Customer Ratings & Reviews

For the price paid this was a total disappointment.Although easy to install there were frequent disconnects from all devices. Even phone using wifi calling the call were frequently disconnected. Totally usless. Had to reinstall old router. May try it again if I find the firmware ever fixed.

I just purchased this product for 700$. Its total crap for gaming and online. It disconnects every 5-10 minutes. I will be returning the product today as i will not pay 700 dollars for a beta test product. Shame on Netgear

I was under the impression that this was “Better” than my Orbi RBK50!!! It is not! It DID NOT perform up to what it advertises! Very disappointed with Netgear on this one! $700+ For a package that was very under whelming and pretty aggregating when my Orbi RBK50 does exactly the same thing! WiFi 6 may be the future but This Orbi system is the PAST rebranded! Save your money and purchase the Orbi RBK50 Router and Satellite! I returned this product and hooked my RBK50 system back up!

I just could not get the setup to complete. I tried 6 or 8 times and it would just say “an error occurred.” It also says it will not work with a modem/router in bridge mode which I need. I returned it.

Extremely unstable. Purchased today and just spent 10 hours fighting with it. Retuning this tomorrow back to Best Buy. The first issue is that it states you can rename the SSID and password according to your old router so you don't have to reconfigure all connected devices, however, the catch 22 that netgear doesn't tell you is you now only have one SSID. My old one had an SSID for the 2.4gz and a second SSID for the 5gz. You will have to reconfigure either all of your old devices that were connected to the 2.4 or the 5gz. I was willing to live with that but after having to reboot and/or reset multiple times in less than 10 hours I gave up.

This thing still needs to be tested by Netgear and should not be released to the public. Enabled remote management on the iPhone App and it does not work. Reserved IP address to my laptop and that does not work. Wireless connection on my Macbook pro dropping in and out. Does not have their Security Armor service. Managing the device is HTTP and not even HTTPS!

The other 1-star reviews are not exaggerations. I've spent the past 4 hours chatting with Orbi/Netgear support and trying to fix poor performance issues with the Orbi connected to Fios gigabit: (1) 802.11ax 5ghz is delivering speeds 50% of what's being received by the router, with no other devices connected and the Wifi 6-capable device within a foot of the primary router. (2) The primary router is inexplicably losing >100mbps on download only, yet upload matches that stated by Verizon speed test. Even after hours of support, the problems are not resolved, and I'm supposed to get a call from higher tier support to further troubleshoot. If that fails, the device will be replaced.

This is a review of the Orbi Whole Home Tri-band Mesh WiFi 6 system (RBK852), my most favorite WiFi router ever! To say this device is easy to set up would be an understatement… my grandma could literally perform the setup. If someone can’t follow the process to set this up it won’t matter because they can’t figure out how to use WiFi either. Sure, sometimes things can go wrong with a fool-proof process and so I don’t want to disparage people that might have trouble but I can’t imagine there is any way to make this install more simple. I would try to give the installation 6 out of 5 stars on that checkbox! For those that don’t want to use the easy to use app to do their configuration there is also an on-board web page that will allow you to set all the settings manually and get into more of the advanced features. This is great for those that want a high level of control and to really customize their configuration. Definitely not for grandma but if you know what you are doing you will appreciate the power this provides. I recommend that if you do want to get into these weeds you use the app to get the basic setup finished then use the full control to tweak the additional parameters. This is something I like to do so I really like this capability. Once you get it set up you will see how well this system performs. It is amazing as far as speed and coverage is concerned. I have a device that tests WiFi strength and I ran multiple tests and had the best results I have ever received with any other system I have used. There was almost no drop off anywhere within my home, including in my traditionally dead areas due to stairs, and multiple walls with kitchen appliances and etc. I turned off the satellite and did some testing to see the performance of the main router alone, and that provides really good coverage just by itself. Even still, because my house has a unique layout it has always been really difficult to get good WiFi coverage from a single access point and although I definitely would have been OK using the router alone, adding the satellite really completes the coverage and I end up with a really strong signal everywhere. I have 4 bedrooms that now get full-strength coverage and the distant living rooms also have the best strength levels I have ever had. The Orbi WiFi 6 Mesh system uses, as the name implies, the newest WiFi standard or what is now called WiFi 6 (Also known as 802.11AX). To simplify what this means I like this analogy: it is like when you used your phone on public WiFi in a crowded place and it is really slow, but you switch to your cellular provider’s data instead and it is much faster. WiFi 6 will provide a similar performance boost, especially if you are using a lot of devices and they are creating a lot of traffic. WiFi 6 is able to send data from multiple devices simultaneously instead of requiring them to finish the traffic from one device before starting on the data for the next. Additionally, the system is Tri-band, meaning you have multiple streams to connect to, two 5GHz and one 2.4GHz. If you have a lot of devices they don’t need to share the same streams and thus it also increases the performance by spreading the traffic over the different bands. One of the things I really like is that both the router and satellite have multiple ethernet ports, which are extremely valuable if you have devices that don’t support WiFi or perform better on a cabled connection. This is something that a lot of the other mesh systems don’t seem to offer. Having multiple connections on the satellite is a huge advantage if you don’t want to run cables throughout your house but need devices wired far from the router. You set the router wherever you want or have to put it, then have the satellite perform the backhaul from the router to a location closer to the device that requires a cable connection and run a cable from the satellite. I am now doing this for some older devices I own and it works amazingly well and I am no longer forced to keep my devices in certain areas due to cabling requirements. One other thing worth mentioning, the router and satellite uses a dedicated backhaul connection so regardless of how you are using it, the data sent back and fourth from the satellite to the router will not have to compete for bandwidth with everything else because they are the only things using that connection. This ensures that devices that are connected to the satellite will have great speed to and from the router. I can say this seems to do a great job inside my house! Obviously your internet connection needs to be fast to support fast internet speeds. If you have a number of high-data transferring devices within your home this system will also allow you to take advantage of the high in-house network for faster communication between those devices. For example, if you have a whole-home DVR system where you view content from one device on the others this will allow much faster device-to-device connectivity within your home and prevent data buffering and other unpleasant situations like that. One other thing I really like is that you can use Amazon Alexa and Google Home smart devices for some control, like turning on and off the guest network. I don’t like leaving my guest network on but I also don’t like having to share my main password. logging into an app every time you want to make the change to the guest network is certainly an inconvenience and using a smart speaker to perform the task really makes it easy to protect the main network and turn the guest network on and off as needed. The system itself looks great in the locations where I have the router and satellite running. I really like the styling of the devices although some may feel they are a bit larger than they would like. I don’t mind the size, especially since the units are really well designed and attractive. If you want future-proof system that will take advantage of the latest WiFi technology, provide great power, then this is the best option I have tested. The only downside I see is that you will pay a bit more to get any devices with this latest technology and this system is no exception in that area. But if you are the kind of person that is willing to pay for the latest and best technology to have it now and start using all the performance benefits as soon as you can then this is a great system to choose. Although I was provided this product for free to test the system and write this review, the content of the review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

