Netgear on Tuesday launched the new Nighthawk Pro Gaming WiFi Router (XR500) at an event in Bengaluru. The company had unveiled the gaming-oriented router in January, at CES 2018. The new product leverages its software to optimise network connections by stabilising ping, reducing lag spikes, and keeps users "always on" with it wired and wireless connectivity. The Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming WiFi Router (XR500) is available for sale via authorised Netgear partners, other reseller channels, as well as, e-commerce portals. It has been is priced at Rs. 23,000.
The Nighthawk Pro Gaming WiFi Router (XR500) features such as a dual-core 1.7GHz processor, Quad-stream Wave 2 Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO, and four external high-power antennas. Netgear claims that the MU-MIMO Wi-Fi streams simultaneously to multiple devices on the same network so users can get a smooth gameplay without affecting each other's performance. The company also claims that the processor supports more devices for better 4K streaming, VR gaming, and surfing.
Netgear has partnered with Netduma for the software. The DumaOS includes Gaming Dashboard, Geo Filter, Quality of Service (QoS), and Network Monitoring capabilities. In the Gaming Dashboard, users can view real-time bandwidth utilisation by the device, ping delays, and other parameters on a single screen. The Geo Filter helps in fixing gaming lags by limiting distance to servers or other players, getting a guaranteed local connection, and creating black/ white lists of preferred servers. Meanwhile, Quality of Service (QoS) enables users to prioritise gaming devices and allocate bandwidth by the device to eliminate lag due to queuing at the ISP network.
Additionally, Nighthawk Pro Gaming WiFi Router (XR500) comes with Gaming VPN that protects user's network identity, prevents DDoS attacks, and more. The Network Monitor lets users check on bandwidth-hogging devices and identify the applications that could be causing lag.
The new router features four-port Gigabit switch for making wired connections. It also sports two USB 3.0 ports which can be used to share USB storage over the network. In terms of storage, the Nighthawk Pro Gaming WiFi Router (XR500) sports 256MB flash storage and 512MB of RAM.
"At Netgear we have worked tirelessly to deliver best-in-class performance, customisation and ease-of-use for the ultimate gaming experience. The new Nighthawk Pro Gaming WiFi Router (XR500) is an extension of the customisation and development of modern technological solutions. It is designed to meet the specialised needs of the gamers, the LAN switch comes equipped with dedicated features designed to eliminate laggy gameplay." said Marthesh Nagendra, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Netgear.
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