Black Friday router deal: The Netgear Nighthawk X8

We described the Netgear Nighthawk X8 as "a greatest hits collection of the best ideas in current home networking" in our recent router round-up, in which we declared it the "best high-end router over $300." And now, over on Amazon, you can actually pick it up forunder $300.

Very slightly under $300, yes, but if a tricked-out, high-end router is what you're after, the Nighthawk X8 is definitely worth a look. It supports tri-band Wifi and Quad Stream delivery of up to four data streams per band, with rated wireless speeds of up to 5.3 Gbps. Even more importantly, as we noted in our report, the range and stability of its MU-MIMO Wifi coverage went well beyond anything else we tested. There are six Ethernet ports (including a pair of aggregated ports) in the back if you want to actually plug stuff in, and the hard drive performance through its USB 3.0 port was also very impressive.

The Netgear Nighthawk X8 normally runs around the $400 mark, and whether you need a router that costs more than a couple of car payments is a question that only you can answer. But if the answer is "yes" (or even just an optimistic "maybe"), now would be a good time to give it a peek.