Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E Mesh Router Review - 6 Months Later

Vemuda Techno - The Netgear Orib WiFi 6E Mesh System is NETGEAR’s top-of-the-line router system that includes the bleeding edge WiFi standard, WiFi 6E. I've been using the system NETGEAR sent me for over six months now and its performance has been incredible. 

So I'm going to take you through why that is, some of the downsides I found using this system, why not all Wi-Fi 6E mesh systems are equivalent and who I think this system is  ultimately for.

1. Performance

First, let's talk performance this mesh router system easily handles the almost 100 devices I have on our network at any given time, which older routers that don’t even have WiFi 6 will often struggle with.

I’ve never had an issue with WiFi speeds with this router on any device, and the range of the network has been incredible. I'm easily able to pump out enough Wi-Fi signal across the street to my garage. So, my car can download software updates over Wi-Fi, even with the garage door closed.

Source: Netgear

And for the few WiFi 6E devices you may have  in your home, the speeds are nothing short of superb and thats because WiFi 6E routers include a new 6 GHz band that WiFi 6E devices can connect to and this band can have faster speeds and often less congestion since WiFi 6E is a pretty new standard.

In fact with this router system,  I have hit speeds over Wi-Fi I've never even experienced before at my home, over 470 megabytes per second which for the non-fiber service I have at my apartment is really fast.

And if you're unfamiliar with Wi-Fi 6E or mesh routers versus traditional routers, you should check out the explainer video I did on how to get better wi-fi. It takes you through all the different differences between all the new Wi-Fi standards. 

2. Hardware Design

Next, lets talk hardware. The Orib 6E router hardware design is solid, even though these routers a bit big and maybe a bit ugly, they certainly are not as pleasant to look at as the routers from Eero and Nest.

But I've had issues with both the Nest Wi-Fi and Eero router systems in the past compared to the Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E versions of the Orbi system, where, with those systems, I haven't had any issues with performance. So perhaps the hardware being bigger allows for a better antenna design.

The main router has a 10 GB port on the back and I like both the routers and WiFi Points with this system have several ethernet jacks on the back, to you flexibility in how to setup your network, and if you want to, you can just hardwire ethernet to each router and mesh point.

So that's everything I've liked about this system over the past six months. Now, I know, it doesn't feel like I covered a ton in this section with what I like about this router system.

For me, when it comes to a WiFi network, I just want to be able to plug it in, give me the speeds I need, and get out of the way, and the NETGEAR Orbi Wi-Fi 6E mesh system, it accomplishes that for me.

3. Orbi App

by going with the system, there are a few downsides that you should be aware of. The first downside is the app Netgear puts out for the Orbi system, it’s design is just OK, but definitely not as nice as the ones from Eero or Google.

Some parts of it are slow to load and overall, could just use a visual design overhaul. Features like the network map lack polish and this app doesn’t make you feel you like spent a ton of money for this router system. Another major downside with this router system is paywalls.

Now, the three pack i got from NETGEAR is already incredibly expensive. It typically retails for $1500 US dollars. Which yes, is insane for a Wi-Fi router system and will get into whether or not I think it's worth the price in a second.

4. Paywalls

So you're already paying an insane amount for incredible Wi-Fi performance and then on top of that Netgear wants to charge you more for features that other Wi-Fi routers include for free. Like parental controls.

NETGEAR charges anywhere from $50 to $70 US dollars a year for their Parental Control features like downtime for your kids devices, blocking specific websites, giving your kids extra WiFi time as a reward and more.

I think it's ridiculous given the cost of this router system that netgear is charging for these features. They should be free for the life of the router system if you purchase it at this price period and the charges, they don't stop there.

They have another service called NETGEAR Armor which a cyber thereat protection service for your home’s internet, now to be fair, its more common in the market for WiFi routers to charge for a service like this and its also a service most people don’t actually need but still.

Let me know down in the comments below if you purchased a router system like this at that price, would you be willing to spend more money on a subscription service to unlock certain features for the router?

5. Setup and Power Blips

The next downside I’ve found with this system is setup, it just takes longer than competing  router systems, especially eero routers which are still have the fastest setup I’ve ever experienced on a router system.

The last downside I found with this router  system involves power blips. So not when the power doesn't go completely out, it just goes out for a split second and comes back on. 

That situation, and when that happens, I've noticed some devices on your Wi-Fi network will then start to have issues with the Wi-Fi network.

They'll go off the network for like a minute or two, come back on and then they'll just do it again. Maybe an hour later.

And this is especially noticeable with my nest hub because photos will stop displaying on it and it'll give me an error message doing a soft reset of both the router and the modem just, you know, unplugging them, replugging them back in.

That always fixes this issue  for me with my Orbi routers, but it's weird because this is an issue that I've experienced only with Orbi routers and not the Nest and Eero routers I've had in the past. So, those are all of the downsides I’ve encountered with this router system. 

6. Who This System is for? 

Now lets talk about recommendations. I do recommend getting the system if what you're looking for is unmatched Wi-Fi performance with a mesh router system and you want that mesh router system to be a Wi-Fi 6E mesh system, which will help future-proof your WiFi router for several years.

7. Quad-Band Technology

And this router system is unique compared to the competition because it has quad band technology. These Orbi routers reserve a dedicated 5 GHz WiFi band as backhaul for the routers to communicate between themselves and no other WiFi traffic is allowed on that dedicated band. 

I think that feature is probably why this system has such great performance. So if you're willing to spend the money, you do get what you pay for in terms of performance.  

8. Which Router Most People Should Get? 

But let's say you need a Wi-Fi upgrade, but you don't want to spend that much, which is incredibly reasonable given the insane cost of this system.

So for most people, my recommendation would actually be to go for the NETGEAR Orbi Wifi 6 mesh system. A two pack of that system currently runs for $300 on Amazon and I’ve even seen renewed versions go for as little as $200 US dollars.

You will miss out on the six gigahertz band, but given that most of the new tech that came out in 2022 did not support Wi-Fi 6E, it's still likely that we're one to two years away from mainstream adoption of the 6E standard.

So for most people looking for a WiFi upgrade that don’t already have a WiFi 6 mesh router system, I’d go with Orib WiFi 6 Mesh system. 

I’ve owned this system for a little over a year before NETGEAR sent me the 6E system and like the 6E system, it’s performance was exceptional and it has tri-band technology, so you’ll still get that 5 Ghz dedicated connection between routers that I talked about earlier.

I'd personally only consider the Wi-Fi 6E version of the orbi system when the two pack of the routers hits somewhere around $500 US dollars at that price.

Then I think if you want to future-proof your wi-fi setup a little bit more, it'd be worth it to go for the 6E system over the six. Thanks for reading.

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