Customer Ratings & Reviews

Like many as tech continues to advance, always seem routers couldn’t keep up with demands and quantity of device accessing. Finally a router which delivers.

The feature set is not as powerful as other systems which combine WiFi access points with network router and security features. As a WiFi access point the product is excellent and stable. As a network router and security appliance the system is lacking. On network router, DHCP is missing customizable options such as custom internal DNS , missing VLAN and network segregation, it does have WLAN, IOT and Guest but missing ability to add more and assign different profiles to those network segments. On the security features, it is locked behind a pay wall. I already have a subscription for VPN for WireGuard/SurfShark and could assign different devices to be split tunneled with my old device. Can't do that with Orbi, I did not even want to try to subscribe to the paywall feature.

This Wi-Fi system is very expensive, but so far it works well. I have one foot in the grave, so this will be the last one I buy. I suggest you pay for the Geek Tech to install. I did and am sure glad I did.

I’ve been an Orbi fan for years. I’ve deployed them for small businesses. I had 2gb fiber line installed and wanted to upgrade to the 970’s for a while. I finally pulled the trigger and I am not disappointed. The speed is unbelievable. I get the most out of my devices and use the WiFi 7 for high end gaming. I highly recommend it especially for those of you that have internet speed over 1gb. Must have!!

Upgraded to the 970 series best thing ever have WiFi ran to a metal pole building 300 ft from house not even trying to drop before every other day would loose single now 3 weeks in and not lost signal once

Great throughput, easy setup, and with my 100+ IOT nodes, this router makes everything work flawlessly. Expensive, but well-worth it to eliminate all my headaches.

We upgraded from Asus Zenwifi Ax Tri-band Mesh Wifi 6 to these for our office and it has been so good I just purchased these for my home

Upgraded from the Orbi wifi 6 and it is definitely worth it . The wifi has been flawless thus far . We have a 4600 sq ft 2 storey home and it seems very adequate.

These are the pinnacle of a mesh system! We have WiFi inside and outside of our house. We have no more dead zones!

Satellites keep on disconnecting, system should work perfectly at these high prices

Replaced my Orbi 680 system. The speed is excellent. There is little to no buffering in the system now.

Easy setup, extremely speedy, IOT separate WiFi band has proved to work smoothly. Seem to have less lag or disconnections with smart home devices on that IOT network. Previous used Linksys Atlas Max 6E consider this a major upgrade.

Since I bought this router, it’s worked out very well for me. It works as described, and it really gives the fast speed that I’m looking for and it works good with all my gaming

You want reliably in a router? You want to have absolutely the best connection, not just in your house; but on your full 1/3 acre of property? Buy this mesh system.

Had a wifi 6 850 orbi mesh system, and I noticed performance degredation, especially since everything from my phone to microwave to robot vaccum to sprinklers and many more are all using wifi. With this its a much more stable connection (highest fiber in my area) and a lot less latency and buffering with security cameras for example. Yes, its very expensive. However i was fed up with connection issues. If you have a S24 ultra or other capable devices, you also have access to the wifi 7 on your phone. I definitely see an measurable upgrade from the 8 antennas in the Orbi 850 to the 12 in the 970.

Upgraded from the 800 series—Wi-Fi 6. Easy transition and blazing speeds.

If you are considering the Netgear Orbi 7, I look at something else. The satallites continually lose contact with the main router, the firmwear seems to actually prevent devices from seamlessly jumping from one to the next within the environment (we often have to go into settings a reselect the router for it to connect appropriately when it moves from one environment to the next), by Netgear's own admission, they have a firmware sync issue with them and, finally, once you've owned them for 90 days, they will ask you for a credit card before talking to you for support.

Easy setup, transiton and super fast connectivity. Simply download the app, follow prompts and done. This helped cover my 2400 sq ft place wirh no loss of connectivity across, and getting 1GB+ on wifi. Impressive!

Last Wifi 6 oribi lasted 3 years and 1 month. I decided to upgrade to a wifi 7 router for future proofing my router. Easy set up and boosted wifi speed 180Mbps.

