Netgear Nighthawk M3 mobile hotspot router review

Netgear Nighthawk M3: 30-second review

The Nighthawk M3 5G mobile router offers up to 2.5 GB/s of network data transfer speed when connected to a full 5G network. This might not be the fastest mobile router out there, with the M6 Pro and M6 Pro both offering up to 4 GB/s, but for the vast majority of us, 2.5 GB/s should be more than adequate to keep in contact with work, upload documents, and even sit back and relax to watch a movie or two at the end of the day.

The Nighthawk M3 is essentially a data connection with your mobile provider and, like a mobile phone, requires its own SIM card and data plan to facilitate that network connection. In this review, I used the Vodafone 5G data SIM, which is an add-on to my existing contract, to test out the Nighthawk M3’s abilities.

While it’s true that you can use your mobile phone to tether to your laptop, tablet, or other network-connected devices, having the best mobile hotspot router makes a lot of sense. First and foremost, you’re taking that battery drain and data usage away from your mobile and placing it onto another dedicated device. But it’s far more than that—since the connection is 5G and it offers WiFi 6 technology, you have a far more robust WiFi signal. So, if you’re used to tethering to your mobile phone or find the connection a little intermittent, even though there’s a strong 5G signal, you should find the Nighthawk M3 a lot more robust and reliable to use.

Another major advantage I found when using the Nighthawk was that I could connect multiple devices to the hub without too much of a downgrade in internet connection speeds. While working, we had three laptops all connected to the Nighthawk hub, utilising that 5G connection and all were able to browse the internet, answer emails, and upload a few images.

There is little to it in use, and I was especially impressed with the battery life. Using it with multiple people was connected, even when going through heavy use.

Otherwise, compared with a mobile phone, in most situations, I found that when the iPhone was showing one bar for a 5G connection, the Nighthawk M3 would generally be at least two bars higher, enabling a stronger connection. It was also impressive how using the hub had the obvious advantage of extending my mobile phone’s battery life quite considerably.

If you work away from the home office and want a strong, reliable internet connection, then I really can’t recommend this enough. From working out in the field to working in cafés where you don’t want to connect to public Wi-Fi for security reasons, the Nighthawk M3 absolutely stands out. The only caveat about this is that if there is no signal, then however good the Nighthawk M3 is, you’re still not going to be able to access the internet.

Netgear Nighthawk M3: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? From £449
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Directly from Netgear or Amazon.com

The Nighthawk M3 is widely available and can be bought in most electronic stores, directly from Netgear, or through online retailers such as Amazon.com.

Netgear Nighthawk M3: Specs

Netgear Nighthawk M3: Design

The Nighthawk M3 is a 5G mobile hub. As such, it’s compact, measuring 21.5 x 105 x 105 mm and weighing 256 g. This essentially means it will fit into any backpack pocket without too much issue—you could even fit it into a large jacket pocket at a stretch.

As it’s designed to be highly portable, it’s also been built robustly with a rubberised plastic surround, which should protect it from knocks and bashes. The overall exterior is extremely simple, with a small screen on the front that shows the internet connection and a few options. On the top, there’s the power button, that also enables you to scroll through the screens when powered on, and on the base, there’s the USB Type-C connection, which is used to charge the internal battery.

A nice feature of that internal battery is that it’s removable. So, if you know you’ll be away from power for any length of time, you can buy an additional battery.

As with all of these network hubs, a data SIM is required to work. The SIM is located just underneath the battery. Once removed, you’ll see the SIM slot; simply push the SIM in as you would in a mobile phone, and as long as you’ve got data, the Nighthawk will be primed and ready to set up.

Otherwise, when it comes to the design and build, the Nighthawk is very simple. It’s intended as a network hub, so once you connect to it, and as long as you have data on your SIM contract, everything should work nicely and easily.

Netgear Nighthawk M3: Features

The Nighthawk M3 essentially enables the same convenience as a wireless network hub that you would find in your office, although it utilises a cellular data connection rather than wired. Over tethering to your mobile phone using a hub like this enables a more rubust connection, saves your phones battery life and enables multiple connections without the slow down.