I purchased the Netgear Orbi to replace an older mesh WiFi system. The coverage is better and I am very impressed by the speed. However, the feature I am happiest about is the security. Shortly after installing, several phishing emails were discovered on my mothers computer and malware/fraud was discovered on my wifes phone. Turns out the malware (xps.customercare-vip.com) is a fraud site that tricks people into purchasing discounted goods they never receive. We were able to contact our bank and quickly get our money back. Netgear Orbi is truly an amazing sytem that offers peace of mind.

They dont work any better than my older router, a lot of hype, sizzle and NO meat. They do not extend as far as they say, you cannot buy an extender, and again OVERPRICED!!!

Keeps dropping WiFi which is annoying. Given the price point for this product would expect flawless connectivity.

Constant wifi drops. Satellite will not connect to the router in AP mode. Complete waste of money.

Unreliable from day one. Customer support from ORBI is horrible. Overpriced and non functional.

Setup was easy and the satellite has great WiFi range. However, the base station router needed to be rebooted once or twice a day when it would lose Internet access. While the problem MAY be something else, it certainly seems like the unit is defective. After a few days of this I went back to using my old Linksys as a router while using the Orbi satellite unit to distribute WiFi throughout the house. Troubleshooting this would be a lot easier if the Orbi came with an instruction manual. (I have looking for one online on my to-do list.)

Oh man, I hoped the best for this system. I spent a good chunk of money. After not getting anywhere near the speeds using my laptop capable of getting the AX signal. I decided to do an update and a hard reset, based on ORBI tech support. Well now its bricked. The good thing is I can return it. I think the technology is great but still has many many bugs. Not worth it now, might be in the future but look elsewhere for a stable system. Sad, I'm a huge Orbi Fan.

Amazing speed, and an incredible range. It was very simple to set up too. The only draw back with the RBR 850 is the price. But, overall it’s a great device.

I upgraded from a netgear gaming router to the Orbi since I would be running 4 Apple 4K TV streaming boxes and 4 Xbox one X’s, along with multiple tables and phones. This piece of garbage couldn’t handle 3 devices without lag, buffering etc. returned and got the netgear AX11000. What a difference

I have AT&T Fiber and was never able to get the advertised speeds until I used this router. I was part of the Beta testing group on this router. So I have seen it under perform and l have seen it almost broken. I will say that the team has worked really hard to get this router up to par. I can honestly say that now that the router is running good, it is the fastest router I have ever used. It also has the best coverage I have ever been able to get on Wifi at the house I am living in now. I am able to cover the first floor and a basement as well as the front and back yard with no issue. That is with one router and one satellite. Our internet is rated 1000 mb Up and Down. We were lucky to get 500 down and about the same up with my previous setup. Now we are getting 900 to 1000 mb all the time. I also want to commend Netgear on how easy it is to set this Mesh Wifi router up. It literally took maybe 5- 10 minutes to have it up and running. I have been using Netgear products off and on for over 20 plus years and I have seen their good products and their bad ones. This router is definitely one of the best that I have ever used.

Horrible wifi worst coverage area ever also no parental controls for 700 .

The Good: Setup – It was super easy to setup using their Orbi App. Basically you plug in the main router to your internet/power and find a spot for the satellite. 5 minutes later you should be up and running with minimal initial config. Features/Performance -The Mesh network…if you are not using a mesh based router (basically a router and extenders) you need to upgrade. This allows me to easily cover my entire house/separate garage/yard area. -Gigabit wired and wireless speeds….and it works! I get about 500mb from my ISP and cannot tell any different between a wired or wireless connection. -Wifi 6 -Aesthetics – looks a lot better than most routers out there. The Bad: -Price/value – while this is one of the coolest routers I have used in a while, the $700 is steep. Better to wait for some black friday sales on this one. -Satellite backwards compatibility – I wish I could use my older Orbi satellites on this product…per the release notes this feature is coming. Other – -I was part of a beta test set of users for this product. I got to see some of the first version of the firmware. One of the cool aspects to see was how fast Netgear was addressing and fixing the issues. You can tell they are wanting these to be part of their flagship line of routers.