The Netgear Orbi 970 is among the first Wi-Fi 7 mesh routers out of the door, as the latest Wi-Fi standard is having its technicalities sorted now and will be ratified by the end of this year.
A “quad-band” mesh router, the new Netgear kit offers throughput that maxes out at a theoretical 27Gbps across one 2.4Ghz, two 5GHz, and one 6GHz band.
A quad-band setup means the Orbi 970 can dedicate a wireless band to communicate with its satellites – known as wireless backhaul – without sharing it with other traffic. Setup is thus simpler, as you don’t have to lay a physical network cable to the satellite node to help with performance.
Every Netgear Orbi 970 node packs premium parts – 12 high-gain antennas, and at least three ethernet ports on each node, some of which can handle 10Gbps connectivity.
We are reviewing a two-piece set that goes for a cool S$2,799 and is good for spaces up to 6,000 square feet (550 square metres – more than sufficient for most Singapore apartments). A three-piece set for larger homes of up to 10,000 square feet (930 square metres) retails for a grand S$3,799.
Design
The first thing that hits you about the Orbi 970 is its size. Our review units arrived in a box nearly too bulky to carry on a train ride home. Every node measures 29.4 x 14.4 x 13.1 centimetres and weighs 1.79 kilograms. It is easily larger than a big, reusable 1-litre water bottle.
Thankfully, these nodes mostly sit stationary on one’s TV console or work desk. Each one also fits very well as a table ornament. Our unit comes in a smooth, white and matt polycarbonate finish with silver-coloured trim.
The whole device is roundish-triangular when viewed from above, and nearly flat rectangular when viewed from the front. It offers a contemporary, tasteful look with balance.
An LED indicator runs along the bottom of the trim. Blinking white indicates network acquisition in progress, and white indicates a ready network. The satellite nodes will have a blue, purple or amber indicator to inform of its connection quality to the primary node.
Connectivity
Connectivity-wise, the main node includes one 10Gbps WAN port to connect to your internet provider, one 10Gbps LAN port, and four 2.5Gbps LAN points. The satellite nodes feature one 10Gbps LAN port and two 2.5Gbps LAN ports.
These fast connections will be great for multi-gigabit broadband services that are now becoming common in Singapore, thanks to a government push for them.
The Netgear kit offers a generous port setup. The four sub 10Gbps ports on the main node can connect to wired devices like a gaming console or smart TV, and an ultrafast 10Gbps port is meant specifically for backhaul duties.
For all the right decisions, the Orbi 970 does not have any USB ports. This would have come in handy for a network attached storage setup but you can argue that is a small price to pay for more gigabit network ports, though.
Features
The Orbi 970 supports Multi Link Operation (MLO), a key feature of Wi-Fi 7 that uses the 5GHz and 6GHz bands together to avoid channel congestion, while providing more bandwidth for the high capacities that Wi-Fi 7 promises to deliver.
The usual bandwidth maximisation technologies on decent routers are also found here. They include:
- 320MHz channel support on the 6GHz band
- MU-MIMO so one antenna can communicate with multiple client devices at once
- Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) that slices a single wireless channel into multiple sub-channels for multiple uses.
Every purchase of the Orbi 970 mesh comes with a year’s subscription to Netgear Armor and parental protection. It scans network traffic for virus, malware and other threat signatures and proactively blocks them. It also includes a virtual private network (VPN) service.
While it is a good-to-have and backed by a trusted player (the solution is developed with cybersecurity provider Bitdefender), I wish the service was complimentary for owners of the Orbi 970 for a longer time. This is a premium product, after all.
Set-Up
Like most mesh routers today, the Orbi 970 has an app-based guided setup process that leaves little to figure on your own.
Scan the QR code on a quick start card to download the Orbi app onto a smartphone, and the instructions guide you through every possible step. This QR code could have been pasted on the primary node though, to be even more foolproof.
Most novices will be in good hands. The app tells you when to turn off and on the optical network terminal (ONT, the box from your service provider that hooks up to your home network), for example.
Plus, you get prompted the right moment to plug the network cable from the ONT into the primary mesh node, then scan the QR code on the primary node to set up a wireless network, and to add the satellites afterwards.
Nevertheless, I accidentally left the satellite on while setting up the primary node, and had to reset both nodes and start afresh because I got stuck without any clue what was wrong. Perhaps the first step of the instruction could be a reminder to turn everything off.
Testing
Each of the wireless bands on the Orbi 970 adopt a 4×4 setup. What this means is the client device (like your laptop or mobile phone) also needs four antennas to receive and transmit data at the band’s highest theoretical bandwidth.
4×4 wireless clients are not that common – most laptops have two antennas, and phones usually one or two. The theoretical maximum speed on every band is thus not achievable except when used with a standalone 4×4 wireless client. Wi-Fi 7 clients are not that common at the moment, either.
I, unfortunately, have neither a 4×4 nor Wi-Fi 7 wireless client in my tests. In fact, I am also testing the mesh in a three-room HDB flat built in the 1980s with a 500Mbps fibre broadband connection.
So, keep that in mind as you review my experiences below, and take things as a real-world test by an average joe with middle-of-road equipment.
The flat I tested the mesh router is in a narrow rectangular shape with living room and common room facing a corridor, and the kitchen and master bedroom facing out.
I set up the primary node near the ONT in the common bedroom closer to the entrance of the house, and the satellite node in the kitchen closer to the laundry area.
I tested the signal strength and transfer speeds from three spots in the flat – right in front of the node, in the master bedroom next door with doors closed, and in the common toilet at the far end of the house also with doors closed.
I did all this with the built in tools in the Orbi app, since standalone tests I did from running software on my laptop toted similar results.
Use Experience
The good news is, the average home user should find the Orbi 970 handling his or her demands with little fuss.
With one mesh running, signal strength is obviously great in front of the node, drops to the okay range at the master bedroom, and borderline when in the toilet.
With the satellite powered up, the signal strength firmly remained in the very good range in all three locations.
In my use, however, the signal strength is arbitrary, because I regularly maxed out the bandwidth of the 500Mbps connection even when signal strength is borderline.
There was never any lag when surfing the Net, streaming videos or playing simple smartphone games when I was in the common toilet, when I would have gotten patchy throughput in the past using a single Wi-Fi 6 router placed in the common bedroom.
As a premium network kit, the Orbi 970 should easily handle in excess of 1Gbps when in the same room, and generally maintain 500Mbps when the mesh is more than 15 metres away.
Conclusion
The Netgear Orbi 970 is a more-than-competent mesh router system for a home or small office networks. If anything, it reminds us that there are competent players on the market beyond the preferred, pricey few.
The setup is first-timer friendly, the nodes have sufficient wired ports, and the wireless backhaul works. I did not encounter any show-stopping bugs, except that some setup instructions that can be a little clearer.
What merits consideration, however, is its sticker price. This is a top-tier device with top-tier performance.
My use case barely scratched the potential of the Orbi 970. This might be the same for most average users. Notably, multiple users streaming 4K high-definition video and playing online games would not saturate the 1Gbps Internet pipe, not to mention a 10Gbps one.
The Orbi 970 will best serve the needs of those with home offices which regularly transfer and store large files. It will also appeal to users in larger homes fretting over dead spots with poor wireless coverage and want the extra wireless bands on offer.
