With 50 feet (15 meters) separating the Orbi RBKE963 and our test laptop, the router managed to move 190.5 Mbps. That model moved upwards of 2.396 Gbps at 15 feet.Īs expected, the Orbi RBKE963's throughput dropped off quickly with distance as the 6-GHz band's range ran out and the 2.4- and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands took over. Others mesh systems trailed even further behind, with throughputs of 820.3 Mbps ( Arris Surfboard Max Pro) and 622.1 Mbps ( TP-Link Deco X20).Īs good as it is, the Orbi RBKE963's available bandwidth was less than half that of its older and faster (and cheaper) cousin, the Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500 gaming router. That data transmission rate is a 12% increase over the Orbi RBK852's 883.6-Mbps maximum throughput. With 15 feet (4.5 meters) separating the base router and the client device, the RBRE960 moved an average of 1.009 Gbps to the client, showing how much power a short-range 6-Ghz data band can add. #ORBI ROUTER PRO#I used Ixia's IxChariot networking benchmark to simulate 10 data-hungry users and a Samsung Galaxy Book Pro to measure performance, and the Orbi RBKE963 outperformed all other mesh-router systems. The Orbi RBKE963 mesh system performed well in my 100-year-old home, easily filling the 3,500-square-foot structure with data. Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E (RBKE963) review: Performance Both types of devices have a recessed reset button, a device-sync button and identical AC adapter ports. The satellites each have one 2.5-Gbps and three 1-Gbps output ports. #ORBI ROUTER PLUS#The base router has a broadband input that can accommodate up to a 10-Gbps data flow, plus one downstream 2.5-Gbps por, and three 1-Gbps ports for connecting to wired devices such as scanners, printers or networked hard drives. The mesh system’s ports are similarly performance-oriented but optimized for homes that have gigabit broadband service from their ISPs. However, you can run Cat 6 Ethernet cable between the devices to create a wired backhaul, freeing up that second 5-Ghz wireless band for your use. This leaves 8.4 Gbps of theoretical bandwidth available for streaming data to client devices. However, it lacks the ability to aggregate two downstream wired Ethernet ports for top speed.Īs is the case with other Orbi mesh systems, the RBKE963 uses one of its 5-Ghz channels for backhaul, moving data to and from the satellites and the base router. The icing on the cake is the RBKE963's ability to tap into seven ultra-wide 160-MHz channels in the 6-GHz band. This all adds up to a theoretical throughput maximum of 10.8Gbps, a big step up from the Netgear Orbi RBK852's 6.0 Gbps. But due to the 6-Ghz band’s limited range, this is only good for same-room or next-room uses. The RBKE963's 6-GHz band (the "e" in Wi-Fi 6e) adds another 4.8 Gbps of theoretical throughput. Over its 2.4-GHz band, the system can move 1.2 gigabits per second (Gbps), while the pair of 5-GHz channels can deliver 2.4 Gbps each. The Orbi RBRE960 router and RBSE960 satellites use the four Wi-Fi bands to move 16 independent streams of data back and forth. In addition to beamforming to create signals to best connect with clients and MU-MIMO to feed data to many devices, the RBKE963 has better data-traffic management to streamline operations. The mesh set uses up-to-date 802.11ax technology and 4K Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) to push data to top speeds. Each unit contains a dozen amplified antennas for the strongest possible signal. The Orbi RBKE963 mesh system creates four individual networks: one in the 2.4-GHz band, two in the 5-GHz band (one of which is for "backhaul" data transmission among the units) and a top-performing 6-GHz network. Both the base router and the satellites have 1GB of active memory and 512MB of storage space for firmware and settings. Under the skin, the Orbi RBKE963 units are powered by Qualcomm's top-shelf Networking Pro 1610 chipset and a 2.2GHz quad core-processor. But if the LED strip glows magenta, the unit has gone offline. When the status strip is blue, everything is good, with data flowing between the host and its satellites. Instead, there’s just one LED status strips at the bottom of each. Unlike some other routers and mesh systems, the Orbi Wi-Fi 6e units don’t sparkle like Christmas trees with a ton of blinking lights.
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