Netgear R7000 vs R7000P

[Takuan]

Hi all.

 

I need some help in deciding to buy either the Netgear R7000 and the newer model Netgear R7000P. I have read "all" available reviews, tests and comparisons out there, but I am still as far away from a clear decision, as I was when going into finding out which is better. On paper, they are extremely similar, but have some major differences such as the P model supporting MU-MIMO and the non-P model does not. P model is newer about 3 years than the non-P model. They perform about the same etc. on paper and in the reviews and comparisons I have read. What I am looking for here, is some real life experiences from you guys. Trusting a paid review is never a good idea, and most reviews and/or tests of the routers don't really touch on all features or more likely not the ones I am after. I am not looking for alternative ideas or suggestions. I am only looking for info on these two routers in order to figure out which is the better one.

 

My scenario is a 4 story building having devices placed on 2nd through 4th floor. No brick walls, all wood (no concrete). Router will be placed at 4th floor, and all devices on this floor is connected via cable. Devices such as computers (laptops), tablets, phones and a TV are connected using Wi-Fi distributed on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Not important I guess, but just included to give you an idea. The router will be placed on a wall with antennas pointing downwards. It will be placed in a centered room, thus the router will be placed more or less in the center of the house but on 4th floor. Using other older routers for testing purposes I have been able to connect to the TV on 2nd floor and watch Netflix without too much of a problem. Also had a wireless repeater setup to make sure a good signal reached the TV. But is not planning to use this setup after purchasing the new R7000 or R7000P router, as they should be able to reach no problem.

 

I purchased the Netgear R7800 X4S version of this router a few months ago (March), with all the new gimmicks etc. but I ran into one problem after another. Disconnections not only on Wi-Fi but also on LAN. Very annoying, the router was returned and I have since learned this model has a lot of such problems, thus not limited to my unit. I have now spent months on researching and reading/watching reviews and reading forums, but I am still not sure. The price is one thing, as the R7000 is a bit cheaper (a little more than 2/3 of the R7000P's price) and who actually uses MU-MIMO these days? I have not been able to find any certainty in the compatibility of any of our devices being compatible with MU-MIMO. In hind sight, the X4S model used MU-MIMO (or was capable) but had disconnections all the time. Thus I might be reluctant to pay the extra money for MU-MIMO as it seems to have some unresolved issues and may simply be a waste of money. The on-paper better Wi-Fi performance (speed) of the R7000P compared to the R7000 seems more theoretical than anything else.

 

In the house is one laptop used for gaming using 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and about 2 more laptops used for anything other than gaming. A bunch of phones and tablets and a TV. That is it. I put the gaming machine on the 5GHz band and the tablets also. Phones and TV goes on the 2.4GHz. Thought it neet to distribute them. The range is my main concern, as I don't want a repetition of the problems we had with the X4S model.

 

Anyway, I hope my introduction above has given you enough info to understand what I am after? I simply want to know which of the two is better in accordance with your experience.

 

Thank you very much.

[PeterPorker3]

26 minutes ago, Takuan said:

Hi all.

 

I need some help in deciding to buy either the Netgear R7000 and the newer model Netgear R7000P. I have read "all" available reviews, tests and comparisons out there, but I am still as far away from a clear decision, as I was when going into finding out which is better. On paper, they are extremely similar, but have some major differences such as the P model supporting MU-MIMO and the non-P model does not. P model is newer about 3 years than the non-P model. They perform about the same etc. on paper and in the reviews and comparisons I have read. What I am looking for here, is some real life experiences from you guys. Trusting a paid review is never a good idea, and most reviews and/or tests of the routers don't really touch on all features or more likely not the ones I am after. I am not looking for alternative ideas or suggestions. I am only looking for info on these two routers in order to figure out which is the better one.

