I turned on the smart connect which I think is an excellent feature for automatically handling / assinging your device to the 5ghz band that is less loaded.

I used the smart connect feature to allow the router to select the best band for each device to maximize performance

speed on all device(please check smart connect feature box

And because of this, when I enable the smart connect function in this router, I find my devices that being able to connect at all

Smart connect allowing combination of 2.4ghz and 5 ghz is awesome

Additionally, with “Smart Connect” devices I’ve used in the past, there is a single SSID

Smart Connect didn't work, had to disable it.

The Nighthawk X8 documentation incorrectly states that Smart Connect for the Nighthawk X8 combines the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks

The R8500 Nighthawk X8 employs “Smart Connect

I replaced my R7000 because I was having issues with the new AppleTVs staying connected in my home

It does connect well to my Nest thermostats and my Aladdin Genie garage door openers with no issues.

I of course went back in to change my SSID and password, as well as enable the cool features such as Smart Connect and Dynamic QoS. Doing so was incredibly smooth and easy thanks to the very friendly and easy to use Web Interface to interact with the router settings

phones2 tablets2 laptops1 wifi printerMy home is pretty connected and I also believe in decent security as well

The Nighthawk X8 also has Smart Connect which figures out which Wi-Fi band to assign each device to

The SMART Connect feature is another feather in cap

The system provides two 5GHz radio signals (high & low) which is integrated with a smart connect feature which assigns devices to the best freq.- Dual Core 1.4 GHz processor- 6 gigabit

Additionally, I quit having issues with multiple devices bogging down the wireless network; I'd bet dollars to donuts Smart Connect is playing a role since my issues went away after I enabled it (Dual 5 Ghz bands to help isolate slower devices)

Very easy to set up even if you are an IT novice and it seems to be handling our 30+ connected devices really well

The Smart Connect feature is pretty amazing, it’s able to detect the type of device and select the best WIFI band for it and all it takes to enable this feature is just a checkbox.

These can be used separately with unique SSID’s, or with Netgear’s Smart Connect where the same SSID is used for both bands (which operate on different channels) and the router determines which band to assign to each 5GHz device and effectively load balances for you

And btw the smart connect technology only works on the 5GHz signals

I have my Matricom G-Box Q² Android TV Streaming Media Kodi box and non-WiFi capable HDTV connected to a Nighthawk AC1900 that is bridged to the new AC5300

I highly recommend for the larger households that have multiple users all connected with some kind of device.

I had this router connected to a CyberPower CST 1400S to protect it from power surges and

Setup went through fine but while changing SSID and enabling smart connect simultaneously, the router's firmware corrupted

The web based interface states that Smart Connect combines the two 5 GHz networks

I setup both bands (2.4 and 5Ghz) and played with the smart connect feature

The most useful, to me, are the antenna beam forming, and the Smart Connect features, which sort out the different types of wireless connections to ensure the best connection for each device, and send the most signal possible towards your device (as opposed to omnidirectional signal, sort of

While connecting at 867 MB, a slower speed than the available speed of the router, I was impressed.

Did setup 'Smart Connect' where the router dynamically decides and balances which of the two 5G bands devices having an AC network adapter will be assigned to

For example, the router offers an optional Smart Connect feature that attempts to choose the best radio band for your device thereby improve Wi-Fi performance

I like the Smart Connect feature which combines both 5G radios with the same SSID

and I also like the Smart Connect ability to use one login for either 5Ghz band.

This has a “Smart Connect” feature (One Wireless Network Name (SSID) for both 5.0 GHz radios) which helps load balance the connected 5Ghz devices and it works great no slowdowns at all with many devices connected to it.4K streaming is just around the corner and this monster will be able to handle anything you throw at it with it's Dual Core 1.4 GHz Processor!6 Gigabit Ethernet ports was a nice upgrade most routers only have 4, so if you wanted to hard wire your devices you have plenty of ports to use

The "smart connect mode" on the R8500 only joins the two 5GHz networks and not the 2.4 as the R7000 does.

The most useful are the beam forming and the Smart Connect features

No idea why the smart connect doesn't work across 2.4 / 5 GHz spectrums like competitors (making it rather useless)

But most all, it is super easy to configure, super smooth getting connected, and extremely fast surfing internet

n’t have the radio issue but was getting BSoDs using their own USB-AC68 but that’s for another review.

I love t