The Netgear Nighthawk M6 Pro gets you all the flavors of AT&T's 5G, including its newest.
AT&T launched two new Netgear hotspots today, and the higher-end one—the Netgear Nighthawk M6 Pro—is the company's first hotspot to support all of its current and upcoming flavors of 5G. Most notably, that includes both chunks of AT&T's C-band, which the company will use to seriously boost 5G speeds later this year and into 2023.
The $459.99 M6 Pro has everything we've been missing from a hotspot for the past year. Not only does it have all flavors of 5G, it has Wi-Fi 6E to be able to then transmit that 5G as Wi-Fi to up to 32 devices quickly; USB-C and Ethernet ports; and what looks like external antenna jacks. In terms of mobile internet access devices, this thing is the absolute premier.
The $309.99 Nighthawk M6 is more for people who don't think fast 5G coverage is coming their way soon. AT&T says it has "5G," but it's only low-band 5G, which has performed the same as 4G in our tests. On the other hand, it has all of AT&T's 4G technologies and will undoubtably work well in 4G areas. The M6 also lacks Wi-Fi 6E, but with regular Wi-Fi 6 it should be fine distributing 4G.
I'm really glad to see AT&T carrying some state-of-the-art hotspots. Verizon doesn't currently have any C-band hotspots. T-Mobile has one nice one in the Mi-Fi M2000.
AT&T says the best plan for these hotspots right now is a $50/month, 25GB plan; the carrier also has a $75/month, 40GB plan. Those plans aren't enough for most people to use as their primary home internet access, which seems to be an AT&T strategy for now. Unlike with Verizon and T-Mobile, AT&T has said at recent events that it's focused on providing home internet access primarily by expanding its fiber land lines.
The Nighthawk M6 is also known as the MR6110, while the Nighthawk M6 Pro is the MR6500; both went through the FCC in February. On the MR6500's SAR test report, the manufacturer says it was tested and approved for AT&T's new 3.45-3.55GHz band as well as 3.7-3.98GHz and AT&T's millimeter-wave 39GHz.
This is important because AT&T has said it's going to be using 3.45-3.55GHz as a major frequency across the nation. The number of devices using this band are slowly growing. We know the Samsung Galaxy S22 has it, the Google Pixel 6a possibly will, and Motorola says two of its new midrange phones will. The Nighthawk M6 Pro currently the only hotspot that can handle it. We look forward to reviewing these new hotspots in the future.
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PCMag's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed more than 1,100 smartphones and other gadgets since 2004. He's tested every generation of the iPhone and covered Android phones since the very first one. His reviews also include ebook readers, hotspots, mobile networks, and tablets.
Sascha runs PCMag's Fastest Mobile Networks drive-test projects throughout the US and Canada and writes a weekly Race to 5G newsletter, focusing on developments in the mobile and 5G worlds.
He is also a multiple-award-winning travel writer. Sascha's first computer was an Atari 800, and his first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. He lives in Queens, NY.
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