The NETGEAR Nighthawk RS300 is a tri-band Wi-Fi 7 router with 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands. It has a WAN port rated for 2.5Gbps, two 2.5Gbps LAN ports, and two 1Gbps LAN ports. You can configure the router using the web user interface or with NETGEAR's Nighthawk mobile app.
Note: We've removed the Wi-Fi coverage tests, as we're exploring better ways to convey the results that'll be more helpful to users.
Our Verdict
The NETGEAR RS300 is a great router for apartments, condos, and smaller homes. It delivers excellent wireless speeds and good range, making it well-suited to apartments and smaller homes where multiple people stream, browse, or download files simultaneously. It also has an excellent selection of 2.5Gbps ports for wired devices.
Excellent top speeds.
Decent overall range.
No MLO support, despite being marketed as 'WiFi 7.'
The NETGEAR RS300 is a very good router for use in a multi-level home. It delivers excellent top speeds and decent range, making it suitable for multiple users streaming high-bandwidth 4k content simultaneously or for quickly downloading large files. While its 6GHz band has great range, the 5GHz band slows down when you're very far from the router. It also lacks native mesh support, making it less convenient to expand coverage throughout larger homes.
Excellent top speeds.
Decent overall range.
5GHz band slows down at longer distances.
Lacks mesh expandability.
No MLO support, despite being marketed as 'WiFi 7.'
The NETGEAR Nighthawk RS300 is adequate for gaming over Wi-Fi. Its latency levels are suitable for casual online games, though competitive players will still benefit from the higher speeds and stability of a direct Ethernet connection. The router delivers excellent top speeds and decent standalone range, making it suitable for handling large downloads and updates throughout most of the home.
Excellent top speeds.
Decent overall range.
Wireless latency is acceptable for general use and non-competitive gaming.
5GHz band slows down at longer distances.
Not suitable for competitive gaming over Wi-Fi.
The NETGEAR Nighthawk RS300 isn't intended for travel. Its bulky design and lack of USB-C power make it inconvenient to carry, and it can't connect to hotel Wi-Fi through WISP mode or share a phone's cellular connection over USB. It's designed for use at home rather than on the road.
Bulky and not designed for travel.
The NETGEAR RS300 has excellent top speeds suitable for a multi-gigabit internet connection. It also supports Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS), so it can use additional channels to help reduce interference in noisy wireless environments.
Excellent top speeds.
No MLO support, despite being marketed as 'WiFi 7.'
The NETGEAR Nighthawk RS300 has decent overall range, although performance varies considerably between its bands. Its 6GHz speeds hold up especially well over longer distances, while its 5GHz connection slows down more noticeably. It also lacks native mesh support, which limits your options should you need additional coverage.
Decent overall range.
5GHz band slows down at longer distances.
Lacks mesh expandability.
The NETGEAR Nighthawk RS300 delivers fair wireless latency that's adequate for web browsing, video calls, and casual gaming. While the 5GHz band occasionally exhibits high-percentile latency spikes, these are unlikely to be noticeable in real-world use. Still, a wired connection is always recommended if you're after the fastest, most reliable connection.
Wireless latency is acceptable for general use and non-competitive gaming.
Not suitable for competitive gaming over Wi-Fi.
No MLO support, despite being marketed as 'WiFi 7.'
The NETGEAR Nighthawk RS300 has good configurability, with an excellent selection of basic settings available through its web interface or mobile app. You can create separate networks for guests and IoT devices, monitor traffic, and prioritize connected devices. It also supports VPN server functionality for accessing your home network while away. However, its advanced networking options are fairly limited, and most parental controls require a paid subscription.
Excellent selection of basic network settings.
Lacks many more advanced networking options.
Most parental control features require a subscription.
Performance Usages
Changelog
- Updated Oct 30, 2026: We've updated this review to Test Bench 0.10! This update adds Portability and Configurability testing to evaluate how suitable routers are for travel and to show how configurable their settings are. Read the changelog for more info.
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Updated Jun 25, 2026:
We've added a link to the newly-reviewed TP-Link Deco 7 Pro BE67 in the Interior Long Range section of this review.
