![]() At 15 meters/50 feet and one solid wall from the router (which left me half way between the Orbi’s router and satellite and beside the first Nest WiFi satellite), both still maxed out my 300Mbps internet connection, but LAN speeds revealed the Nest WiFi was down to 380Mbps while the Orbi 6 still delivered 750Mbps, meaning almost no drop off at all. That said, with distance the divergence grows. Yes, there’s a big difference here but the speeds remain fast enough for almost anyone. They max out my 300Mbps Internet connection without breaking a sweat and LAN (local area network) speeds top 800Mbps on the Orbi 6 and 600Mbps on the Nest WiFi. The Orbi had its single satellite located in the middle of the home, the Nest WiFi had its two satellites positioned at one third intervals.Īs you might expect, both systems start well when transferring files close to the router. The routers were connected at the far end of the home. ![]() Note: these systems were tested in a 200m2 (2,200ft2) residential home with solid brick walls. It also has the widest and highest quality coverage I’ve seen. Quite simply, the Orbi 6 was streets ahead and it’s the fastest mesh system I’ve ever used. ![]() I tested the Orbi 6 alongside Google’s second gen Nest WiFI (using a triple pack because that’s still only $350) because it’s a more “normal” choice. When you pay $699 for a mesh system, it needs to deliver and the good news is the Orbi 6 does so in spades. Netgear's Orbi app is simple and intuitive but it lacks advanced features and parental controls Netgear To my mind, that’s unacceptable for a router in this price bracket. Netgear does offer integration with the Disney Circle app, but advanced controls for this require a subscription which costs $129pa. The flip side is the Orbi app is a little simplistic and there are no parental controls within the app, meaning you simply have to pause WiFi to specific devices. To get up and running, all you need to do is plug in your router and satellite, choose a network name and password and sit back. Like many modern routers, the Orbi 6 system can be set up and managed entirely using the company’s Android and iOS apps and while the router can also be managed by IP address. Plausible in a 5G world.įor some buyers, the biggest chink in the Orbi 6’s armour will be one of its biggest selling points to others: simplicity. Yes, that’s support for Internet connections up to 2,500 megabits per second (Mb/s). Both router and satellite have four gigabit Ethernet ports with support for port aggregation of up to 2Gb/s because the router has a future-proof 2.5 gigabit WAN port. ![]() Rounding things off is more future-proofing. combination Gordon KellyĪdding further juice (and cost) to this, Netgear has equipped the Orbi 6 range with an upgraded Quad-Core 2.2GHz processor, 512MB NAND Flash and 1GB RAM. The Orbi 6 router has 2.5Gb/s WAN and Ethernet ports with port aggregation - it's a future proof. In conjunction with WiFi 6, it’s a killer combination. The result is not just increased speed, but (spoiler) a more stable connection between the units which results in significantly faster coverage around the home. In short, this is a second 5GHz, 1.7Gb/s radio band reserved specifically to relay data between the units so, unlike any rival, this data is not competing for space on the WiFi network with the rest of your connected devices. While WiFi 6 will come to rivals, Netgear stands alone with its use of a dedicated backhaul connection between router and satellites. It’s worth noting that WiFi 6 is a big factor in the cost of the Orbi 6 and it is absent from almost all cheaper rivals, including (perhaps surprisingly) Google’s second-gen Nest WiFi.Īnd here’s the special sauce. Yes, it’s better to have WiFi 6 gadgets to take full advantage of this (many premium smartphones are already onboard, so is the iPad Pro) but even those devices with older WiFi standards benefit because WiFi 6 distributes bandwidth around the home intelligently, adjusting it on the fly based on demand. ![]()
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