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To be clear - the iPhone 11 series is the only Apple devices that support 802.11ax (wifi 6) - And, the price on this, while high, is inline with other Wifi 6 routers. So, if you don't have any devices that support wifi 6, you won't be able to take advantage of the speed and range. Personally, I'm fine with my Linksys Velop mesh system until I have a few more upgrades in my house that will actually benefit from wifi 6. And but then, the price of a new mesh system will be substantially less.
 
Now that iphone has wifi 6, lets hope Apple will bring to the rest of the family - ipads and macs...Just for the iphone is waste of money
I'm sure they will in every update going forward. Wifi 6 is brand new... and hasn't even really been finalized yet. But you're right. I'm not spending $700 on this so my iPhone can get my full 1Gbps download speed. 350Mbps down is plenty for now.
 
I hate that Orbi doesn't let you create separate 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz SSIDs.

Walking around a house I'd see throughput drop precipitously and not pick up because mobile devices were trying to hang on to a slower 2.4Ghz band even though a node was well within reach to do 5Ghz. Ended up returning the 3-unit RBR50.

So with that said, if Orbi kept their mesh algorithm the same, you're still getting a crippled product with a higher theoretical throughput in ideal conditions. I would wait at least a few months for real world tests to appear on the web. $699 is a steep price to pay to find out these kinks as an early adopter.
 
Yep, when you want the ISP to know and control everything about what enters and leaves your home that works fine. Plus you get cheap low quality hardware that just barely works and pay premium price. ISPs will love you. It must feel good to be loved.
Not true at all. The latest Xfinity xb6 wireless gateway is far better than almost anything currently on sale and it’s $10/m or free for most customers. It’s only when you need to cover an entire 1500+ sqft house that it makes sense to go looking for another solution.
 
I finally had to ditch my AirPort Extreme because it just wasn't cutting it for a new 3-story house. I replaced it with an Orbi Mini from Costco ($150) and it's fixed all our problems -- and we also now get service on our outside deck.
 
Looking at the specs, I don't see any mention of WPA 3. Perhaps they just don't have it listed, but that would be odd not to do so.

Edit: Releasing it without WPA 3 would just be stupid, I don't see them mentioning a future firmware update to support that either.

It uses a Qualcomm chipset which supports WPA3... They would simply add it in a newer firmware if not available on release.

The RAX120 has a similar chipset, I’m using WPA2+WPA3. Interestingly enough with WPA2&3 enabled some devices like the iPhone 5S, iPad Air 1 and One Plus 5 & 6 don’t connect even though WPA2 fallback is enabled, I realized this after I had guests with these devices. Only solution was to use WPA2 only.

Looks like a nice product, though $700 seems a bit extreme to me. Considering it’s just released early adopters are going to end up beta testers. Unlike phones or computers consumer networking products generally seem pretty rushed and it usually takes a good 6 months or so for firmware to be truly stable. (My experience as a Beta tester for numerous high end consumer routers and other networking products including the original Orbi)

Also with AX expect real world gains to be more like 10%- 20% on 5 Ghz and 2x on 2.4 GHz over previous gen. I don’t believe Target Wake Time, BSS Colouring, Uplink-OFDMA are enables on current gen AX devices. Some features maybe coming in firmware upgrades others may not, true/Final draft AX devices probably won’t come till the end of the year or early next year.
 
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Only get what supports an Ethernet backhaul. Otherwise you're halving your speeds at each unit in the mesh. Unifi AP's are the best.
 
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Have poor experiences with the Orbi system. The Circle feature seemed like a good idea, but increased latency all around. Now I am suffering 1-10s dropouts without any failure indications, despite devices being wired into the units.

Will look into even more expensive solutions or Ethernet next time.

ive had this exact experience. Terrible service and dropouts galore. Firmware nightmares. Got an Eero and no issues at all. Simple answer.
 
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This is what I’ve been waiting for! But I recently discovered that Ring users have issues with Orbi, so I’m going to see if the same is true here before pulling the trigger. Also that price! I’ve been thinking about running Ethernet upstairs and getting a commercial WiFi 6 router to blanket everything instead.

I have the Ring doorbell with Netgear Orbi - works fine for me.
 
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This is first-to-market nose-bleed pricey.

At least it's not as butt-ugly as most of the Netgear equipment, with 99 antennae and bright gamer-friendly colours, that seem designed primarily for the bedroom of a 15-year-old.

Once pricing stabilizes (as more equipment is available) this might work in an adult's home.
 
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it just comes with it. I pay $50 a month for one of their highest tiers all included so I can't complain
They do charge you for the rental. Sounds like they’re just nice enough to hide the charge for you. The main problem I have with ISP routers is the majority of them have massive security holes and outdated firmware. Depending how old it is or locked down by the ISP some don’t let you update the firmware or configure the firewall/dns. These cable companies are scummy especially now that they’re pushing data caps.
 
This is first-to-market nose-bleed pricey.

At least it's not as butt-ugly as most of the Netgear equipment, with 99 antennae and bright gamer-friendly colours, that seem designed primarily for the bedroom of a 15-year-old.

