INSIDE:
NVIDIA’S CHEAP, CHEAP GTX 960
What’s Next for
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»
DEPARTMENTS
7 News
31 Reviews & Ratings
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133 Here’s How
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FEATURES
109 Catalyst Omega reinvents AMD’s approach to drivers
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NEWS
8
Windows 10’s new
features: Cortana
and more
16
Nvidia releases
GeForce GTX 960
at a surprisingly
low price
20
Android update
to reportedly
fix Lollipop’s
memory leak
CONTENTS
I
T’S OFFICIAL, FOLKS: Windows 10 is coming to the people. After kicking off Windows 10 with a bevy of business-friendly features, Microsoft drew back the curtain on the operating system’s new consumer-focused features, while simultaneously driving home a vision of an operating system designed to deliver a singular, cohesive experience across a myriad of device types. And it’ll be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users (go.pcworld.com/winfree), who can snag the operating system for nada in the first year after Windows 10 hitsWindows 10’s new features:
Cortana and more
BY BRAD CHACOS Windows Holographic will build 3D imaging into Windows 10, which can be experienced using the HoloLens headset.
that have already been announced: The Start menu will be able to expand to fill the full screen if you desire, for one thing. The Action Center (read: Windows 10’s notification center) is receiving improved functionality, such as Windows Phone 8.1-esque quick action buttons that let you activate features (such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) with a single click. Notifications in the Action Center will be able to be expanded. More helpfully for everyday workflow, Windows 10 will condense the Control Panel and the modern UI PC Settings into a single interface, eliminating Windows 8’s maddening insistence on dumping crucial system tools into two separate locations. Microsoft also announced that its Continuum feature (go.pcworld.com/continuum), which dynamically shifts the Windows 10 interface from the Modern UI to the desktop depending on whether you’re using a traditional PC or a touchscreen device, will soon appear in Windows 10 Preview builds.
Cortana comes to PCs
As anticipated, Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant will make the jump from Windows Phone to Windows 10, assuming control of many of the operating system’s search features. Cortana, which will get her
Cortana Weather
on a Windows 10 PC.
own place next to the Start button in the desktop taskbar, can perform many of the same basic tricks she does in Windows Phone. Cortana can be interacted with via text or natural voice queries, just like on mobile devices.
Still based off Microsoft’s cloud-based Bing brains, Cortana can answer basic queries like “Will I need a coat tomorrow?” or how much it costs to attend the University of Washington, as Belfiore showed in live
demonstrations. But Cortana’s also been tweaked for more useful PC-like interactions. She can scour your local machine, OneDrive account, and even your business network to find files based on
natural language queries. Belfiore showed off the capabilities by asking Cortana to “Find PowerPoint slides about the charity auction” and “Show me photos from December.” The digital assistant surfaced the desired information nearly instantly.
That sounds pretty darn handy, and there are more playful commands, too: Telling Cortana to
“Play my music” launches the music app, while asking her to “Please be quiet” silences the music. Nice!
Windows 10 for phones and universal apps
Belfiore then veered off to show Windows 10 on phones and tablets, including a brief demo of mobile, touch-friendly Office apps. Windows 10 for phones will basically act like an extension of your PC, featuring universal Windows apps (go.pcworld.com/universapp) that share the same central heart and design as their PC counterparts, as well as newly universal notifications that synchronize across Windows 10 devices.
Windows 10 phones and small-screen tablets will include a free copy of Office. For a quick look at the universal Office apps, be sure to check out our article on Windows 10 for phones and tablets (go.pcworld.com/10pt).
The digital assistant
surfaced the desired
information nearly
instantly.
touch-friendly commands such as swiping left on a message to remove it, or swiping right to flag it for later follow up.
Since many of Microsoft’s apps—including Outlook—have their heads in the cloud, changes you make to a universal app on one device will be immediately reflected on other devices, as Belfiore demoed by actively editing Calendar app entries simultaneously on a PC and a phone.
Microsoft’s bringing the same cloud-centric, universal app
experiences to its core Windows apps as well, all powered by OneDrive on the back end. The Photos app will create albums from all your devices, intelligently removing duplicates and burst photos. A revamped universal People app will collate your contacts, while the Music app is also receiving a universal overhaul. As rumored, Microsoft will add support for you to put your music collection in OneDrive within the next month or two, so you can listen to your tunes anywhere. Maps will also be receiving Cortana integration, and she’ll be able to remember where you parked your car.
This is Spartan
Also new to Windows 10 is Spartan: A new, clean-looking, lightweight browser built around a new rendering engine. It won’t be available in the first Windows Insider builds, and it will only come to phones
The Spartan
browser's annotation capabilities.
eventually, Belfiore said.
The Spartan browser includes a note-taking mode that lets you annotate a web page, then share your marked-up, commented-on version with others using Windows 10’s native Share feature. There’s also a clipping tool so you can save portions of websites directly to OneNote.
Spartan also doubles down on the mere act of reading on the Internet. The browser integrates an updated version of the stellar Reading Mode found in Windows 8’s Metro Internet Explorer app. Reading Mode strips all the ads and sidebar crud out of web pages,
formatting articles so that they appear similar to a book. It’s a wonderful thing. Spartan also taps into the Windows Reading List app, so you can save articles to read later, synchronizing the list across multiple devices. Unlike the Reading List app in Windows 8, the one in Windows 10 will let you save content to read offline.
Cortana is also being integrated directly into Spartan. “Because she knows you, she can help in more nuanced ways,” Belfiore said, showing an example where searching for “Delta” in his address bar popped up information for the Delta flight
Belfiore was scheduled to take later. Cortana will also pop up when you visit a restaurant’s website, surfacing directions as well as information about the restaurant’s menu, hours of operating, and Yelp reviews.
Improving PC games with Xbox
Microsoft’s also bolstering Windows 10’s gaming chops (go.pcworld. com/chops) by deeply integrating Xbox capabilities into the operating system. A new Xbox app essentially looks like a more fully fleshed-out version of SmartGlass, letting you chat with your Xbox Live pals, view your achievement information, or access game DVR clips. The app also
Unlike the
Reading List app
in Windows 8,
the one in
Windows 10
will let you save
content to read
offline.
brings up an interface for saving snapshots and 30 second video clips of your adventures, which then brings you into the Xbox app to share it. Games don’t directly have to support the functionality as it’s being overlaid directly by Microsoft in Windows 10.
As previously announced, the performance-enhancing DirectX 12 gaming API (go.pcworld.com/dx12)is also coming to Windows 10. Xbox head Phil Spencer claims that the API can deliver up to a 50 percent performance improvement in games.