Top of the list of features is the fast 5G network coverage, which the Nighthawk then serves through WiFi 6 technology. One of the big advantages of using the Nighthawk over just tethering to your mobile phone is that its coverage is much wider—up to 1,000 ft². If you are travelling and want to take a form of mobile network data with you, the Nighthawk M3 is certified to work in up to 125 countries.

Connection is the major selling point of the Nighthawk M3. Unlike your mobile device, which may struggle when you have more than one device connected to its hotspot network connection, the Nighthawk M3 is designed to enable up to 32 devices to be simultaneously connected to the hub through that WiFi connection. Even though the Nighthawk M3 is a single-function device and doesn’t run apps, it still needs processing power in order to handle the data connections; inside powering the M3 is a Snapdragon SDX62 5G modem, which enables speeds of up to 2.5 GB/s.

One of the big issues when using your mobile to tether is that the connected devices tend to quickly drain the phones battery. In the Nighthawk M3 a 5,000 mAh capacity battery is install with a quoted 13 hours of use on a single charge far exceeding that of most standard mobiles.

One of the features I really like is the inclusion of a 2.4-inch LCD colour screen which enables you to check out various functions and features. The screen isn’t touchscreen, and in order to see the different screens, you can use the power button at the top of the device to scroll through. A single click rotates between the network connection signal, battery life, and other information, including how many devices are utilising the hub.

The main reasons for utilising the Nighthawk M3 is so that you can have decent internet connection away from the office utilising cellular networks, however, another use is that you can use it as a backup system for your office internet. If losing a network connection is an issue for you, you can have the Nighthawk M3 set up, primed, and ready to go 24/7. This is especially useful if you’re using it for surveillance cameras or other smart devices, as it ensures there is never any downtime if your main wired connection does go down.

Another reason to use the Nighthawk M3 when you’re out and about is security. If you are dubious about using public WiFi, carrying your WiFi system with you offers a solution for a far more secure connection than hooking into your local café’s WiFi network.

Netgear Nighthawk M3: Performance

Getting started with the Nighthawk M3 is easy enough. Simply charge it using the USB Type-C cable, and once the power reaches 100%, you’re pretty much set to go. Netgear states a 13-hour battery life, but in reality, through this test, I found that it was between 8 and 10 hours depending on the network connection. Being out in the sticks meant that the M3 had to switch between a 4G and 5G network, and this, as with my mobile phone (an Apple iPhone 15 Pro), considerably drains the battery as the device searched for a suitable network.

However, eight hours at the bare minimum with four devices connected was still superb compared with the equivalent relatively short battery life when I tethered to the iPhone 15 Pro.

Getting started with the Nighthawk is extremely quick and straightforward. Once it’s fully charged, the battery can be removed, and a standard data SIM can be inserted into the small SIM slot. Then,the battery can be popped back in, and the push-fit cover on the back can be replaced.

The M3 then needs to be activated. You do this by first powering it on, and a QR code will appear asking you to connect to the Nighthawk’s WiFi. Once that’s done, you complete the second step, which is to register the router admin. Again, there’s a QR code to make this nice and easy, enabling you to type in all the details from your mobile phone.

Before heading out I ran a quick test, connecting my MacBook Pro M1 Max directly to the M3 by selecting the network. Since it was already connected to my mobile phone, the password and access instantly crossed over—it’s all nice and easy.

The initial connection was impressive. When I compared the connection speed against my mobile phone hotspot, it was almost double, although both were utilising essentially the same contract. When I looked at the strength of the network connection, I saw that the difference between the two was stark. The iPhone 15 Pro showed three bars of 5G, whilst the M3 showed a full five bars.

