When comparing Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 (R7000) vs AmpliFi HD, the Slant community recommends AmpliFi HD for most people. In the question“What are the best wireless routers?” AmpliFi HD is ranked 4th while Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 (R7000) is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose AmpliFi HD is:
The Amplifi HD provides industry leading wireless connectivity coverage of up to 20,000 square feet. The included router and two extenders are best suited for large homes.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Great performance
This AC1900 router tops out at a theoretical 1.9 Gbps of throughput. In real life testing at 5 feet the router’s throughput is 616.8Mbps over the 5 GHz band and 121.6Mbps over the 2.4GHz band. At 140 feet it maintains combined throughput of 252.4 Mbps.
To achieve this result, it uses beamforming technology, which means that the router determines where the device is located and focuses a better signal towards that specific device.
Pro Several custom firmwares readily available
To make greater use of the powerful component hardware, owners can easily flash any of the popular third-party firmwares like TomatoUSB, DD-WRT, AsusWRT and more using the existing upgrade page in the stock web-based control panel.
Pro Excellent USB performance
The Nighthawk achieves file transfer rates of 231.2 Mbps over USB 3.0 and 224 Mbps over USB 2.0. This means that you can connect an external hard disk drive to this router and share a 2 GB file over a Wi-Fi network in just over a minute.
Pro You can specify the amount of bandwidth you wish to dedicate to gaming or video
Nighthawk offers two different types of traffic prioritization tools. Traffic that is sent out by the user can be prioritized for gaming, while incoming traffic can be prioritized for improved video streaming.
Pro Excellent coverage
The Amplifi HD provides industry leading wireless connectivity coverage of up to 20,000 square feet. The included router and two extenders are best suited for large homes.
Pro Great throughput
The Amplifi HD averages around 705 Mbps of throughput at a close distance of 5 feet. At 140 feet, that throughput drops to 177.5 Mbps — more than enough to share a 100 Mbps broadband connection, which is the top speed that majority of computers, phones or tablets can handle.
Pro Better performance through walls than any other mesh network solution
AmpliFi HD uses 3x3 MIMO which allows it to perform better and more consistently in houses with lots of thick/plaster walls than any other mesh network solution.
Pro A snap to set up
To set up the router you just need to download the app and follow the step-by-step guide. The whole process takes a few minutes.
Pro Looks cool
The AmpliFi HD router has a unique design. It is a small white cube, with a round 1.6-inch touchscreen, that can show date, time or your upload and download speeds.
Pro App is intuitive to use
Pro Easy network management through a companion app
It has an intuitive companion app that enables instant setup, includes powerful reporting metrics, and provides easy guest access. If there’s a network problem, you can resolve it via your app. There’s also constant reporting on network security.
Pro A small or midsize home can be covered with just the router
AmpliFi router on its own has a range of 90 feet, which should be more than enough for a small or midsize home.
Cons
Con Good only for smaller homes
Does not work for a 2900 sq ft home with Nighthawk on one side of the house and trying to getting a signal on the other side of the house.
Con Mesh access points don't look as appealing as the router itself
The two mesh access points looks like antennas that you would put on the roof of your home. They are 9.6 inches tall and can take up much space on your outlets.
Con Mesh networks can be overkill in many instances
Mesh networks are a very good choice for bigger homes but they can be overkill in many instances. If you're living in an apartment or smaller home, the Amplifi HD system won't be the best solution.
Con Lacks ability to place device in DMZ
Users may need the ability to specify an IP that needs zero port restrictions and needs to be placed in the DMZ. This isn't an available option on the router; therefore, as a work around you must use port forwarding to open ports 1-65535 for a specific IP address. Hopefully this becomes an option in the future...
Con Currently lacks MU-MIMO for efficient network management
In situations where two people would try to start video streams at the same exact time on different devices, one of them would be prioritized over the other and it would have to wait until the first had buffered a few bits of data for itself. But usually, you won’t notice a slowdown. This technology will be implemented with AmpliFi HD in the nearest future.