- Updated Jun 22, 2026: We've updated this review to Test Bench 0.9.1! This is a minor change that makes the router type easier to see at the top of each review. Read the changelog for more info.
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Updated May 25, 2026:
We've updated this review and added text to interpret and contextualize our results from Test Bench 0.9.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
This router doesn't have any variants. See a photo of our unit's label.
Popular Router Comparisons
The NETGEAR RS300 is a mid-range Wi-Fi 7 router with 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands. It delivers excellent top speeds and decent overall range. It doesn't perform quite as well as other Wi-Fi 7 routers we've tested, like the TP-Link Archer BE550 or the ASUS RT-BE96U. It also notably lacks native mesh expandability, which is unusual among routers in its price range.
Looking for more recommendations? Check out our roundups of the best long-range Wi-Fi routers, the best Wi-Fi routers, and the best routers for streaming. For more from NETGEAR, be sure to check out our top picks from the brand.
The TP-Link Archer BE9500 is a better router than the Netgear Nighthawk RS300. While both are tri-band Wi-Fi 7 routers, the BE9500 delivers superior speed and range along with a higher-throughput selection of Ethernet ports. The RS300 touts a sleek tower design that makes for a lower profile than the BE9500; however, it lacks mesh expandability and basic MLO implementation. The BE9500 remains a more versatile choice with options for mesh configuration and implementation of MLO, although limited.
The TP-Link Archer BE550 and the NETGEAR Nighthawk RS300 are standalone Wi-Fi 7 routers. They have similarly excellent top speeds, but the TP-Link has more 2.5Gbps networking ports, better range, and supports EasyMesh, which allows you to add other compatible access points to create a mesh network, making it better suited for larger homes.
The ASUS RT-BE92U and the NETGEAR Nighthawk RS300 are tri-band Wi-Fi 7 routers with 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands. They have similar long range performance, but the ASUS delivers faster top speeds and has a 10Gbps WAN port while the NETGEAR only has a 2.5Gbps WAN port.
The NETGEAR Nighthawk RS300 is a better router than the NETGEAR Nighthawk RAX50. It's Wi-Fi 7 capable, is faster, has more networking ports, and is physically smaller. While the RAX50 has better 5GHz range, the RS300 has better 6GHz range.
Test Results
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If you're looking for a smaller Wi-Fi 7 router, check out the UniFi Express 7.
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The two 1Gbps LAN ports support link aggregation, allowing you to combine their bandwidth when connected to a compatible device, such as a NAS.
If you want a Wi-Fi 7 router with higher bandwidth network ports, check out the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro or the eero Pro 7.
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- Ethernet cable
- Power adapter
- User documentation
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This router has two mounting points on the bottom. NETGEAR sells a first-party bracket on their website.
This router can function as an OpenVPN server, allowing you to securely access your home network remotely. However, it can't be set up as a client to connect your devices directly to an external VPN service. It also lacks cellular backup, WAN failover, and custom firewall rules.
This router has adequate parental controls. You can manually block devices or pause their internet access without a subscription, but website and app filtering, automatic scheduling, and daily usage limits require a paid subscription. The router also supports more technical service-blocking rules, though these can't filter specific websites or apps by name.
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This is a standalone router without mesh capabilities, so the mesh satellite position line on this graph isn't applicable.
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This is a standalone router without mesh capabilities, so the mesh satellite position line on this graph isn't applicable.
Check out the ASUS ZenWiFi BT10 or TP-Link Deco 7 Pro BE67 if you're looking for a Wi-Fi 7 mesh system with better range.
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Although the 5GHz band exhibits some variable high-percentile lag spikes, these should have little real-world impact on common usages such as web browsing, streaming, or light gaming over Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi 7 has faster speeds, lower latency, and support for more simultaneous connections than previous generations of Wi-Fi. However, you need devices supporting Wi-Fi 7 to benefit from these features.
If you're looking for a Wi-Fi 7 device with modem & router functionality, check out the ARRIS SURFboard G54.
This router doesn't support MLO, despite being advertised as "WiFi 7," and MLO support being a mandatory feature for Wi-Fi 7 certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance. The router is still technically IEEE 802.11be compliant, as it supports Extremely High Throughput (EHT) PHY and MAC speeds; however, the marketing is misleading.