Netgear Orbi Voice

If you have to have a router prominent in your home, might as well make it pull double duty as a smart speaker too

$749 netgear.com

Netgear’s Orbi mesh Wi-Fi system is one of the best out there for creating big, fast wireless networks. Proving that there’s no product that can’t jump on the smart home bandwagon, its new version adds an Alexa speaker onto the mesh node, which works together with the main router to create one big network that banishes the black spots.

Vox pop

Wi-Fi plus chunky speaker tech means this is big, tall, and difficult to hide on a shelf. It’s not an eyesore, but it stands out. We like the tasteful grey fabric on the front, and there are controls on top for adjusting the volume, muting the mic, muting the speaker, and triggering Alexa. An LED ring tells you when Alexa’s listening, and if there’s a problem with the internet.

On the software side, Netgear’s Orbi app for Android and iOS is easy to use to configure your Orbi setup, as well as to add Alexa to the mix, and set up child controls for internet access.

When it comes to performance, the whole Orbi system continues to be excellent – very fast, extremely reliable, and we’ve had almost no pain with it at all. It’s a top Wi-Fi setup.

As a smart speaker, it proves solid, too. The time taken to respond to the initial ‘Alexa’ command and the thinking time the Orbi Voice needs seems to be just a fraction longer than it is with a regular Echo, but it’s not a problem. The full range of Alexa powers are here, so it’s extremely capable.

Inside, a 35-watt amplifier, a 3.5-inch woofer, a 1-inch tweeter and a passive bassreflex port, all tuned by Harman Kardon, provide the speaker power. It’s no surprise that the audio quality is much better than a regular Echo, but it doesn’t reach ‘great’ status – it doesn’t beat out a Sonos One. Bass is strong and powerful, but occasionally a little on the muddy side, while mids and trebles were respectably sharp most of the time. It can easily fill a room.

There’s no Bluetooth here, so you’ll have to either play something through Alexa or Spotify Connect – that’s a bit limiting for the price.

As a speaker, it’s also nothing too special for the price… but then it’s also a top Wi-Fi system, which makes it solid value. It works great for what it is, so it becomes a question of whether you need this particular combination.