Netgearis a household name when it comes to networking solutions. The company recently announced its latest products aimed primarily at bolstering WiFi 7 connectivity for modern households, including the Orbi 770 tri-band mesh system, as well as the Nighthawk RS300 standalone router.

The Nighthawk RS300 appears to be a great choice for budget-conscious buyers looking for an affordable entry into WiFi 7-based home networking, at least on paper. The router boasts decent speeds of up to 9.3 Gbps, as advertised. With a sleek design and omnidirectional internal antennas, a net coverage of up to 2,500 sq ft is asserted, as well as support for up to 100 simultaneously connected devices. This is significantly lower than the claimed 3,500 sq ft coverage of the pricier RS700S, which also boasts higher speeds of up to 19.3 Gbps.

The absence of 10 G ports is not surprising, given the affordable positioning of the Nighthawk RS300 as opposed to the higher-priced RS700S. Nevertheless, it has a 2.5 G internet port, which can serve well for most home fiber plans. The router packs four LAN ports in total; two of which are 2.5 G ports while the remaining two are gigabit ports. These ports should be enough for a relatively fast local network, even those containing NAS boxes.

Coming to pricing and availability, it must be kept in mind that despite being positioned as a 'budget' WiFi 7 router, the Nighthawk RS300 is not cheap by any means. Available directly from Netgear.com for a retail price of $329.99, the RS300 is less than half as expensive as the Nighthawk RS700S.