First - Amazon's service is outstanding!Next, this router in inherently buggy, I have configured three units and have yet to find one that is NOT defective. Typical faults, I've faced one or more of them on the three units I configured:1. Almost always ships with a 110 V AC adapter, won't work in India, voltage converter needed2. Router goes into a reboot loop just Google "Reboot loop Netgear R8500"3. Router dies with amber power LED4. Router is supposed to have 3 working radios - 1 x 2.4 GHz radio and 2 x 5 GHz radios, in general, the second and fastest 5 GHz radio connected to active MIMO antenna does not work - no amount of troubleshooting will make it workAs compared to my sturdy R7000, the range for the R8500 is marginally better on 5GHz but a bit worse on 2.4 GHz.Worst - Netgear India does not support this router, regardless of where you buy it from (online or brick & mortar store), you need to call the US support so no voice support for a flagship router that Netgear has officially launched in India. Check more reviews on Netgear India.I've used other Netgear products which are working without problems since the last 12 years so didn't expect this from Netgear.Unfortunately, there is no option for a 0/5 rating or I would have given it that.

Quite a paradoxial heading for couple of reasons. Did not buy the product from Amazon due to extremely high price from its vendors. Amazon deleted my comments twice due to my rants. Please check the ma. re. pr. before buying from here. Hardware shops are selling them much cheaper.The Pathetic-- Ugly, outdated and buggy UI- Firmware date stuck in the year1970, even with latest firmware V1.0.2.28 and no way to change it after adjusting the time zone to GMT +5.30 hours- Scheduling option for the two radio bands for switch on/ off not possible, as default is "off"" and cannot be changed-Parental control is a piece of crap and do not work even after registering log in with netgear.opendns.com and saving the options. Control from iOS or Android Netgear Genie do not work after login or do not register on the router. Observed abrupt blockage of internet on devices observed even forbun blocked categories. Eg. App market wont download apps on iOS and gets blocked. Ridiculous.-Very limited storage for key search word blocking in router firewall-Netgear Genie apps on iOS and Android looks like a kindergarten kid's game and practically useless for advanced set ups or changes. Its very basic at best.- Very minimalistic basic firewall and is enabled by default. Not like Trend Micro firewall available on similar Asus routers- Below average 2.4ghz n wifi range. 1.5k to 3k n routers like my good old Dlink Dir 605L will steal the show and clearly outperform.Now here is where Netgear R7800 takes the cake-- One if the best dual band AC router if you wish to future proof your xevices/clients with higher broadband speeds equipped with Wifi AC wave 2 160hz band standards, which is theoreoticaly doubling the possible bandwidth. Check Qualcomm's website for chips supporting this technology (gadget manufacturers sometimes do no pass on these capabilities like my Samsung A9 Pro with Snapdragon 652).-4x4 MIMO means easy handling of multiple devices in each band assuming sufficient bandwidth throughput-Beam forming is not a trick as I thought. Signal gets a boost once you initiate a task.- Stellar performance on 5ghz band with excellent banwidth availability through a typical 2bhk (2 to 3 brick wall penetration significantly curbs signal strength n bandwidth) in Mumbai. Even very expensive 5ghz band AC routers are severely crippled due to poor transmission efficiency over line of sight distances and more affected with obstacles like our brick walls, cupboards.- Though signal strength drops, bandwidth drop is not so significant.The other comparable 5ghz models in the current price band are Asus 68U AC1900, newer Asus 87U AC2400.I tested the wifi performance with Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro using Speedtest.net as well as wifi analyzer app, separately for 2.4ghz and 5ghz (AC) bands. My fiber to home broadband plan is rated for peak 100mbps down link and 40mbps uplink. For each band, I checked wifi signal quality over 1 feet and then farther end of my bed room separated by a wall and a wooden wardrobe. Distance could be about 30 feet apart. I analysed the downlink and uplink speed only for 5ghz frequency as this is ONLY where this router excels and have paid a premium to upgrade. Speed on 2.4ghz over same distance as of 5ghz was not so great and was found to be about 10dbm weaker at times. Please have a look at the attached screenshot of test results to understand the only area where this router shines.I get about 95mbps down link on LAN ethernet by bypassing the R7800 on the laptop. On wifi 5ghz channel 36, I got 95 mbps within 1 feet and lost ONLY about 1mbps at 30 feet away with a wall and wardrobe in between. Signal strength at 5ghz, 1feet away was about -20dbm and at the 30 feet test point, dropped to about -60dbm which was quite impressive.Router comes pre configured with two SSIDs and common password affixed on it (for 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands). Virtually, no configuration was required as the router auto detected and set up the configuration after detecting the signal and I was good to fly after unboxing the device.Two Guest SSIDs are further possible on each of the bands (in all, 4 SSIDs).Have not yet tested the USB 3 or eSATA functionalities and may never as I am not too sure if Netgear has the most secure firmware on the product to keep our privacy safe.So far used upto 5 devices together but all well and router is quite rock solid.Trust this helps you guys to decide between a ugly UI, an outdated buggy firmware versus a great hardware performance for your next upgrade....Happy surfing!Update- to downgradeAfter almost 3 weeks of lodging complaint regarding the buggy firmware, 1970 date issue Netgear replaced my R7800 with R7800- 100 INS version. The new device has the same above mentioned issues and offered no respite. Are you guys facing the same issues? Moreover, the radio on-off scheduling option too is turned off by default as the date and time is not syncronised or cannot be manually set even after latest firmware update.

Received my R8500. Set it up. Updated to latest firmware (R8500-V1.0.0.56_1.0.28) Great Wifi on guest and regular bands. The R8500 Worked for aprox 10-12 days but then died. Blue antenna lights seem to blink occassionally. I tried factory reset button and direct wired connection and wifi connections. Nothing is working. No Wifi network is showing. DHCP is not assigning IPs. Netgear Genie won't connect.Looks like i have invested in a product, which aint worth the price !!!