Microsoft also wants to enable more gaming experiences regardless of the device you’re using. Fable Legends players on Windows 10 and Xbox One will be able to play with each other, and you’ll be able to stream your Xbox One games directly to any Windows 10 device, though it sounds like it will be limited to local networks only, similarly to Steam in-home streaming.
Surface hub and Windows Holographic
This has nothing to do with Windows, but it’s a major—and unexpected— hardware announcement from Microsoft: The company’s rolling out the
The Windows
Surface Hub, an 84-inch, 4K, touch-enabled display for office
collaboration. You can read the full details at go.pcworld.com/surfhub. And the Surface Hub isn’t even the craziest hardware announced by Microsoft today. That honor goes to Windows Holographic, a set of technologies—a headset, new Windows 10 technology, and a HoloStudio dev app—that brings some insanely intense augmented reality capabilities to Windows. You’ll definitely want to check this out (go.pcworld.com/holo).
When can you get it?
Myerson also revealed some stats from the Windows 10 Technical Preview. Thus far, more than 1.7 million people have registered for the Windows Insider program, and they’ve installed Windows 10 on more than 3 million different PCs.
A fresh Windows 10 Preview build containing the newly announced features will hit PCs next week, with a Windows 10 build for phones
Microsoft HoloLens
reminds his friends (at least the
ones that have kids) that they all
have
big black letters on the box
to help parents find the ones that
are best for their families.
You can learn about those
ratings at
ESRB.org
Nvidia releases GeForce GTX
960 at a surprisingly low price
BY GORDON MAH UNG
THE FORD GT may get your pulse racing, but ultimately when Joe Public walks into a dealership, he’s likely going to drive out with a Ford Taurus.
That’s arguably what Nvidia introduced with its surprisingly cheap $200 GeForce GTX 960 (full review at go.pcworld.com/gtx) that appears designed as much to hit an ailing AMD while it’s down as it is to keep the core gamer happy. Rather than a high-end $1,000 or $500 GPU most
affordable GPU as a Taurus—perhaps that’s better left to Intel’s integrated graphics—the company does acknowledge the larger volumes at stake here.
Jon Peddie, with Jon Peddie Research, said the enthusiast segment of $250 to $900 claims but 6 percent of the market—albeit with far greater margins. Still, given the 28.5 percent of sales that goes to cards priced between $100 and $249, Nvidia doesn’t want to leave this lower tier of gamers wanting.
It’s this budget sector whose need Nvidia hopes to
feed, and there’s good reason to believe the company can do it to with the GeForce GTX 960. The card uses the latest graphics core from Nvidia, with features not even the pricier GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 can boast.
Based on the company’s newer GM206 core, the GeForce GTX 960 promises 1080p gaming at the gold standard of 60 fps. That won’t be in every game and with every detail slider turned up to maximum, of course, but for the price it’s a deal. And while 1080p gaming may sound pedestrian in a world of curved monitors and 4K displays, it’s
Based on the
company’s newer
GM206 core, the
GeForce GTX 960
promises 1080p
gaming at the gold
standard of 60 fps.
Reference cards
won’t be sold, instead all GeForce GTX 960 cards will use coolers designed by board makers such as this Asus Strix card.
actually where the sweet spot is. Nvidia, in fact, says 95 percent of games are played at 1080p or lower, and this card is for them.
For the most part, the GeForce GTX 960 is like a little version of the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 that launched late last summer.
Its feature list has been pretty much lifted from the “Big Maxwell” with: Dynamic Super Resolution, Multi-Frame-Sampled Anti-aliasing (MFAA), Voxel Global Illumination, and VR Direct. In fact, so little has changed you can just read up on the features (go.pcworld.com/geforce) in our write-up from last year.
Not exactly the same, but better too
That doesn’t mean all is the same. Nvidia is now so confident that its MFAA feature offers enough of a “free” performance advantage in visual quality, that it will turn it on by default for those who use the
Yes, you’ll be able to get nVidia’s DSR feature in the new budget card too. 1080P no DSR 1080P with DSR
play 4K content going forward. Although the GeForce GTX 970 and GeForce GTX 980 have HDMI 2.0 ports, as does the GeForce GTX 960, the former cards may have issues with protected content such as 4K and 8K, which could very well require HDCP 2.2.
It’s likely bits under the gate though. Few people will run the larger and pricier GeForce GTX 970 and 980 in a living room to run a 4K TV. The GeForce GTX 960, however, will probably find service there as it’s smaller and quieter, and in some configurations, completely silent.
Silent Gaming
In fact, under very light gaming loads, such as League of Legends, some cards will keep the fans completely off.
The real head-turner with the GeForce GTX 960 is its price. Most expected the new card to slot in at $250, which is what the GeForce GTX 760 cost. At $200, it’s even cheaper than the GeForce GTX 660, which was introduced at $230.
The aggressive pricing on the new card is sure to put even more pressure on AMD, which has been losing ground to its old foe.
The latest figures from Jon Peddie Research, which closely tracks graphics in the industry, puts Nvidia with a commanding 71.5 percent of the add-in video card game. AMD is at 28.4 percent. Intel actually dwarfs both in overall graphics market share, but integrated graphics is hardly respected nor desired by gamers. AMD’s own quarterly reports put its graphics sales down 15 percent quarter to quarter.
With Nvidia now releasing two rounds of cards without a significant response from AMD, fans may be getting nervous. All the company has done is slash prices. Gamers looking for deals may celebrate, but it isn’t good for AMD’s shareholders.
Peddie, however, said the game isn’t over yet. While he acknowledged AMD was “a bit late with a new GPU,” he said the company was nearly finished with its next one. He also cited AMD’s long history with GPUs (at least, through its acquisition of ATI): “AMD has been doing it (via ATI) for 30 years,” he pointed out, compared to Nvidia’s 20.
Android
update to
reportedly
fix Lollipop’s
memory leak
BY FLORENCE IONANDROID LOLLIPOP MAY bring with it tons of neat new features (go.pcworld.com/lollipop) and aesthetically pleasing visual changes, but its rollout has been bumpy. Google’s been working out the kinks, however, as evidenced by a recent thread in the AOSP bug tracker. One particular fix, for rampant use of RAM, is reportedly slated to show up in the next Android update.
even a few Reddit (go.pcworld.com/reddit) threads devoted to complaints about this particular issue.
A ticket (go.pcworld.com/ticket) for the RAM issue opened up on Google’s AOSP issue tracker in late December. In January Google marked the issue as “FutureRelease,” which means the next version update will include a fix for this annoyance.
