difference in Nighthawk M2 MR2100 & M1 MR1100

[Moof66]

The only difference that matters is the M2 is touch screen and therefore easier to use. 

The speed boost is imaginary for most people 'cos we never even got close to maxing out the 1Gb capability of the M1, so what good is 2Gb gonna do?

[JSchnee21]

Theoretically you'e absolutely right.  But in practice the MR1100 Gen1 and Gen2 is such a dog compared to other devices with the same or similar mobile chipsets there are only three possibilities:

1) AT&T is throttling it and/or other hotspots while not throttling flagship phones.  E.G. my iPhone XSM is generally 2x faster in all locations.  Samsung Galaxy devices 8/9/10 are even faster.

2) The FCC approvals castrated the device -- no 256QAM, no 4x4, etc.

3) Some other hardware/firmware internal flaw / design choice is hampering performance on the AT&T network / USA bands/frequencies.

The MR2100 represents the opportunity for a do-over.  It won't help for issues #1.  But Netgear would get a second shot at #2 and #3.  When the MR1100 was released, twice, in the US market it was rushing to catch up with a number of recent changes Band 14, LAA, recent LTE-A related changes all of which were in various states of readiness during the MR1100 lifecycle.

Now that the AT&T network has stabilized, I'm hopeful that the MR2100 might have a chance to perform better -- that is to say up to the level of a flagship phone -- assuming AT&T will let it.  Of course this is still just wishful thinking.

Of course, it often takes Netgear 6 to 12 months worth of software revision to work all of the bugs out of the firmware -- which seems crazy given that the device is already launched on similar networks in two global markets already.