{"id":7204,"date":"2019-09-15T22:35:35","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T14:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/?p=7204"},"modified":"2019-09-15T22:35:35","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T14:35:35","slug":"netgear-nighthawk-m2-fastest-lte-router-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/netgear-nighthawk-m2-fastest-lte-router-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Netgear Nighthawk M2 – Fastest LTE Router Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, Netgear introduced the\u00a0Nighthawk M2,\u00a0a new mobile hotspot that transforms UMTS or LTE-based Internet access into a Wi-Fi hotspot to provide wireless network for multiple devices such as smartphones, tablets or laptops.\u00a0The successor of the Nighthawk M1<\/a> supports\u00a0LTE Cat.\u00a020<\/a>\u00a0and in theory allows data transfer rates of up to 2 Gbit\/s downstream and 150 Mbit\/s upstream.<\/p>\n

\"Netgear<\/p>\n

In practice, there are hardly any 4G networks supporting such high data transfer rates.\u00a0Is still worth the purchase of the mobile hotspot, which is not a bargain with a purchase?\u00a0We had the opportunity to put the heavy square device to a thorough test.<\/p>\n

\"Netgear<\/p>\n

The Netgear Nighthawk M2 mobile router<\/a><\/strong> comes in a convenient package.\u00a0In addition to the router itself, there is the battery and a quick start guide with the power supply and connecting cable. The supplied battery has a capacity of 5040 mAh.\u00a0The\u00a0WLAN standards 802.11a, b and g are supported.\u00a0The 4G mobile hotspot<\/a> is working on 2.4 and 5 GHz.\u00a0The Netgear M2 has a USB-A and USB-C as well as an Ethernet interface.\u00a0There are also connection options for external antennas (Buy Netgear Nighthawk M2 External Antenna<\/a>).\u00a0The LAN port can be used to use a wired Internet access instead of the mobile modem and to redistribute it via WLAN.<\/p>\n

\"Netgear<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Good workmanship and shiny surface<\/h3>\n

The processing of the Netgear 4G mobile\u00a0router<\/a>\u00a0is impeccable.\u00a0You can argue about the shiny surface.\u00a0Here you can see very clear fingerprints very quickly, especially since the Nighthawk M2 has a touch screen, so it regularly gets into the embarrassment of touching the display.\u00a0The complete initial setup can also be made via the touch-sensitive screen.\u00a0A separate app or the web-based access to the M2 pocket WiFi router menu is possible, but not mandatory.<\/p>\n

\"Netgear<\/p>\n

We have set up the router right on the\u00a0touchscreen\u00a0made, which was not easy.\u00a0For one thing, the virtual keyboard is quite small due to the display size.\u00a0So you always catch the wrong letter when typing.\u00a0In addition, the screen does not respond as well to inputs as used by higher quality smartphones.\u00a0If the setup of a network identifier (SSID) and the associated password worked quite well, then setting a (somewhat complicated) administrator password was not possible on the second attempt, so we skipped this step and later have made on the configuration via the Netgear Mobile App.<\/p>\n

\"Netgear<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the initial setup, the Netgear Nighthawk M2 mobile hotspot was immediately ready for use.\u00a0The configuration for SIM cards is made automatically.\u00a0As soon as the MiFi was set up, the availability of a firmware update was already displayed.\u00a0We have installed this over the existing LTE data connection.\u00a0In the process, around 160 MB of data was transferred.\u00a0What changes the update brings is unknown.\u00a0The internet connection via the Netgear Nighthawk M2 was very stable in the test for several hours.\u00a0It did not matter if we used an Apple iPhone XS Max, a Samsung Galaxy S10+<\/a> or an Apple MacBook Pro.<\/p>\n

\"Netgear<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The display of the router shows the current data consumption, the ID of the SIM card provider and the network technology used.\u00a0There is also a small S-meter, which provides information about the quality of mobile reception.\u00a0The battery level is also displayed.\u00a0By default, you can also find the names of the\u00a0Wi-Fi hotspot\u00a0and the password\u00a0via the touchscreen.\u00a0This display can be deactivated if desired.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Numerous settings are possible via the touchscreen menu.\u00a0First, there is a WPS function.\u00a0Then the user can limit the hotspot to one of the two WLAN frequency ranges (2.4 or 5 GHz).\u00a0The connected devices can be displayed and, for example, you can specify whether the hotspot is put into standby mode after a period of non-use to save battery capacity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Netgear<\/p>\n

Other features<\/h3>\n

Other possibilities are the restriction of Wi-Fi hotspots to a smaller reception area in order to save battery capacity or the automatic WLAN detach when\u00a0USB tethering\u00a0is used.\u00a0The brightness of the display can be adjusted and the user can decide whether he wants to use the Internet access only in the home network or in international roaming.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SMS messages\u00a0can be\u00a0sent and received via the Netgear Nighthawk M2.\u00a0As we have already mentioned regarding the initial setup: The touch screen does not always respond reliably to inputs and the virtual keyboard is quite small.\u00a0Apart from that, the menu is functional and intuitive to use.<\/p>\n

\"Netgear<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Good performance even in mobile operation<\/h3>\n

With a\u00a0SIM card\u00a0from Vodafone,\u00a0we have achieved\u00a0data transfer rates of up to 110 Mbps in the downstream and 61 Mbps in the upstream.\u00a0This is far from the peak speeds that the Netgear Nighthawk M2 allows, but is more or less equivalent to what the mobile telecom Internet access does with the smartphone. Even in mobile mode, such as a Wi-Fi hotspot in the car, the router performed well in the test.\u00a0At speed 120Mbps on the highway, the performance of Internet access was still fine.\u00a0Compared to a WLAN adapter such as the Huawei E8377 CarFi<\/a>, the Netgear device earns more scores by the possibility to connect an outdoor LTE antenna<\/a>.\u00a0In regions with bad LTE coverage, a magnetic base antenna<\/a> on the car roof provides a significant improvement in reception, which also affects the performance of Internet access.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Conclusion: Good hotspot with slight weaknesses<\/h3>\n

Although Netgear Nighthawk M2 is well-made and provides stable Internet access for up to 20 devices, flaws such as the only moderately good touchscreen provides bad experience for users. For almost half of the purchase price, the Netgear Nighthawk M1 is available, which supports data transfer rates of up to 1 GBit\/s via LTE, more than what the nets usually give out, so this model offers the much better price\/performance ratio.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, Netgear introduced the\u00a0Nighthawk M2,\u00a0a new mobile hotspot that transforms UMTS or LTE-based Internet access into a Wi-Fi hotspot to provide wireless network for multiple devices such as smartphones, tablets or laptops.\u00a0The successor of the Nighthawk M1 supports\u00a0LTE Cat.\u00a020\u00a0and in theory allows data transfer rates of up to 2 Gbit\/s downstream and 150 … Continue reading Netgear Nighthawk M2 – Fastest LTE Router Test<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694,3339,35],"tags":[2731,4204,4527,4206,4526,4529,2259,4205,4528],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7205,"href":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7204\/revisions\/7205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4gltemall.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}