Why this matters
Years of dealing with Apple, Microsoft, and Google’s software updates have taught us there’s no such thing as a smooth rollout. Regardless, there’s a lot at stake when it comes to the Android operating system, especially considering that it already has a reputation of
fragmentation and delayed software updates.
With Google’s new slogan being “Be together, not the same,” it needs to be more quick about fixing minor issues and ensuring OS stability across the board. At least the company is being somewhat transparent on what it’s working on for the next update.
Years of dealing with
Apple, Microsoft,
and Google’s
software updates
have taught us there’s
no such thing as
a smooth rollout.
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P
ASSWORD MANAGER APPS Dashlane (go.pcworld.com/rvdash) and LastPass (go.pcworld.com/rvlast) are hoping to take the sting out of the next security snafu that affects your online accounts. This week, both services offer new automatic password-changing features that let you swap your login codes with just a few clicks, replacing them with randomly generated passwords made up ofNifty updates to Dashlane and LastPass makes swapping almost easier.
BY IAN PAULNifty new features change
your passwords for you
letters, numbers, and symbols. The new features automatically save the new logins to your password manager of choice.
Both Dashlane and LastPass can change your password for about 75 separate services, but they operate a little differently. LastPass’ Auto-Password Change works on an account-by-account basis, while Dashlane’s Password Changer can work on multiple accounts at once.
Why this matters: After the public reveal of the Heartbleed (go.pcworld. com/hb) vulnerability in April, many users were forced to swap out at least some of their passwords for online services. But changing passwords is a pain and can be very time consuming. The new Dashlane and LastPass features will make it easier the next time a major vulnerability has you scrambling to change multiple accounts at once. It also makes it easier to change your passwords more regularly, which is standard practice for good password hygiene (go.pcworld.com/hygiene).
Hands-on with LastPass
The password changing features for both Dashlane and LastPass are currently in beta; however, Dashlane is only letting users sign-up for the chance to try its new feature. LastPass is already rolling out auto-password change to any user running LastPass version 3.1.70 for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Both LastPass’ Auto-Password Change and Dashlane’s Password Changer work only on PCs and are not available on mobile devices.
To change your passwords automatically with Auto-Password Change you have to open your LastPass Vault by click on the extension’s icon in your browser. Then press the pencil (edit) icon for the account you want to change.
In the tab that opens, click the Change Password Automatically button under
Both LastPass’ Auto-Password Change and
Dashlane’s Password Changer work only on
PCs and are not available on mobile devices .
seconds, and you can even watch it happening in the new browser tab. LastPass says all changed passwords are created on your device and do not go up to the LastPass servers before being encrypted.
A few problems
In my tests, Auto-Password Change worked with a wide range of accounts including Amazon, Dropbox, Facebook, GitHub, Google, Reddit, Spotify, and Yahoo. Notably, LastPass’ new feature does not appear to work with Microsoft accounts.
Despite the system working well overall, there were a few times that LastPass choked on its password changing attempts. The first site LastPass had problems with was Facebook. Towards the end of the password change, Facebook asked if I wanted to logout of all
LastPass can automatically change your password on about 75 websites.
LastPass needs
to login to a site for you to get the job done.
my devices where I was logged in to Facebook—such as my phone.
When Facebook threw up that window, LastPass choked and cancelled the password change. But since I saw the dialog that Facebook put up, I
answered it and elected to remain logged in to my other devices. When this happened, Facebook said my password was successfully changed, but LastPass hadn’t registered the switch.
Uh-oh.
Actually, it wasn’t that hard to fix. LastPass saved its attempt to change my Facebook password as a “Generated password for...” entry meaning I could swap out the old password manually and keep everything up-to-date.
Another hiccup came when I was tried to change the password to one of my Google accounts in Chrome.
I am usually signed in to multiple Google accounts at once. When I tried to change one of my Google accounts, LastPass failed since it couldn’t navigate through some of the screens multiple account users have to deal with, such as the page where you have to choose one of multiple accounts to log in to.
This is admittedly an edge case, but I suspect many PCWorld readers will have multiple Google accounts and this is an issue to be aware of.
LastPass would probably not do well with any accounts that are protected by two-factor authentication too since LastPass doesn’t have access to your passcode generator. I did not have a chance to test this issue thoroughly, however.
Despite its few drawbacks, overall LastPass’ Auto-Password Change
LastPass didn’t
play well with this Facebook feature.
Spot the telltale signs of
malware on your computer
BY LINCOLN SPECTOR
What is to be done when Windows wouldn’t update on your PC and system restore is down as well? A malware infection seems likely. Here are some symptoms that could suggest foul play.
I’m received countless letters from readers who think they have a “virus.” The problems they describe—Blue Screens of Death, no audio, grinding sounds inside the PC—can be attributed to virtually anything but malware.
Real malware is generally designed not to be noticed. The people who write these programs don’t want you to clean them off of your computer. But if you know what to look for, you can recognize a symptom that might be caused by malware.
Sometimes malware is obvious.
Ransomware, such as CoinVault (go.pcworld.com/cv), announces itself clearly. But then, ransomware is basically an extortion racket. It can’t make you pay the ransom if it doesn’t tell you that it has your data.
But the symptoms for other types of malware are less obvious. Here are some common ones:
Suddenly poor performance. If your PC is running slower
Ransomware,
such as CoinVault,
announces itself
clearly.
than it used to, or it seems to be running an awful lot of stuff in the background, malware could be the cause.
Standard maintenance programs don’t work. Malware will often protect itself by disabling programs that might help you identify and remove it. So if programs like Windows Update, Task Manager, your antivirus program, Regedit, System Restore, or Msconfig fail to work, you have reason to be suspicious. I should mention that some of these programs—especially Windows Update—can regularly fail without help from outside bad guys—although if it’s one of several programs that fail, malware is likely.
New, unwanted toolbars that won’t go away.
All sorts of programs might install a new toolbar into your browser, and usually, it’s no more than a temporary annoyance. But if you can’t turn off the toolbar, or you do turn it off and it soon reappears, there’s something more sinister at work.
Your home and search pages change. This is very much like the toolbar problem. If these pages change to something you don’t want, and you change them back, but your change doesn’t last, something is running that you have to stop.
So what do you do if these signs suggest you have an infection? First, assume that your antivirus program has been compromised. So scan with something else. Try either the ESET Online Scanner (eset.com/online-scanner) or Trend Micro’s HouseCall (housecall. trendmicro.com), neither of which requires installation.
I also suggest you do the scanning in Safe Mode with Networking (See Here’s How for information on Windows Safe Modes). That way, the malware is less likely to interfere.
Children are our greatest hope for the future. Let’s be their greatest hope too.
Cancer strikes infants and children. For teens and young adults, survival can depend on treatment by a pediatric oncologist, designed specifically for them.
