Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 Mesh
Netgear comes out swinging with a powerful device, but is it worth the enormous price?
For some months now we’ve been using Asus’ Zen Wi-Fi products to power the internet around our home. The system essentially has two primary nodes that have a dedicated backhaul channel between them, reserved for a direct, high-performance connection between the two. This was so robust and fast that we were finally dissuaded from relying on a powerline connection to connect our main, gaming PC to the internet at the other end of the house. It’s been peerless. Until now.
Netgear’s Orbi Wi-Fi 6 Mesh system is a similar beast, but with nodes that are twice the size (25cm tall each!) Set-up is simple: download the app, scan a QR code and follow the prompts. The app offers some good insights into the network and correctly identified all connected devices even if they were running through other networking products. Anything can be easily paused at any time. There are also numerous advanced wireless network monitoring tools but channel scanning, optimisation and detection is all automatic so they’re largely decorative.
A notable feature is called Netgear Armor which secures your network and informs you of events like new connections, failures or threats blocked. It’s powered by BitDefender but only a measly, one-month license is provided. After that you’re supposed to pay a $70 annual subscription which is reduced to $41 for the first year. Most rival, premium, AX routers offer similar, Trend Micro-powered protection for free, indefinitely.
A system called Anywhere Access provides connectivity to your network and devices from across the internet. However, beyond these basic features, the app doesn’t offer much else. Traditional advanced settings like port forwarding and VPN are available through a web browser, but there’s no meaningful QoS capability and built-in parental controls resemble beyond ham-fisted blocking features. If you want proper parental controls you need to install another app: Norton Circle. The basic version of this allows for the usual device assignment and time limits but advanced features (which are often free with rivals) require another premium subscription which costs $15 per month!
We had high hopes for its performance with 6Gbps bandwidth spread across one 2.4GHz and two 5GHz bands. We ran our usual tests in a three-storey
Sydney townhouse with the modem and primary node on the ground floor and the secondary node two floors up. We downloaded large video files from our Synology DS1019+ NAS to our Dell XPS 15 near each node and on the floor in between. Moving upwards through the house it managed 630, 372 and 364Mbps respectively which compares to Asus’ 613, 450 and 445Mbps. Few people will notice any difference in performance but the Asus is slightly faster at distance.
So, it comes down to value. We initially baulked at the Zen Wi-Fi AX’s $899 price tag, saying in our review that the $550 Zen Wi-Fi AC (which offered similar but less robust speeds) offered better value. In the face of all this, the Netgear Orbi’s staggering $1,399 price (plus premium subscriptions!) is ridiculous. Ultimately, it’s a good product but farcically overpriced in this market.
NICK ROSS
A powerful device with a lot to recommend, but let down by out of touch pricing and absurd subscription costs.