Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 vs ASUS RT-AC66U

The Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 is an example of a great Wi-Fi Extender at its $530 budget.

In the case of the $88 ASUS RT-AC66U, however, we weren't able to find enough data to come to any reliable conclusions. If you're considering buying a Wi-Fi Extender in the $75 range, we encourage you to take a look at some other options.

The Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 has managed to impress reviewers from two reliable and objective sources that conduct their own testing, namely techadvisor.com and Expert Reviews. It did great in their roundups - it earned the "Best For Gamers" title from techadvisor.com, and "Best for gamers on a budget" from Expert Reviews, which marks it as a product that's worth considering.

Moving on to the ASUS RT-AC66U: it was loved by reviewers at Windows Central and MakeUseOf - two reliable sources that conduct objective in-depth testing. In fact, it was their "Ranked 2 out of 6" and "Ranked 3 out of 4", respectively, pointing towards it being a Wi-Fi Extender worth considering.

We analyzed all of the review data that we could find on these two Wi-Fi Extenders. First, we examined sources that tested and scored both of these products - Expert Reviews, CNET, and PCmag favored the ASUS RT-AC66U over the Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500, whereas reviewers at TrustedReviews haven't shown a preference for either.

Then we took a look at which sources liked them the most - we found that the Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 was best received by T3 - it gave it a score of 10, whereas the ASUS RT-AC66U got its highest score of 10 from reviewers at Expert Reviews.

Lastly, we averaged out all of the reviews scores that we could find on these two products and compared them to other Wi-Fi Extenders on the market. We learned that both of them performed far better than most of their competitors - the overall review average earned by Wi-Fi Extenders being 7.1 out of 10, whereas the Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 and ASUS RT-AC66U managed averages of 8.0 and 8.0 points, respectively.

Due to the difference in their prices, however, it's important to keep in mind that a direct Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 vs. ASUS RT-AC66U comparison might not be entirely fair - some sources don't take value for money into account when assigning their scores and therefore have a tendency to rate more premium products better.