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer are funding groundbreaking collaborative research to bring the most effective therapies to kids fi ghting cancer. To learn how you can help keep these kids in play, go to stbaldricks.org/inplay and standup2cancer.org/pediatrics.
175,000 KIDS WILL BE
DIAGNOSED WITH
CANCER THIS YEAR.
HELP KEEP
THESE KIDS
IN PLAY.
Julia Hernandez
Diagnosed at 16,
in remission. Samuel L. Jackson Stand Up To Cancer and St. Baldrick’s Ambassador
32
Mechanical
keyboards revisited
58
Netgear redeems
the Nighthawk X4
66
AVADirect i7 X99
is fast with a classy
chassis
71
HTC Desire Eye
doesn’t quite live
up to its price tag
77
The Last Tinker:
City of Colors is
a charming
platformer
81
Budget headset
roundup: We test
five sub-$100
entry level model
REVIEWS
& RATINGS
Mechanical keyboards
revisited
RGB lighting, software and keys can make a slab o’buttons
TESTED IN PCWORLD LABS
In this section, hardware & software go through rigorous testing.
REVIEWS
& RATINGS
W
months since that we’re able to put together an entire second set of reviews.The craziest bit? Out of the five mechanical keyboards in this roundup, only one (the Corsair K70 RGB/K95 RGB) uses Cherry MX switches—long the de-facto
standard for all brands. That means my typical spiel (go.pcworld.com/ spiel) about the four main kinds of Cherry switches (Red, Black, Brown, Blue) is basically worthless.
If you are looking for that
information because you’re planning to purchase a K70 RGB or K95 RGB, I recommend checking out our previous roundup (go.pcworld.com/ roundup).
It really makes you wonder, though: Now that Cherry’s patent has run out, how many
manufacturers will swap away? Will
Cherry switches someday be as rare and coveted as the IBM Model M keyboard is nowadays?
But I digress. Besides the K70 RGB/K95 RGB, we have four other keyboards.
The Nixeus Moda uses “Brown” switches with the trademark “tactile bump”—but Brown switches manufactured by Kailh, not Cherry.
The Rapoo KX also uses Kailh switches, but they’re Yellows—linear switches with a 50cN actuation force that falls between Cherry Reds and Blacks. Cherry MX Blue switches give you a tactile bump as well as an audible click. ILL US TRA TION B Y CAS TIN CRAMER
Razer’s Blackwidow Chroma sticks with the Green switches— although I’m pretty sure those Green switches were made in a partnership with Kailh also.
And then there’s Logitech, which introduces the exclusive Romer-G switch with its new G910 Orion Spark.
The other big push has been in RGB-enabled lighting. We kicked off last year with zero RGB-enabled mechanical keyboards and ended with three: The K70 RGB/K95 RGB, the G910 Orion Spark, and the Blackwidow Ultimate Chroma.
All three take a different path toward RGB backlighting, but the results are the same. You can set one color across the entire board or tweak each individual key, allowing for complex profiles that (for instance) highlight useful keys in your favorite shooter or even change color to match the cooldown of your abilities in League of Legends or Dota 2.
The possibilities are in theory endless, but it all comes down to your patience and the amount of community support each keyboard has, so we’ll be taking a look at the included software also—how intuitive and accessible it is to newcomers.
Of course, that bit doesn’t apply to the Rapoo KX and the Nixeus Moda, which are both more standard keyboard models.
Last but not least, we’ll take a look at any “luxury” features. For instance, media keys are pretty standard on mechanical keyboards nowadays, but which implementation did the manufacturer go with? Volume buttons versus a volume scroll wheel? Dedicated media keys, or keys stamped onto the function buttons?
B Y GORDON MAH UNG Logitech’s G910 features heavily scalloped keys that weren’t comfortable to type on.
Mechanical keyboards are typically such beastly devices, I’m always surprised when I pull one out of a box and it’s a dainty little thing. The Rapoo KX fits that bill, occupying a mere 13 x 6 inches of desk real estate thanks to a no-frills, tenkeyless (no number pad) design. For mechanical keyboard snobs needing something on the road, the KX would fit into a backpack easily. And thanks to its attractive brushed-aluminum top and solid plastic casing, you could do so without worrying about its durability.
It’s also a dual-mode wired/wireless keyboard. Embedded in the back are a MicroUSB jack, a power switch, and then a slot to hold the KX’s
Rapoo KX
$120
Rapoo KX is
designed with an attractive brushed-aluminum top and solid plastic casing,
small wireless USB dongle. As I type this I’m using the KX wired because the battery was low, but there’s a lithium battery inside that held about a week’s worth of charge for me.
Flicking on the power switch triggers the keyboard to vibrate briefly, and all the backlighting activates. The backlighting is a soft Apple-like white with three levels of brightness (including “Off”). You can cycle the brightness by holding the Fn key and tapping Tab.
Soft Function keys
Instead of a standard row of mechanical Function keys across the top, the KX opts for a set of soft keys that vibrate when touched. In normal Function mode the keys are white. Hit the Fn key and the backlighting on that strip turns blue, indicating that you can trigger the media keys, volume controls, et cetera. It’s not a fully moddable touchpad like the Razer Blade Pro’s Switchblade interface, although you can use Rapoo’s application to change some of the alternate functions.
It’s attractive, but I don’t really know why they did it this way otherwise. Soft keys are always finicky. Sometimes the KX doesn’t register multiple taps in a short period (say, if you’re rapidly hitting the volume keys) and they’re not particularly convenient to use by touch if you’re playing a game that maps the Function keys (or just trying to feel for F12 in Steam to take a screenshot).
And unlike the rest of the keyboard, you can’t adjust the
backlighting of this strip. To my eyes it seemed pretty dim, especially
Hit the Fn key and the
backlighting turns blue, indicating that you can trigger the media
when sitting back a bit from the keyboard. How much any of that bothers you probably depends on how much you use the Function keys, but I use them a fair amount for my job.
Another quibble: The backlighting on the KX could be more even. Especially at the lower brightness setting the letters have an ugly variance in luminescence. The top bit of the “R” key for instance is brightly lit while the bottom isn’t lit at all.
Then there are the keys themselves. I don’t mind the switches in the Rapoo KX. I’m not a huge fan of linear switches,
preferring to use Cherry MX Blues for that clickety-clackety sound that drives some people to madness, but the resistance of the KX’s Kailh Yellow switches (somewhere between Cherry Reds and Blacks) feels smooth and high-end. The only switch I really don’t like is in the Backspace key, which feels about twice as resistant as the rest of the keyboard.