Summary: Netgear’s Orbi 970 Mesh series defines cutting edge, you probably don’t even own Wi-Fi 7 clients that can take advantage of the 970’s most advanced features, but you will tomorrow. And with the 970, your hardware will be in place. As for today’s elite benefits, its blazingly fast (the king), has great range, simple to use, stable, and the ethernet ports on the Orbi are either 2.5 Gig or 10 (FAST)! All with a price tag that is definitely aimed for the future. Question is, can you wait and just buy what you need today (I couldn’t)? Pros: - Two, 10 Gig ports (1 WAN, 1LAN) and four 2.5 Gig ethernet LAN ports (router, the satellites have one 10 Gig and two 2.5 Gig Lan ports). That is future proofing you can use today for fast wired connections (can you say fast backhauling?!) - Specs for geeks to love, a quad-core processor at 2.2GHz, 2 GB ram, 4GB of storage, and 12 high performance internal antennas with high-power amplifiers. - Quad-band WiFi (2.4GHz for your internet of things devices (home automation), 5 Ghz for your computers and phones in the next room, 6GHz for your speed devices in the same room, and an additional 5GHz band as the dedicated backhaul for wireless communication between nodes.) - Fast. My previous system was Wi-Fi 5 and an early version of Wi-Fi 6, across the board in all my tests I saw at least a 25%, and up to 100% increase in speed (top seen with a 980 Mbps source is a 700 download). - Good range, it’s designed for larger homes. - Easy set-up, their app walks you through it, and the satellites are pre-synced (i.e you literally just have to plug them in) - Easy to set up for automation devices with 2.4 GHZ - Support up to 200 devices (I only had 64 to test with) - Easy to set up (built in) guest network. - The added security was top notch, or at least really active. It scanned automatically all my devices for security flaws. Kept notifying my phone of its progress. The big offender was my TV. Surprise, voice command comes with risks (I don’t do alexa btw). Cons: - The 10 gb ethernet ports are awesome but Netgear came out one short for full benefit. To connect both satellites you need not two 10 gb ports, but three (1 WAN, 2 LAN). This means only one backhaul is truly 10 gb. Boo. Okay, 2.5 gb is still better then the standard 1 gb, but why stop one short? - Wi-Fi 7 isn’t really a thing yet (hasn’t been certified). I have no doubt when it is NetGear will address with a firmware change, but still, you are paying for it today. - Price. Matter of Taste (aka YMMV): - No USB port. Orbi never has had them, and in the past that has kept me away. But today most printers are wireless, and I have a true NAS (Synology) for network storage that benefits from the 2.5 gb wired ports. - No fiber connection. Would love to get rid of the provider’s fiber connection box. - Too big? Undeniably stylish (in black or white) with elegant under lighting will fit almost any décor, but its big and heavy (roughly 12x6x5” and 4 lbs). It won’t be easy to hide. But does scream, 'king of the tech.' My partner was less amused. - Set-up is sluggish. I have set up many networks with most of the brands and this is one of the slowest, took me almost 45 minutes, and even then it kept saying ‘optimizing’ afterwardsBut hey you only have to set up once. Or twice if you don’t follow the instructions the first time. - Easy to use. That’s a ‘pro’ yes? Flip side is you do not have full control of all the really techy settings that some of the competitors give you. But if you are already Orbi, you won’t miss it. - Subscription service for annual support. On one hand, you pay this kind of money and have to pay more for annual support, and on the other, if you can afford this device, you can afford a bit more for concierge service. I would buy it. - Subscription service for additional real-time security. Admittedly that comes free for one year, but still. I’m old school, I don’t like subscriptions. - Subscription service for parental control. Wait, if I don’t need this, does this mean I am saving by not paying? Might have to re-think this. - Requires you to have a Netgear account to activate. For you privacy concerned folks this means the system does call home (which appears to be US based). Netgear of course promises to keep your information private. But in today’s world of data breaches, this always makes me pause. And does this mean home can phone it if home has been hacked? In fairness; most services now require it. My Impressions: Top marks for build quality and the commitment to fast LAN ports. Not to mention the amazing Wi-Fi speed if you have the internet provider to feed it (which I do, I have 980 Mbps service measured, and measured Wi-Fi peak downloads and uploads of 700 and 850 respectively). The range and speed combination was the best I have seen (older versions of the Eero and Linksys Velop). Some