Netgear has just revealed Orbi – a new home router that can provide fast wi-fi and solve one of the biggest problems – giving you consistent and reliable coverage in all parts of your home.
The Netgear Orbi is not just one device but actually two.
One is the Orbi Router and the other is the Orbi Satellite and together they can cover up to 4,000 square feet of your home through barriers like walls, stairs and doors.
The big difference with Orbi is the slick new design.
Gone are the flashing lights, antennas and rectangular shape and in its place is an elegant and curved design that would look good anywhere in your home.
Orbi is a tri-band wi-fi system that can provide a consistent connection so you won’t get any buffering while your streaming a movie and you’ll keep up with your competitors with online gaming.
And the system will work with your current ISP’s (Internet Service Provider’s) modem and maximise your connection’s speed.
Orbi will work right out of the box and can be set up with a smartphone app.
It also uses a single wi-fi network name throughout your home and allow users to move from room to room with seamless and consistent coverage.
The Orbi Router can be positioned next to your existing modem with the Orbi Satellite placed close to the centre of your home.
The difference between the Orbi Satellite and a regular range extender is that Orbi provides a single wi-fi network for your home rather than repeating a signal and creating a different wi-fi network – one for the router and one for the range extender.
The Orbi system is also expandable with additional Orbi Satellites if you need wider coverage or live in a particularly large home.
Pricing and release date for Australian customers is yet to be revealed but we’re expecting it well before Christmas.
And in terms of pricing we can take the $US399 price tag as an indicator and estimated it will probably cost about $700 here for the Orbi Router and Orbi Satelite package.
Technical Specifications
– Wireless Connectivity: AC3000 (1733 + 866 + 400Mbps)†
– Simultaneous Tri-Band WiFi: IEEE® 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz–256QAM support, IEEE® 802.11a/n/ac 5GHz–256QAM support
– Memory : 4GB Flash and 512MB RAM
– Antenna: Six (6) high-performance antennas with high-powered amplifiers
– Beamforming: Implicit/Explicit Beamforming for 2.4 & 5GHz bands (1733 + 866 + 400Mbps), MU-MIMO, MU-MIMO capable for simultaneous data streaming on multiple devices.
– Ports: Four (4) 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet ports 1 WAN + 3 LAN for Router 4 LAN for Satellite One (1) USB 2.0 port.
2 Comments
This is exactly the technology I’ve been waiting for.
I have my office at the front of the house where my modem router is located.
My TV and sound system etc is in the centre of the house, and I have a sound system that needs WIFi in a seperate cabana 30 metres away in the backyard.
This product will be perfect because it’s it expandable.
Thanks for the review Stephen
hi
just to clear up some details in this blog
atm there is no app to setup anything
it is not seamless coverage as it disconnects from one to connect to another , it just has a single ssid for both the 5 gig and 2.4 gig transmissions , its star topology based atm and is not mesh topology , this however may change in the future
the actual wireless connectivity is ether 400M 2.4 gig or 867M on 5 gig depending on the client and its location from ether the router or sat
the 1733M is specifically used for the backhaul connection between the router and sat , thus the 1733M is not available to the client devices , the fastest any client device will connect is 867M if its 2 x 2 wireless ac compliant or above
currently the usb port is non functional
yes it does improve wifi coverage and i can get my 100/40M NBN plan speed anywhere in my house using my sony xpedia m4 aqua , where as with a single wireless AC router i had issues getting the same results at one end of my house
a few thing readers should know
you can not atm connect the orbi router to the sat via ethernet , it only connects via its dedicated 1733M backbone
there is no guest wifi services atm ,they may be added in the future
there is no usb functionality atm , it may be added in the future
there is no app atm , it may be added in the future
there is only a single ssid , you can not set separate ssid names for 2.4 gig and 5 gig
however as i said the wifi is great and if you aim is to get whole home coverage the orbi will do that fine , the router can also be set to AP mode and connect to your existing router , the sat works the same when the orbi router is in ap mode
pete