The design of the keyboard leaves more to be desired though. The keys are broader than a standard keyboard by a few millimeters, and I
I also dislike that
the Menu key is so
close to the Arrow
keys instead of
replacing the
right-hand
Windows or
Alt keys.
found myself fat-fingering a bunch of mistakes even after a few days of use. Muscle memory is a huge part of touch-typing, and adding even a few millimeters onto the width of every key is enough to screw with my head apparently. I kept triggering wrong keys, triggering two keys at a time, double-tapping keys, and a whole host of other dumb errors.
I also dislike that the Menu key is so close to the Arrow keys instead of replacing the right-hand Windows or Alt keys. It’s too easy to trigger the Menu by accident, which is even more of an annoyance when the Escape key is embedded in that soft-touch strip and thus not easy to immediately feel out blindly.
Bottom line
The Rapoo KX is an attractive, lightweight, and compact keyboard that would be perfect for use on the road, but I don’t know how much I’d use it at a normal desk. There are better tenkeyless boards out there (including the WASD V2), and I don’t really like fumbling for soft-keys no matter the reason behind it—especially when that includes something vital for normal usage, like the Escape key.
And especially when I’m plunking down for the list price of $120. If you can find it cheaper, it’s a better bargain.
Like the Rapoo KX, the Nixeus MODA will score points with some consumers right out the gate because of its small size. It’s not quite as compact as the KX, thanks to a small palm rest and a dedicated Home block, but this is still a dainty model compared to your typical gaming monstrosity.
A bare-bones mechanical keyboard
The Nixeus Moda is a great little device, provided you’re looking for a bare-bones mechanical keyboard. You’re not going to get many frills here—not even media keys. If you can live without those perks, though, this is a solid (and cheap) device.
The Nixeus Moda uses “Brown” switches, but not those made by Cherry. These knock-offs are otherwise the same though, with an actuation force of 45cN and a 2mm actuation point that features a
Nixeus MODA
tactile bump instead of the click found in MX Blues. Despite being “the same,” I did notice that the Moda has more of a hollow, clacking sound to it than other Cherry Brown keyboards I had lying around, but whether that’s due to the switch or due to the Moda itself I can’t say.
Will the average person ever reach a point where using Kailh switches instead of Cherry switches is a real detriment? Probably not. They’re offs, but they seem to be pretty decent knock-offs. It seems like Kailh has sorted out most of the manufacturing issues it had in the past, and while they might cut corners and skimp on materials...well, I’m just not convinced the average mechanical keyboard user will care.
An entry-level candidate
What they will care about is price. At only $60 on the street, the Nixeus Moda is one of the cheapest available mechanical keyboards. If you’ve been eyeing the mechanical keyboard realm for a while now but didn’t want to plunk down an exorbitant amount of money, the Nixeus Moda is a damn good entry-level candidate.
The downside is that it’s fairly stripped-down. You have dedicated Mute, Volume Up, and Volume Down keys in the upper right corner,
The Nixeus Moda is
affordable, but fairly stripped-down.
but there are no media keys on the board, nor any macro keys.
There’s also no backlighting, which for me is an annoyance. I tend to work and game a lot at night. Even as a touch-typer, backlighting is a lifesaver.
In all other ways, the Moda should suit budget-minded users. It’s a durable little device, housed in some extremely thick black plastic with a faux-brushed metal look. The keys have a subtle texture to them that I really enjoyed typing on.
The only two things I don’t like design-wise are the typeface and the fake screws in the palm rest. Both look tacky and undermine what’s otherwise a sleek-looking keyboard.
The cable could also use an upgrade. It’s cheap rubber,and not very thick—especially where it connects to the keyboard itself. I’d be concerned the connection could break under heavy, active use.
Bottom line
It’s cheap (especially on sale), it’s stripped down, it’s simple. The Nixeus Moda does nothing to stand out, but it doesn’t need to— it’s all about the price. This is a budget mechanical keyboard with impressively few caveats.
In all other ways,
the Moda should suit
budget-minded users.
More:
Mechanical Keyboards
We already took a look at the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate (go. pcworld.com/bwultimate) earlier this year, and this new “Chroma” version is 95 percent the same—with the addition of fancy new RGB backlighting and another $40 tacked onto the price.
Sleek and durable
Like its predecessor, the Chroma is a sleek and durable black keyboard designed specifically for gaming. This is most obvious in its custom-designed Razer Green switches, which (as far as I’m aware) are branded Kailh switches.
Razer Greens feature the same tactile click and actuation force (50cN) as Cherry MX Blues, but the actuation point is a bit higher.
Razer Blackwidow Chroma
problematic in games because it’s harder to double-tap keys. Because of this, Razer’s Green switches move the actuation point closer to the key’s resting point. This makes it easy to double-tap keys, which is good for games. The side effect, however, is that Razer Greens are not very pleasant to type on. With their heavy up-front resistance and high actuation point it’s easy to bottom out keys, and they’re just not as “fun” to type on as Blues.
Typing or Gaming?
It’s kind of up to you to decide what you think you’ll be using your keyboard for more—typing or gaming. If the latter, Razer’s Blackwidow line might not be a bad choice. These keys combine some of the benefits of MX Blues and Blacks, producing that nice mechanical clickiness while still being good for games. As someone who types a lot though, I still think Razer’s switches are a pain to use. I literally cannot type on
this thing without bottoming out two-thirds of my strokes, even when I’m concentrating on it.
That’s all the same as the previous model though, so let’s cut to the new stuff: The RGB backlighting.
I actually liked the backlighting on the basic Blackwidow Ultimate model, despite the trademark Razer eye-searing green color scheme. The Chroma’s really the Razer product I’ve been looking for though—finally, a device of theirs that I can customize to look the way I want.
The Chroma’s backlighting is gorgeous, no matter which color you choose. Keys are evenly lit,and there’s not a ton of light leakage around the edges of the keys—certainly less than Corsair’s K70.
Smart design
I’m actually fascinated by Razer’s design, because it’s something I was told couldn’t be done by both Logitech and Corsair. Prying off
The Chroma’s
Keys are evenly lit, without a ton of light leakage around the edges.
one of the Chroma’s keycaps reveals that the standard Cherry MX stem design stayed intact here—unlike Logitech’s Romer-G switches—but Razer’s also managed to put in full 16.8-million-color RGB lighting without using all sorts of crazy clear-plastic refractive bits and utilizing tons of light leakage, like Corsair did.
Instead, there’s just a single lens embedded in opaque black plastic. It’s honestly the RGB design I’d like to see all manufacturers adopt, except for the Razer Green switches.
