D8500’s price, though. Are you sitting down? OK. Good. It’s $799.99.
Oof. [Netgear]
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