At home, the M3’s performance already showed it was considerably better than when tethering to a device such as the iPhone 15 Pro. However, the main test for the M3 is obviously out of the office and in the field. First and foremost, before testing the actual network speed, the physical design of the M3 comes into play. The rubberised plastic surround and big LCD in the centre are all exceptionally well made, and it feels good and robust when you slip it into a backpack pocket.

While the design of the Nighthawk M3 hasn’t been made to be weatherproof or ultra-robust, it is of high quality. If you are using this out and about as a photographer, someone who works on a building site, or out in the field, it should survive a small knock or two. However, it’s worth being a little more delicate compared to a device like a rugged router that has been designed specifically for the rigours of outdoor use.

Connecting up two MacBook Pro laptops, an iPhone 15 Pro, and an iPad Mini, the internet connection for all was extremely good. As I checked the internet speeds, the two MacBooks connected at the same data rate, with the iPhone 15 Pro, when piggybacking on the hotspot of the Netgear Nighthawk M3, achieving 7Gbps, while the iPad showed much the same. Repeating the same test but this time connecting to the iPhone 15 Pro again (using the same 5G SIM on roughly the same contract), the results came in at 3Gbps for the two MacBooks the same for the iPad.

Throughout the test, one of the biggest differences between using the M3 and tethering to the iPhone was the reliability of the connection. If you had more than one device connected to the iPhone 15 Pro, that connection became very unstable. By comparison, with the M3, the stability was consistent. With two of us working on emails and various other network features, the Nighthawk M3 was streets ahead of the usual tethering connection we get with our mobile phones.

Another point from this test was the battery life. The Nighthawk M3 was exceptional in this regard. During the two weeks of review, I utilised the Nighthawk in the van during the day to work remotely. In the evenings, I hooked it up to our security cameras in the garage via a mains connection. This served to connect the data to our security system, which had been suffering from a drop in connection via our home internet and regular power cuts.

The Nighthawk M3 worked exceptionally well in both scenarios—as a mobile internet hub allowing multiple devices to connect and as a network adapter for the home security system.

The M3 is impressive as the entry-level model in the Nighthawk range. Its WiFi 6 technology enables a good, fast connection. If you want to boost the connection further, you can use the wired port to connect directly to your laptop via USB, eliminating the need for a WiFi connection between the laptop and the hub.

Netgear Nighthawk M3: Final verdict

There are several user scenarios for using the Nighthawk M3. Through this test, the two situations where I found it worked exceptionally well were when I was working out in the van, taking photographs for various projects, and being able to come back to the mobile office to answer emails and upload photos that I had taken to my online library. Just being able to do everything on location when the signal allowed was a huge benefit. Whilst I could do this when tethered to the hotspot on my mobile phone, there was always the issue that the connection wasn’t always 100% robust. Side by side, there was definitely a boost in performance between the mobile connection of the Nighthawk M3 and that of the iPhone 15 Pro.

Likewise, when travelling up to London for a meeting, being able to sit in Waterloo Station or a café more centrally, the fact that I was able to take my network connection with me meant that I didn’t have those security concerns that I often have when connecting to public WiFi.

The final test was really to see how it worked as a network adapter for my home security cameras. I connected this setup to the Kami security cameras in the garage. After a quick reset of the cameras and connection to the Nighthawk M3 hub, everything worked nice and smoothly, and I was able to get the usual remote access to the cameras to view what was going on. The garage is also wired into a continuous power supply, so even if the mains power cuts out, continuous power through a Bluetti AC500 with B300S batteries ensures that everything remains powered.

Normally, a power cut would cause me to lose the internet connection. Now, with the additional Nighthawk M3, my full security system is completely self-sufficient and operational when the main power and internet are offline. This also works as a security system for the van.

These uses of the Nighthawk M3 make it a superb option. Whilst it might not be the fastest network hotspot hub out there, it is certainly fast enough for most people who are looking for a mobile network solution. If you are after a network hub that boosts speed further for mobile streaming at higher resolutions, there is the Nighthawk M6, which is a further step up in speed and price.

Should I buy a Netgear Nighthawk M3?

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