The only place where Razer screwed up is in the Caps Lock/Num Lock/Game Mode pane in the top right. In the last model, I
complained that by embedding icons under plastic instead of using simple light indicators, Razer made it harder to tell what was active and what wasn’t—everything was blurry. That problem still exists, with the added fact that those lights aren’t
RGB-enabled. Instead, they always stay an unattractive off-white. It’s an otherwise ugly misstep on a beautiful keyboard.
Synapse 2.0
Other manufacturers could also learn a thing or two about software from Razer. Especially Corsair.
Razer’s Synapse 2.0 software is a somewhat
weighty utility, which is its main flaw. However, the process of setting up the Chroma with all manner of pretty colors couldn’t be more intuitive. I plugged in the device, Synapse recognized it and immediately brought up the Chroma configuration screen.
From here I could make a new profile or edit the default. Out of the box, the Chroma is programmed to cycle the entire color spectrum. New profiles are automatically programmed to Fn plus a number key.
Other manufacturers
could also learn a
thing or two about
software from Razer.
Especially Corsair.
automatically as you edit. You can adjust the brightness here (though you can also still do that from the keyboard itself). There are five lighting presets: Breathing, Spectrum Cycling, Wave, Static, and Reactive (keys light up as you touch them).
There’s also “Custom,” which allows you to change keys individually. Alternatively, you can start with a template that highlights keys typically important in different game genres. The first-person shooter template, for example, lights the WASD keys red, the R key green, and the 1-5 keys in yellow. Everything else is dark. There are also templates for MMOs, MOBAs, RTS games, and even specific branded setups for
League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: GO and StarCraft II.
It lacks the wealth of options available for both Logitech’s G910 Orion Spark and Corsair’s K70/K90, but on the other hand it’s dead simple. Seriously, you can get up and running with an attractive color scheme on this thing in less than two minutes, it’s entirely intuitive,
Razer gets you
up and running with an attractive color scheme in less than two minutes,
and then you can swap between all your profiles on the fly without ever having to look at Razer’s software again.
This is the type of approach other manufacturers really have to take a look at. Sure, I’d love if Razer implemented some of the more advanced options from other keyboards—timed color changes to indicate skill cooldowns, or custom wave patterns—but those come secondary to the average person’s being able to use the damn thing.
Bottom line
I still don’t like typing on the Blackwidow’s Razer Greens any more than I did the first time around, but if you’re primarily buying this for gaming that probably won’t matter to you anyway. And for the record, I do like Razer Greens more than I like Logitech’s Romer-G switches. A lot more.
As far as the RGB front, the Chroma is a simplistic beauty. The Chroma’s lighting setups are neither as intensive nor as customizable as the Orion Spark’s or the K70/K90’s, but Razer understands one thing extremely well: It’s better to cater to the masses first, and then add more functionality later. I hope to see Razer do more with its lighting through later Synapse patches, but at the very least you’ll be able to plug in this thing and make it look good immediately. That deserves praise in itself.
Logitech’s G910 Orion Spark is a completely new keyboard with completely new switches, built from the ground up for gaming and full RGB backlighting. As such, it’s probably the device where we have the most to talk about because, well, it’s entirely unique.
Let’s start with the design of the keyboard itself, which is weird enough as it is. The G910 is a similar shape to previous keyboards in Logitech’s lineup—that is to say, a bit chunky. Even with the smaller of the two wrist rests attached, this thing will take up quite a bit of your desk—thanks to a row of macro keys on the side, another row on the top (above the function row), the dedicated media keys, and a phone dock (more on that later).
An uncomfortable key design
I’m not a huge fan of macro keys, but I do think it makes more sense to have five on the side and another four up top, since that’s way easier to trigger than trying to distinguish between three rows of macro keys on
Logitech G910 Orion Spark
the left side of the board. The media keys are standard Play/Stop/ Back/Forward/Mute and then a volume wheel.
Logitech got weird though when it designed the keycaps on the G910. Most keys come in a pretty standard shape—a hollowed bowl, with the four corners slightly raised. The G910 uses a scalloped shape on all its keys. In other words the left, top, and right sides are angled upwards. It’s like a little hat for your fingers. Furthermore,
the scalloping is different on every single key. The WASD keys have the most distinctly raised edges, to help you find them quickly and accurately. The effect recedes the farther right you move on the keyboard.
As such, the G910 is a uniquely weird device to type on. Uncomfortable, even. No matter how much I tried—and believe me, I tried—I couldn’t get used to the feel of the keys. It’s
not too bad for things like shooters, where your fingers tend to stick on the WASD keys the whole time. For typing or for games with lots of hotkeys, though, I found my fingers commonly “caught” the edges of keys on their way by, or landed awkwardly on the key at an angle that caused significantly more distress than normal keys.
Romer-G Switches
Key handling is not helped by the Romer-G switches. Romer-Gs are Logitech’s proprietary switches, designed (like Razer’s Green and Orange switches) with games in mind. Unlike most of the new crop of mechanical switches though, I can’t even think of a good Cherry comparison. If there were a gun to my head I guess I’d say MX Browns, but really the Romer-Gs are a class of their own.
That’s not to say they’re good. I like that the Romer-Gs are quieter
The Romer-G
switch unmasked.
key’s resting point. Combine the mushy feel and the high actuation point, and the G910 might as well be a rubber dome keyboard.
I’ve talked to Logitech about it. I’ve asked them if they have other switches planned. They gave me a “Not right now” sort of answer, which is only frustrating because the lighting on
the Orion Spark is so good.
The G910 Orion Spark is hands down the best-looking of the three RGB-enabled keyboards here. And it’d better be, considering Logitech built the Romer-G switch specifically to cater to RGB lighting. Rather than the typical Cherry MX stem design, pry off one of the G910’s scalloped keycaps and you’ll find a hollow indentation, with the lighting element dead center.
What does that mean for the end product? Incredibly smooth lighting and color from top to bottom across entire keys, plus almost zero light leakage around the outside of keys (something that both Corsair and Razer’s offerings suffer from).
The only oddity: While the G910 logo at the bottom and the enormous “G” at the top of the keyboard are color-adjustable, for whatever reason the media keys and the macro profile keys (the four tiny ones in the very upper left) are not. The media keys stay blue, the macro profile keys stay orange.
Software
Logitech’s software strikes a good middle ground between the ease and accessibility of Razer’s Synapse 2.0 and Corsair’s bag of nightmares.
It’s not a particularly pretty program, with icons that look like Word Art from the late 90s. However, once you’ve clicked on the icon that looks like a lightbulb doing mushrooms, you’re presented with a fairly simple lighting interface that also has a surprising amount of depth to it.
Logitech’s software is split into four key lighting modes: Freestyle, Zones, Commands, and Effects.
