When comparing Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 (R7000) vs Linksys WRT1900ACS, the Slant community recommends Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 (R7000) for most people. In the question“What are the best wireless routers?” Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 (R7000) is ranked 9th while Linksys WRT1900ACS is ranked 19th. The most important reason people chose Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 (R7000) is:
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.
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 Customization is possible using OpenWRT
This router has extensive customization options (enhanced QoS settings, WiFi optimization and traffic shaping, among other things). This is thanks to the use of OpenWRT, which is an open-source, Linux-based OS.
Pro Remote management via app
This router comes with a monitoring/management companion app for smartphones and tablets. This enables network managers to take actions remotely if needed, such as content blocking or device banning.
Pro Impressive hardware
This router had a 1.6 GHz dual-core CPU and it comes with 512MB of RAM. Its dual-band electronics make it capable of handling four independent lanes of data traffic.
Pro Great for office spaces
You can create a separate, password-protected WiFi network for up to 50 people and easily share the password. This means that you can have a more secure network at your office space. And if some of your guests are eating up all of your traffic, you can prioritize devices that need the most speed.
Pro Quick and easy setup
Once you have successfully connected your PC to the router, open any browser and go to 192.168.1.1. Everything else from there is self-explanatory.
Pro Excellent performance
This router's performance is very good: it has a peak performance of 1.9 Gbps on both bands (theoretical). It can move up to 600 Mbps in 2.4-GHz mode and up to 1,300 Mbps in 5-GHz mode. In real life testing at a close range the WRT1900ACS delivers a total throughput of 515 Mbps across its both bands.
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 Lacks MU-MIMO for efficient network management
This can become an issue when you're streaming video or gaming online with multiple devices. With MU-MIMO the router would be able to stream multiple lanes of traffic simultaneously. Routers without MU-MIMO have to send data to each device in turn.
Con High price
While the router has blazingly fast download and upload speeds, at $229 it could be slightly pricey for average home networking customers.
Con Hefty design
This router's dimensions are 9.7 x 7.6 x 2.0 inches, which make it quite big when compared to competitors.