 

My scenario is a 4 story building having devices placed on 2nd through 4th floor. No brick walls, all wood (no concrete). Router will be placed at 4th floor, and all devices on this floor is connected via cable. Devices such as computers (laptops), tablets, phones and a TV are connected using Wi-Fi distributed on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Not important I guess, but just included to give you an idea. The router will be placed on a wall with antennas pointing downwards. It will be placed in a centered room, thus the router will be placed more or less in the center of the house but on 4th floor. Using other older routers for testing purposes I have been able to connect to the TV on 2nd floor and watch Netflix without too much of a problem. Also had a wireless repeater setup to make sure a good signal reached the TV. But is not planning to use this setup after purchasing the new R7000 or R7000P router, as they should be able to reach no problem.

 

I purchased the Netgear R7800 X4S version of this router a few months ago (March), with all the new gimmicks etc. but I ran into one problem after another. Disconnections not only on Wi-Fi but also on LAN. Very annoying, the router was returned and I have since learned this model has a lot of such problems, thus not limited to my unit. I have now spent months on researching and reading/watching reviews and reading forums, but I am still not sure. The price is one thing, as the R7000 is a bit cheaper (a little more than 2/3 of the R7000P's price) and who actually uses MU-MIMO these days? I have not been able to find any certainty in the compatibility of any of our devices being compatible with MU-MIMO. In hind sight, the X4S model used MU-MIMO (or was capable) but had disconnections all the time. Thus I might be reluctant to pay the extra money for MU-MIMO as it seems to have some unresolved issues and may simply be a waste of money. The on-paper better Wi-Fi performance (speed) of the R7000P compared to the R7000 seems more theoretical than anything else.

 

In the house is one laptop used for gaming using 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and about 2 more laptops used for anything other than gaming. A bunch of phones and tablets and a TV. That is it. I put the gaming machine on the 5GHz band and the tablets also. Phones and TV goes on the 2.4GHz. Thought it neet to distribute them. The range is my main concern, as I don't want a repetition of the problems we had with the X4S model.

 

Anyway, I hope my introduction above has given you enough info to understand what I am after? I simply want to know which of the two is better in accordance with your experience.

 

Thank you very much.

To be honest, I think you have the wrong idea. A 4 store building is going to be too much for any piece of garbage router (cheap or expensive). MU-MIMU is a nice feature, but at this scale you should be looking at an business grade access point, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Unifi-Ap-AC-Long-Range/dp/B015PRCBBI/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=ubiquity&qid=1561254873&s=electronics&sr=1-5

 

These are going to be faster, more reliable, and last longer. However, these are a little different than regular routers. They don't do any "routing", they are just hosing a wifi network. You will need something else to handle that. You could use a "vpn firewall" like this one: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-SafeStream-TL-R600VPN-throughput-Concurrent/dp/B007B60SCG/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=firewall&qid=1561254958&s=electronics&sr=1-8

 

These are basically just routers without the wifi and a few other business features. You could of course use an old router/existing router and just disable it's built in router. The setup for this kind of equipment is actually easier than you think. The firewall I sent should be ready to go as soon as you get it, if not the instructions will get you set up. The access point is pretty easy to set up too, just get the ubiquity app and it will automatically find the device and let you set it up.

 

Another thing to point out is the access point I sent is an older version that does not have MU-MIMU or anything super fancy. I personally own one of these and It have great range despite it being a lower-end model and my house's unusually long layout, and it handles many people streaming and gaming with no problem at all. But is newer features like mu-mimu are important to you, you could get the nwer "pro" versions of these, but they are more expensive.

[Takuan]

Are any of you who actually have either of these routers willing to share your experiences? I would very much appreciate it, especially in regard to the range of either of them as well as any possible connection issues. Thank you.

[DogKnight]

All I can really do is give you my experience with similar devices. I make use of a Netgear R8500 as my primary router inside my house. In my garage / home office, I have a Netgear EX6200 access point. 

I have found this combination to work well for my setup. While being single story, the garage is separated by a brick wall and I required wired Ethernet for a few devices. 

The setup works well and I can max out the gigabit LAN speeds over the wireless link. 

It's hard to quantify the benefit of MU-MIMO as most of the time there is other performance increases when moving to a new router. 

However this setup works well handling multiple iPhones, a few computers, NAS access and Netflix streaming simultaneously. 

The router is definitely pricey, but I am very happy with the performance. And features like port aggregation are a nice to have. 

[Takuan]

Thank you very much for all your input. I appreciate it.