Add Category
Telstra's Nighthawk is packed with features but right now it struggles to deliver on its promise of Australia's fastest mobile broadband speeds.
Australia's mobile speed wars continue to rage, with Telstra unveiling its first 4GX Gigabit LTE compatible device in the Netgear Nighthawk M1. It's bulky for a mobile router – roughly the size of a sandwich while tipping the scales at 240gm – but in return it crams in plenty of useful features.
One with the lot
For starters the Nighthawk includes a generous 5040 mAh battery which is good for 16 hours, or 500 hours standby, so it's designed to get you through a long day on a single charge. It charges via USB C but there's also a full-sized USB port which you can use to recharge your gadgets from the Nighthawk's battery – handy if your smartphone tends to feel a little flat near the end of a busy day.
The Nighthawk is a dual-band 802.11ac hotspot supporting 4x4 MIMO and up to 20 Wi-Fi devices simultaneously, plus there's a TS9 connector for an external antenna. You can also plug in a USB stick or microSD card and share their contents with all the devices connected to the Nighthawk.
What's particularly useful is that you'll also find an Ethernet port on the back, which is handy if you want the Nighthawk to act as the heart of a home or office network. While Telstra sells the Nighthawk for $360 outright, it's also available from $24 per month on Go Mobile Data Plus or Business Mobile Data plans, or else from $100 per month on Home Wireless Broadband Plus plans.
The Home Wireless Broadband Plus plans might suit renters, or people who are stuck without decent fixed-line broadband until the NBN reaches their doorstep, but keep in mind that Telstra's mobile data is rather expensive and you'll find better value for money elsewhere. To sweeten the deal, on some Nighthawk plans Telstra throws in up to 200GB of free cloud storage, unlimited data via Telstra Air until March 2018 and unmetered live streaming of every AFL, NRL and Netball 2017 match.
The need for speed
Apart from the Nighthawk's advanced features, you're paying a premium for Telstra's "Gigabit" mobile speeds, but to be honest in most areas you're unlikely to see a speed boost over cheaper rival mobile hotspots from Optus and Vodafone – at least for now.
We all know that theoretical mobile data speeds are meaningless, and Telstra says the Nighthawk offers "typical download speed performance between 5 and 300 Mbps". The telco is really hedging its bets here, basically saying "just be happy if it works it all".
Given that it's described as a "4GX Gigabit LTE Mobile Router" you could be forgiven for thinking that the Nighthawk is capable of getting up around 300 Mbps anywhere within Telstra's 4GX coverage area – which extends across Australia's capital cities and major regional areas – but that's not the case.
The Nighthawk achieves its maximum speeds by tapping into multiple Telstra radio bands simultaneously, but right now it can only perform this trick within a kilometre or two of the city centre in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and even then it's pot luck.
Beyond these zones you'll only squeeze 75 to 85 Mbps out of the Nighthawk in 4GX areas. That's assuming you're relatively close to a Telstra mobile tower, if you live down in a valley like me then you might only squeeze 20 to 25 Mbps per second out of the Nighthawk. From my testing around Melbourne, you'll get these same 75-ish Mbps suburban speeds from a Vodafone Pocket WiFi 4G (Huawei R216h) or Optus Mobile WiFi (Huawei E5786) – but as always your mileage may vary.
Put to the test
Telstra isn't keen to share its exact Nighthawk coverage maps, but in Melbourne it basically covers the CBD and adjoining suburbs – so roughly from the Docklands across to the MCG. Unfortunately the Nighthawk can struggle to hit even 75 Mbps within this zone.
Mobile broadband speeds are fickle at the best of times for a wide range of reasons, so I took the Nighthawk for a drive around Melbourne at 9pm on a Monday night to avoid peak-hour mobile congestion and give it the best chance of success.
In North Melbourne the Nighthawk could hit 75-ish Mbps, but as I ventured into the 4GX Gigabit coverage area it actually struggled to make it past 50 Mbps. Standing in King Street the Nighthawk was lucky to hit 10 Mbps but, to be fair, at the same time the Vodafone and Optus hotspots experienced similar issues in the same location.
For one brief moment, over in a deserted corner of the Docklands, the Nighthawk clocked an impressive 166.8 Mbps down and 59.3 Mbps up – using the Speedtest app on my iPhone. Moments before it had clocked a measly 8.7 Mbps down, 10.9 up via Speedtest using the browser on my MacBook Pro. So while you'll see flashes of brilliance from the Nighthawk, don't imagine that it's always going to be lightning fast even in the centre of town.
So what's the verdict?
Right now I wouldn't upgrade to Telstra's Nighthawk M1 in pursuit of an immediate speed boost, as you're very unlikely to see it. To be fair to Telstra, mobile broadband performance in any city centre is always fickle. All network speed upgrades start in the inner city and expand over time, so as the 4GX Gigabit coverage extends further into the inner suburbs over the coming months and years the Nighthawk will become more practical – something to consider if you're signing up for a 24-month plan.
The Nighthawk still might be a worthwhile investment today if you'd make the most of its other advanced features, like that Ethernet port, knowing that you're future-proofed for the day when Telstra's 4GX Gigabit coverage becomes more reliable in the areas where you actually need it.