Netgear has hit the ground running at CES 2018 with two new entries in its Nighthawk line. Those include the new Nighthawk Pro XR500 router, as well as the Nighthawk Pro SX10 LAN switch – both of which are targeted right at gamers.
In terms of features, the Nighthawk Pro XR500 router packs in a number of gamer-centric features. The highlight here is a Gaming Dashboard that allows you to "view real-time bandwidth utilization by device, ping delays, and many other parameters," Netgear says. The router also supports MU-MIMO for simultaneous streaming to multiple devices without impacting performance. Netgear also claims its Geo Filter feature can help you cut out lag by prioritizing connections to the servers closest to you while online gaming. This is all in addition to 802.11ac WiFi, four gigabit ethernet ports, and a dual-core 1.7GHz processor to handle everything.
The Nighthawk Pro SX10 gaming switch, aside from looking a bit like a spaceship, packs a similar batch of features meant for gamers. Of the eight total ports, Netgear says two can automatically adapt to provide up to 10Gbps performance. You also get access to the same Gaming Dashboard in order to keep an eye on the switch's performance, as well as a number of features meant to help you keep latency as low as possible while gaming. The switch can work hand-in-hand with the Nighthawk Pro XR500 router, and there are even RGB lighting controls for each of the lights on the switch.
If you're in the market for a new router or switch, both Nighthawk Pro products are now available. Just be prepared to drop some serious cash. The Nighthawk Pro XR500 router is available for $299.99. The Nighthawk Pro SX10 switch is no cheaper, also coming in at $299.99.