Once pricing stabilizes (as more equipment is available) this might work in an adult's home.

You are confusing them with Asus, with the overly gamery look and UI (ROG versions more so). No Netgear router has more than 6 Physical/External antennas (R8000).

The R8500 has 4 external/physical and 4 internal antennas. You definately are thinking of Asus, probably the GT5300AC and AX11000 (this one has the RGB lighting lol) with the spider look and 8 external antennas. The latest gen Netgear routers have their antennas within two “Wings”.

Asus despite the what some may see as childish looks actually has far more user side options and things like VPN split tunneling, better monitoring etc and they usually update their firmware quicker when dealing with issues. Netgear’s UI has more of the keep it simple philosophy where you don’t get too many user settings in the UI, makes sense from a support perspective as less people mucking around settings they don’t know about. If you can put aesthetics aside and care more about functionality then the Asus is probably the best on the consumer side for routers, but their Orbi competitor isn’t that great.
 
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$700?!??? That has to be a typo

The link at the top of the post shows a better price!
NETGEAR Orbi Whole Home Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi System (3-Pack)

1568904349933.png
 
They do charge you for the rental. Sounds like they’re just nice enough to hide the charge for you. The main problem I have with ISP routers is the majority of them have massive security holes and outdated firmware. Depending how old it is or locked down by the ISP some don’t let you update the firmware or configure the firewall/dns. These cable companies are scummy especially now that they’re pushing data caps.
It comes with it, at additional cost. Your monthly rate would be less than $50 if you tell them you’re providing your own equipment. You’re paying for it, nothing comes with anything for free :)
 
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Im currently running the Orbi system and it has always worked flawlessly for me - covers the entire house nicely.
Would love to upgrade to this newer version, but that price point puts me off. Maybe I'll stick with what I have for now......

Same. I use one router with 2 sats now, so it'd be ludicrously expensive for me to upgrade at this point especially when my set up is stable and sufficiently fast.

This is what I’ve been waiting for! But I recently discovered that Ring users have issues with Orbi, so I’m going to see if the same is true here before pulling the trigger. Also that price! I’ve been thinking about running Ethernet upstairs and getting a commercial WiFi 6 router to blanket everything instead.

I have Ring and Orbi and have no issues FWIW.
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Only get what supports an Ethernet backhaul. Otherwise you're halving your speeds at each unit in the mesh. Unifi AP's are the best.

You can use wired backhaul with Orbi.
 
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This might be the mesh system i finally buy - this one might actually be fast enough.

I grudgingly moved on from my trusted but aging Airport equipment this year, and so far I have been extremely happy with the Orbi mesh units I purchased to replace them. Easy to set up, excellent coverage, dependable (so far) and plenty of flexibility -- I just hope they provide the longevity and reliability that the Airport always did.

If this new model drives down prices on the existing versions, I'd certainly recommend picking a couple up.
 
WPA 3 is also part of the AX spec. It has to have it in order to be certified.

You have to be careful. It's part of Wi-Fi 6 certification, not 802.11ax. WPA3 isn't even an 802.11 spec, it's out of the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Products that are sold as 802.11ax compliant have no guarantee of WPA3.
 
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My current Orbi system is just ok. It was awful until I changed to wired backhaul.
There is no way to change the VLAN on the WAN port, which means I can’t terminate PPPoE to my ISP’s fiber. It also does not support multiple VLANs internally on the same SSID, so if you want to use 802.1x for security, you have less flexibility than with some systems.
 
My current Orbi system is just ok. It was awful until I changed to wired backhaul.
There is no way to change the VLAN on the WAN port, which means I can’t terminate PPPoE to my ISP’s fiber. It also does not support multiple VLANs internally on the same SSID, so if you want to use 802.1x for security, you have less flexibility than with some systems.

This is what worries me, if you're changing it to a wired backhaul it's no different than running independent APs.
 
I hate that Orbi doesn't let you create separate 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz SSIDs.

Walking around a house I'd see throughput drop precipitously and not pick up because mobile devices were trying to hang on to a slower 2.4Ghz band even though a node was well within reach to do 5Ghz. Ended up returning the 3-unit RBR50.

So with that said, if Orbi kept their mesh algorithm the same, you're still getting a crippled product with a higher theoretical throughput in ideal conditions. I would wait at least a few months for real world tests to appear on the web. $699 is a steep price to pay to find out these kinks as an early adopter.

Come on, now. Even a quick Google would show you that your initial argument is untrue. It takes just a minute or two to set separate SSIDs on the Orbi. I’ve had no such issues with my RBR53 set. It’s been just great.
 
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Only get what supports an Ethernet backhaul. Otherwise you're halving your speeds at each unit in the mesh. Unifi AP's are the best.

This has not been my experiance with Orbi and its dedicated backhaul radio. Maybe true of lesser equipped mesh systems like eero and Google.

Ethernet connection to each WAP is of course ideal, but that is what this product is designed for, its not what any of the consumer mesh wifi systems are designed for. These products are primarily targeted to those that do not have or want to run ethernet.
 
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