There is a distinct
actuation point,
but it’s really close
to the key’s
Freestyle, as you might expect, lets you change every key individually. You can also drag color across multiple keys.
Zones allows you to group keys you use together often and then switch the color of each group—for instance, the Arrow Keys or WASD or the Function Keys. You can stick with Logitech’s default zones or create your own. It’s basically a quicker, more orderly version of freestyle.
Effects give you some goofy but beautiful options, most of which it shares with Razer’s presets: Breathing, Reactive (here called “Key Press”), Color Cycle, Wave, and the incredibly relaxing Star Effect (which simulates gold “constellations” on a navy blue background).
Effects give
you some goofy but beautiful options.
their games—for instance, Civilization: Beyond Earth still isn’t supported nearly two months after its release.
Finally, we should get back to that dock I mentioned way back at the beginning of the article. It’s not a functional charging station or anything, but merely a place to stick your phone. Logitech has released its free Arx Control software for Android and iOS phones, which lets you pair your device with your computer, adjust profiles on the fly, use it as a secondary media control, and even monitor your PC stats while you’re playing.
It’s pretty damn nifty, even allowing me (through the magic of technology) to launch games on my PC from my phone. That particular feature takes the prize for the absolute coolest and stupidest thing I’ve done with technology this month: I launched
Diablo III. On my laptop. From my phone.
Bottom line
I still think Logitech has room to grow. Various game-specific features mentioned prior to release still haven’t made it into the product as sold currently, and wow I hope Logitech comes out with a switch I enjoy more than the Romer-G.
But as far as lighting is concerned, the G910 is the winner. It’s easy to configure, and thanks to the Romer-G’s unique design it’s also the best-looking of all three contestants. I’ve had this thing running the Star Effect setting for many days now, in between testing various game settings.
As an added bonus, Logitech’s Arx Control software adds a lot of weird functionality, provided you have a device that can take advantage of it.
Various game-specific
features mentioned prior
to release still haven’t
made it into the product
as sold currently…
More:
Mechanical Keyboards
The Corsair K70 and K95 RGB are the only keyboard models in this roundup that use Cherry MX switches—a relief for my fingers, after traipsing through Kailh Yellows and Kailh Browns and Romer-Gs and Razer Greens, only to return home to my tried-and-true Cherry Blues.
But surprisingly, the real moral of the K70 RGB (and by extension, the K95 RGB) is that switches aren’t everything. While I love Cherry Blues—they make my fingers sing when typing—Corsair makes some drastic missteps on both the hardware and software sides that undermine what should be a fantastic keyboard.
A Corsar classic
The K70 keyboard is a Corsair classic, with a sleek, brushed-aluminum
Corsair K70 RGB
most literal of ways: The K95 looks like someone took a K70 and pasted an extra piece onto it. It’s not very pretty compared to the stripped-down K70, but if you need the dedicated macro keys that’s your prerogative. On the other hand, you could just use Corsair’s software to assign macros to literally any key on the keyboard and save yourself some desk space in the process.
The K70 RGB also features the new Corsair
Gaming logo, though I trust—like my earlier headset reviews, including the Corsair H1500 (go.pcworld.com/h1500)—we can skip arguing over it. You either love it or hate it.
I honestly love the K70 RGB in almost every aspect—Cherry Blue switches (or whatever you prefer), an attractive typeface, and one of the best volume rollers I’ve ever used. I love basically every aspect except for the damn RGB lighting.
The reason we haven’t had any RGB-enabled mechanical
keyboards before this year is that Cherry’s switch design didn’t play nice with the enlarged LEDs necessary for that sort of backlighting. One color? Fine. 16.8 million colors? Impossible.
A redesigned underlying switch
Or at least, it was “impossible” until Corsair and Cherry completely redesigned the underlying switch. The stem—in other words, the most important aspect of Cherry switches—remains untouched. Cherry Blues still feel like Cherry Blues. Cherry Reds feel like Cherry Reds. That’s a relief if the alternative is something like Logitech’s subpar Romer-G switch.
There’s a give and take, though. In order to preserve the stem, Corsair and Cherry embedded the LEDs on the board itself and then wrapped the whole thing in clear plastic.
If this were a normal keyboard even that might not be a problem. Like earlier incarnations of the K70, however, the keys on the K70
Corsair and
Cherry embedded the LEDs on the board itself
RGB don’t actually embed into the frame itself. Instead, they sort of hover above the base, about a quarter of an inch or so.
The K70 RGB has as much light pollution as the Las Vegas Strip. All those pretty colors you set up? They shine right out from
underneath each key, through the clear plastic front, and straight into your eyes. It can look cool in a Tron sort of way, but mostly it’s just distracting.
Software
The real tragedy of the K70 is on the software side, though.
First, credit where credit’s due: You can do some really cool things with Corsair’s software. There’s a lot of flexibility compared to both Logitech and Razer’s offerings.
The K70
hides essential tasks behind multiple menus
But it’s the kind of flexibility most people will never discover, because it’s an absolute mess of a program. There are no easy presets for someone who just wants to jump in and play around. Instead, you’ve got to immediately delve into a program that hides essential tasks behind multiple menus, doesn’t explain what it’s doing, and is all-around a pain to use.
You can’t even change the keys all to one color easily, because the keyboard comes preset with a white-and-red default color scheme. Little do you know that you actually have to delete the groups that Corsair originally set up, or else the colors you’re trying to put on the keys will lay on top of the default colors instead of replacing them.
It’s a nightmare, brought on by one of Corsair’s coolest features: The K70 supports layers of lighting. In the background you can set
Default color
schemes need to be deleted or else you’ll add your own colors on top.
everything as one color, assign lighting to individual keys, or group certain keys together.
Then there’s the foreground layer. Here you can assign one of four effects to occur every time you press a key: It either turns a solid color for a certain amount of time, creates a gradient between multiple colors, or spawns a wave or ripple of color.
You could, for instance, set it up so the entire keyboard is red, then set it so every time you type, a wave of green goes across the board. Or you could make it so the Arrow keys are never lit until you press them, at which point they turn red for ten
seconds. Or you could make the whole board into a psychotropic acid trip, with a million different colors and ripples and waves going off all at once.
It’s not like the K70 replaces one color with a different one for these effects. Going back to our red keys, green wave example for instance—the keys don’t just switch from red to green and then back again. Instead, the keyboard melds the two colors as best it can.
I say “as best it can ” because while the idea is great in theory—a real winner of a way to show off RGB capabilities—Corsair flubbed something along the way. Instead of a smooth, 16.8-million-color spectrum, the K70 has noticeable “stepping” in color. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I assume that something either hardware or software-related is throttling the color output.
