NETGEAR Nighthawk AX12 Router Outed by Qatar ISP

[thiggins]

Qatar-based ISP Ooredoo today spilled the beans on an unannounced NETGEAR AX router.

This Gulf Times story described Ooredoo's intention to "roll out first-in-class fibre home devices to "Qatar's Future City" Lusail to ensure Qatar’s first smart city is fully-connected". The first device is NETGEAR's Orbi, which forms the heart of the company mesh Wi-Fi system family.

But the second product mentioned was a NETGEAR Nighthawk AX12 draft AX (aka "Wi-Fi 6") router. The announcement was short on details mentioning only "up to 6Gbps Wi-Fi speeds", WPA3 support and "ultra-fast 2.2GHz quad-core processor".

Although NETGEAR has not yet announced any draft 11ax routers, two have appeared in the FCC ID database since August and have been discussed in SNBForums. However, this announcement doesn't appear to match either product.

The Nighthawk X12 (codename "Jaguar") is a four-stream draft 11ax router based on Broadcom's AX platform, which features a quad-core 1.8 GHz processor. ASUS' RT-AX88U is built in the same platform and has recently started to ship. Both are described as "AX6000" class routers.

Details on the Nighthawk "Leopard" are sketchier. But it appears to be based on Qualcomm's AX platform, which is a 4x4 design with one 2.4 and two 5 GHz radios. This router has not yet been "classed".

Since the product image above matches the one NETGEAR has yet to remove from the source of its AX family landing page, it's likely the Ooredoo router is the Nighthawk AX8 8-Stream AX6000 WiFi Router.

NETGEAR must be ok with this public reveal, since its PR agency tipped me to this story and the Gulf Times story contains this:
“Netgear is excited to partner with Ooredoo to offer the best-in-class and most advanced 12-Stream AX Wi-Fi router,” said David Henry, SVP Connected Home Products at Netgear.

 

[^Tripper^]

Is anyone else looking at that reminded of Star Wars?

If it looked more like a TIE fighter, I’d snap it up in a heartbeat.

 

[RMerlin]

WPA3 - interesting. Looks like Qualcomm is ahead of Broadcom in that department... Unless this is a product that won't be out for months, and the specs are based on features "to be implemented in the future". The old MU-MIMO story repeating itself?

Is anyone else looking at that reminded of Star Wars?

Imperial Shuttle immediately came to mind when I saw it.

 

[^Tripper^]

Imperial Shuttle immediately came to mind when I saw it.

That’s it! Couldn’t remember the name.
Now there’s an idea, a manufacturer does a tie up (pun intended) with Disney and launches Star Wars themed routers. They’ll fly off the shelves.

 

[Trip]

Ah, @RMerlin beat me to it: it reminds me more of Kylo Ren's commando shuttle than of a TIE Fighter, but I digress.

 

[^Tripper^]

The theme could carry on into the firmware; ‘band steering’ is renamed to ‘tractor beam’.

 

[thiggins]

WPA3 - interesting. Looks like Qualcomm is ahead of Broadcom in that department.

I wouldn't put too much faith in this announcement. The details are muddled.

 

[RMerlin]

I wouldn't put too much faith in this announcement. The details are muddled.

Lack of FCC entry might be because it will be developed specifically for that country.

 

[Makaveli]

MSRP of $699

Based on what netgear is charging for the other highend router they have.

And yes whoever designed that is a huge Star Wars fan Imperial shuttle came to mind right way.

 

[Internet Man]

This page can't just be coincidence although it doesn't add much info.

Details on the Nighthawk "Leopard" are sketchier. But it appears to be based on Qualcomm's AX platform, which is a 4x4 design with one 2.4 and two 5 GHz radios. This router has not yet been "classed".

Since the product image above matches the one NETGEAR has yet to remove from the source of its AX family landing page, it's likely the Ooredoo router is the Nighthawk AX8 8-Stream AX6000 WiFi Router.

The AX8 and AX12 probably look very similar on the outside. This leaked AX12 router will likely be the Leopard model while the AX8 is the Jaguar. The Ooredoo article claims 12 streams and "6Gbps Wi-Fi speeds" (AX6000) which matches the specs of the Leopard with 8x8:8 5GHz but only 80MHz channels. "An ultra-fast 2.2GHz quad-core processor" suggests that it has an IPQ8078 instead of an IPQ8074.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks, IM. For AX, stream count seems to be the new game, although marketeers are not going to give up on inflated class numbers...

 

[Internet Man]

Thanks, IM. For AX, stream count seems to be the new game, although marketeers are not going to give up on inflated class numbers...

It is interesting to see that Qualcomm seems to be able to combine the two seemingly separate 5GHz 4x4 radios to act as one 8x8 radio.

Frankly, I'm surprised that they settled for only "6000" for both the Jaguar and Leopard. They may avoid class numbers in the hopes that they can get 160MHz channels working with eight spatial streams. I have no insider knowledge so this is just my imagination.

 

[Internet Man]

Best Buy has a similar image in Google search for the past few days, however clinking on the link takes one to an error page.

Good catch! Here's a cached copy of a Best Buy page listing the RAX120 with a release date of 10/21/2018 and a price tag of $499.99

I was able to find some other views from Best Buy which I've attached. Notice that the Multi-Gig (5G) port is separate from the 4 LAN and 1 WAN ports. "AX6000" is on the box.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks IM. No sight yet of "Wi-Fi 6".

 

[Cosmin Cazan]

October 22, and no updates on Netgear or Best Buy ..

 

[itchyscratchy]

Batman's all-in-one.

 

[Killhippie]

October 22, and no updates on Netgear or Best Buy ..

Considering there are no AX clients out there that I know of and this is based on a draft I wouldn't touch it anyway.

 

[Makaveli]

Considering there are no AX clients out there that I know of and this is based on a draft I wouldn't touch it anyway.

Some people like to live dangerously I agree with you 1000%.

By the time its out of draft status they will have another model available so its just best to wait.