I am a Netgear ambassador and I received this product for free in exchange for my honest opinion.

When I heard about Netgear’s new “Orbi” Wi-Fi system several months ago, I was leaping in joy like a little kid on Christmas Day. It’s elegantly designed Wi-Fi system made for home users looks great and performs amazingly well.

What first got me in wow is the extremely user friendly packaging of Orbi. It’s extremely easy to install and highly configurable.

 

So what exactly is a “Wi-Fi System” ? Isn’t it just a router?

Nope! It’s more than that. Way more honestly. Do you have dead spots in your home? We all do, well, some of us at least. Orbi solves that by creating a “mesh” Wi-Fi zone to expand coverage. Orbi has both a router and a satellite that will “extend” your network. One big thing though, Orbi isn’t a simplistic range extender.

This isn’t the markets first entrance into Wi-Fi systems. There’s the Ubiquiti Amplifi HD $299.00 at Amazon, the Google OnHub $135.95 at Amazon, and the Starry Station $299.95 at Amazon. I’ve never tried these so I have no idea how they are. Orbi can offer 4,000 sqft of coverage. I however, have a 1100 sqft office, so I have no clue. 

The Netgear Orbi is a tai-band AC3000 device with six internal antennas and can deliver speeds of up to 1,266 Mbps. It’s a 2.4 Ghz and a 5Ghz router and the third band is a dedicated communications band that communicates between the router and the satellite. No other competitor does this yet.

So far, it looks like a really slick router and it’s got a 5/5 review from me already. Stay tuned for a followup where I’ll talk about performance.