Music, Alexa & mesh Wi-fi in one from Netgear Orbi

We wrote about the joys of mesh Wi-Fi a couple of issues ago, spreading several base stations around your home to offer blanket coverage rather than relying on a single Wi-Fi base station at one end of your house. Various systems are available, but Netgear’s Orbi is proving one of the most versatile, having not only tri-band Wi-Fi where some rivals have only dual-band, but also having an outdoor Orbi model and now the pictured Alexa smart speaker which doubles as a mesh Wi-fi expansion point. The sound system is only mono, with a 9cm front-facing woofer and single 25mm tweeter, but it’ll be an interesting listen as Netgear has worked with Harman/Kardon to deliver the optimum sound, while the tri-band mesh Wi-Fi delivers a potential 3Gbps (less in real-world environments) Wi-Fi coverage for homes up to 418 square metres, with the promise of nearly zero buffering and no dead zones. Mesh Wi-Fi is not a budget networking option, and the Orbi Mesh WiFi System (RBK50V package of one Orbi Tri-Band WiFi Router plus one Orbi Voice Smart Speaker and Wi-Fi Satellite) has an RRP of $799. The Orbi Smart Speaker alone will have an RRP of $499. More info: netgear.com.au