It’s ugly, though. Set up an effect that lasts anymore than 5-10 seconds and you’ll notice that it actually steps between three or four values instead of actually creating a smooth gradient. That’s a
Instead of a smooth,
16.8-million-color
spectrum, the K70
has noticeable
“stepping” in color.
an effect requires you to go to a secondary lighting menu, creating a new effect, then figuring out how to use Corsair’s bizarre line-graph interface (Hint: Right-click) and then figuring out how to change the color of the nodes you made (Hint: Right click again) and then assigning it a name and then finally dragging it onto a group of keys.
You can make some great effects. Gorgeous, even, despite the stepping issues. But damn does it take patience.
Bottom line
I had high hopes for the K70 thanks to its inclusion of real, honest Cherry MX switches. Those hopes were mostly dashed, however. The K70’s light leakage issues, its stepped-gradient LEDs, and its unfriendly configuration software were enough to offset the benefits of my familiar Blue switches.
The stepping issue is something I hope can still be fixed in a future firmware or software update, though don’t take my word for it. If it does, I’d be happy to adjust the score since I think this is otherwise a solid keyboard and could even be great if the issues are fixed. Even so, I’m annoyed it shipped in this condition. If your key feature is 16.8 million colors, you’d better ship with 16.8 million colors.
Netgear redeems
the Nighthawk X4
I CALLED NETGEAR’S Nighthawk X4 “a disappointing ‘Wave 2’ effort” when I reviewed it in early September. This router performed so poorly during benchmarking that I promised I would revisit the device when Netgear came out with new firmware that would take better advantage of its underlying hardware. That time has finally come, and this story completely
BY MICHAEL BROWN
B
Y MICHEL
HO
achieved with firmware version 1.0.0.76. If you purchased a Nighthawk X4 and haven’t updated its firmware, I strongly encourage you to make sure you have the latest version.
Benchmarking routers is an extremely time-intensive task, so I didn’t go back and retest all three of the 802.11ac routers I originally compared the Nighthawk X4 to, even though their performance has also likely changed with firmware revisions. I did, however, retest the Asus RT-AC87U because it delivered the highest overall performance in September. I used Asus’s
version 3.0.0.4.376.2061 for my original test, and I upgraded the RT-AC87U to firmware version 3.0.0.4.376.2679 for my retest.
I don’t mean to imply that it’s a two-way race between Netgear and Asus to build the best 802.11ac router. The Linksys
WRT1900AC is also a strong performer, and I have three more brand-new models in my bench-marking queue that I hope to review
But now, back to the Nighthawk X4. I suspect competitive pressures pushed Netgear into shipping this product too early, because the firmware significantly boosted its performance. Where the Nighthawk with its old
Netgear Nighthawk X4
(model R7500)
PROS:
• Dynamic Quality of Service (QoS) • Supports four spatial streams (4x4) • Dual USB 3.0 ports, plus eSATA
CONS:
• Asus RT-AC87U still much faster when paired with an 802.11ac bridge • MU-MIMO support yet to be delivered
(same goes for Asus)
BOTTOM LINE:
New firmware significantly changes my opinion of Netgear’s Nighthawk X4. This product was clearly rushed to market before everything was buttoned up. Fortunately, firmware can be rewritten. If you buy an R7500, be sure to upgrade its firmware before you put it into service. $280
firmware finished well behind the RT-AC87U in nearly every category, Netgear’s router with its new firmware not only delivered a much better performance, it beat the Asus in some tests.
802.11ac bridge performance
But it didn’t beat the Asus on every count. If you want to see the highest performance an 802.11ac router can deliver, you need to pair it with a second 802.11ac router configured to operate as a wireless bridge. Hardwire your client to the bridge, and it will link back to the router and enable extremely fast data transfers. If you’re setting up a Roku box or a home-theater PC in your entertainment center, for instance, this is the way to ensure you get the absolute best performance (short of hard-wired ethernet, of course).
When I paired the Nighthawk X4 with a second Nighthawk X4 configured as a wireless bridge, the new firmware boosted the router’s performance by an average of 20 percent compared to its
performance with the firmware it shipped with. But when I updated the two Asus routers to their latest firmware and configured the
Nighthawk X4’s rear panel harbors a five-port gigabit Ethernet switch, a power
airwaves to locate the SSIDs of the routers you want to connect your client to (there’s one for its 2.4GHz network and one for its 5GHz network). You need to enter this information manually—and if you get it wrong, you’ll
Nighthawk X4 got significantly faster with its new firmware, while the Asus
RT-AC87U’s firmware slowed it down.
Netgear Nighthawk X4 (R7500)
5GHz 802.11ac performance
(paired with a second router configured
as a wireless bridge)
MEGABITS PER SECOND. LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE. NETGEAR R7500 (FIRMWARE 1.0.0.76) NETGEAR R7500 (FIRMWARE 1.0.0.52)
ASUS RT-AC87U (FIRMWARE 3.0.0.4.376.2679) ASUS RT-AC87U (FIRMWARE 3.0.0.4.376.2061)
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 Kitchen (Client 20 feet from router) Home Theater (Client 35 feet from router) Home Office (Client 65 feet from router) 700 709 240 531 Bedroom (Client 9 feet from router) 592 559 218 420 788 816 371 607 851 834 366 505
need to hard-reset the would-be bridge and start over. Tap a screen on the Asus RT-AC87U’s user interface, and it will locate the SSIDs so you can pick the one you want to connect to with a click of your mouse (after you type in the password, that is). That’s the way it should be.
802.11ac USB Wi-Fi
adapter performance
Netgear’s new firmware delivered an even bigger performance increase when I tested it with an 802.11ac USB Wi-Fi adapter. I’ve been using the Asus USB-AC56 for these benchmarks, and using Netgear’s new router firmware delivered a dramatic performance boost in this scenario, but most of the increase came in my two shorter-range tests (with the client 9 and 20 feet away from the router).
Interestingly, the Asus RT-AC87U’s new firmware significantly reduced that router’s performance in a couple of tests, cutting its long-range throughput by nearly half. Averaging all the tests in this scenario left the Nighthawk X4 slightly ahead—by 4 percent.
5GHz 802.11n performance
If your laptop doesn’t have an 802.11ac adapter onboard, and you don’t plan to buy one, you’ll want to know how an 802.11ac router will perform with an 802.11n adapter. For this test, I rely on the dual-band Intel Centrino Ultimate-N adapter in the AVADirect gaming laptop I use for benchmarking routers.
Netgear’s new firmware reduced the Nighthawk X4’s overall performance on the 5GHz band in the toughest testing location in my