people will stop reading right there. Yes. If you want the best for speed. Here it is. It might share that podium with a couple of others today on Wi-Fi 6e, but it’s right to be there is undeniable. I did have a problem with setup, took several attempts with the app, but that’s likely due to my impatience and not being careful enough with the instructions. I was a tad frustrated with the app, kept looking for controls I have seen on other products for example (device highlighting for bandwidth for example). The update rate of its information on which device was attached to which node seemed slow, or I haven’t quite figure it out yet. Reboot was slow. Pausing device service seemed to lag. And what it reported as a connection, did not always match. My laptop was not wired in for example (which the app claimed it was). Doesn't build confidence. But it seemed to be… learning. Which is freaky. One odd thing, I am in the Apple universe, and it only seemed to want to recognize only one device at a time (iPhone 15 Pro Max, or one of my multiple iPads) as worthy of the top speed. The others were relegated to 2.4 ghz (slow). But it would sometimes change which device (every few hours). Hence my attempt to find more controlling controls on settings. I googled and couldn’t find anyone with similar issues, so will investigate further, so likely user error during set up. And finally, not a fan of subscription services, of which there are three. Though to be fair, the additional security, which btw seemed top notch, was free for a year. And maybe you don’t want support for a year or parental control. Dirty little Secret (life’s not fair): Okay, before you tell me, ‘this applies to all the speed kings’, true, but they don’t all cost what this one does so… it deserves some discussion before you break open your piggy bank. Wi-Fi 6e, and the 6 GHZ band, are short range and tend not to like pesky things like walls, so they are really designed for that cozy in-room experience. Wi-Fi 7 claims to be better (but not proven) but it still will rely on the 6 GHZ band (so how good can it be through walls). To really get advantage of these things and have the great coverage that Netgear claims, you need to have wired backhaul (communications between the devices). Wired as in ethernet cables between router and satellites. Yep, to get the best Wi-Fi you need to have cables. Doesn’t seem fair, does it? But wait, it sorta gets worse with the Orbi (and this is specific). If you aren’t wired, you do have a separated and dedicated 5 GHZ band for the backhaul (yay!), but if you are wired, you don’t get to use that dedicated 5 GHZ band for additional bandwidth. So, it’s like losing for winning. It’s painful at the top they say. Who is worthy of all this power: If you 1) already like the Orbi series, like their way of doing things, 2) have already installed dedicated back-haul ethernet lines, 3) have a big place, and 4) want the fastest 6e system today and do not want to have to upgrade to 7 tomorrow, then yes, this system has your name written all over it. Hello Dr. Orbi, nice to meet you. Then there is the majority who probably only meet criteria 4, well, still. The need for speed thing. I get it. It’s real. It’s here. Maybe I shouldn’t say this but: You have noticed the angst I am experiencing between what to pay for today, and what to pay for future proofing. For my largish home, yes, hands down the advantages are there. But I also have a small summer log cabin in the woods (Thoreau would have been envious), and it’s crazy for being out in the middle of nowhere, but I do have 1 Gbps fiber optic cable. And the router (and extender) they offer is for free (the service is cheaper than home too). Long story short, for free, the speeds are comparable with home and the Orbi (which is insane I know). And the app is as good (maybe more responsive). Not a fair comparison you say? True. But just saying there are options for speed, if you don’t need the range and the future proofing. Go fiber. Which, why doesn’t the Orbi have a fiber connection, others do. Definitively: If you are in the Orbi universe, this is a worthy upgrade. If you are looking for your first mesh system, I suppose one strategy is go for the top. Rating the Orbi 370: Must admit, this one is tough to rate. Given the extreme cost, and today’s lack of its prime feature, Wi-Fi 7, it’s hard to give this a perfect 5 stars even with its leading edge Wi-Fi 6e performance (albeit performance I can get today with less costly devices). But Orbi has a proven track record of updating their equipment so as long as you can live with the listed cons (but… if you have such a need for speed aren’t you a bit of a control freak too?), then yes, a 5 for being cheeky enough to try. For me, it’s more like a 4.5, but I am less worried about the future as I am about today. Choice is great.