To evaluate the performance of the Netgear Nighthawk MK62 mesh system, we connected the router to our operator box to which we connected a laptop PC via an adapter to the 2.5 Gb/s socket. We transfer a file (a disk image) of 4.73 GB from the first portable PC to a second equipped with a chip Wi-Fi 6 Intel AX200, but also to a fixed desktop PC located upstairs and connected to a Gigabyte GC-WBAX200 PCIe card with an external antenna, and now updated with the chip Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 compatible wifi 6E.
In wifi 6 on the 5 GHz band, this Netgear Nighthawk offers an average speed of 620 Mb/s when receiving our 4.73 GB file. A transfer carried out in 1 min, i.e. an average speed of 77.5 Mb/s The transmission speed of this same file is slightly lower with 581 Mb/s.
The measurement at 1 m from the satellite is as expected at least halved. The modules sharing the bandwidth, 600 Mb/s are therefore theoretically available at the satellite level. In practice, this therefore gives at best 266 Mb/s, i.e. an average speed of 33.25 Mb/s in sending and 231 Mb/s in reception (28.8 Mb/s). Note that the wifi card of our fixed PC prefers to connect to the nearest satellite rather than to the router, which nevertheless offers better speeds.
On the furthest point n°5, the Nighthawk MK62 makes it possible to obtain speeds of 175 Mb/s in reception and 131 Mb/s in transmission, without instability. In practice, it is quite possible to view content in 1080p from your favorite platform.
On the 2.4 GHz band, the speeds are oddly of the same order of magnitude at 1 m from the router and as much from the satellite. On paper, the router should normally offer 600 Mb/s, and the satellite 300 Mb/s. However, the difference does not appear in our measurements. A problem that is not very disabling, because the 2.4 GHz band is now mainly used for connected objects and for the compatibility of old wifi cards.
The remote antenna of our fixed PC makes it possible to make the most of the 2.4 GHz band with 186 Mb/s on average in reception and 155 Mb/s in transmission.
On our point n°5, the Nighthawk MK62 is doing honorably with 110 Mb/s in reception and 58 Mb/s in transmission. These speeds once again allow you to take full advantage of streaming services. On the other hand, sending files is slow (7.25 MB/s).
The Nighthawk MK62 is in direct competition with theOrbi RBK352 which has the same characteristics, but is down about 100 Mb/s on all our measurement points. The compactness offered by the Nighthawk MK62 allows Netgear less latitude on the orientation of the antennas, their size and therefore overall performance.