Netgear launches their most advanced WiFi system – Orbi 970 – Big Price, Big Speed

Netgear has long been a leader in the market of home WiFi and networking, from basic network hubs and switches to routers and more recently mesh WiFi systems. Their latest is the rolled gold standard for WiFi going forward, but it’s certainly not for everyone.

With network speeds within your home of up to 27Gbps this is pretty epic.

We’re talking about the Netgear Orbi 970 series, WiFi 7 Mesh system. Given the rising internet speeds around the world there’s of course an importance that your home network is capable of handling that, plus spreading it all out among your devices. That’s where WiFi 7 comes in.

There’s a five time speed improvement in the 970 series, and a 100x decrease in latency, operating 2.4 times faster than even WiFi 6, and offering up to 660 square meters of coverage on WiFi plus 10Gbps Ethernet.

This is without question a future proofing device. Perfect for those building a home, or renovating, or those who have excessive and high numbers of devices at home.

Netgear’s point of difference with Orbi is the Multi-link operation (MLO) which is a feature of WiFi 7 allowing a dedicated enhanced backhaul, combining a dedicated 5GHz band and a 6GHz band to double the connection speed between the orbi devices themselves.

“The Orbi 970 Series is another major milestone in delivering the extraordinary power of our patented Quad Band technology across the whole home – from the wine cellar to the game room to the backyard grill – with speeds up to 2.4x faster than WiFi 6,” said David Henry, president & GM of Connected Home Products and Services at NETGEAR.

“We’ve combined our extensive RF (radio frequency) expertise and new patented technology with the features of WiFi 7 to provide the fastest WiFi speeds, ensuring anything and everything connected to the Orbi 970 system operates at optimal performance even across the most demanding smart homes.”

It’s not cheap though – the three pack Orbi 970 is $4,299 available for pre-order now, additional satellites are $1,599.

Orbi 970 Technical Specifications:

• 320MHz high-capacity channels – New, ultrawide bandwidth means up to 2.4x the speed to connected devices and is fully backward compatible with older WiFi devices. WiFi 7 smartphones and laptops can get up to 5Gbps.
• 4K QAM – Increases speeds for users by more efficient usage of the available bandwidth.
• Preamble Puncturing – Enables a wider channel than would otherwise be available in areas of high interference.
• Multi-link Operation – Uses multiple WiFi bands at once, for both backhaul and fronthaul to improve network reliability, reduce latency, and ensure data is delivered with maximum speed.
• Enhanced Dedicated Backhaul – Leverages multi-link operation (MLO), to combine dedicated 5Ghz with a 6GHz band to get 10 Gig wireless backhaul speed between router and satellites.
• Multi-Gig Speeds with 10GbE Internet Port – Use the 10 Gig internet port for cable and fibre plans up to 10Gbps. Compatible with any internet service provider.
• 10GbE LAN Ports – Option to use 10Gig wired connection between the router and satellites.
• More Capacity for Data-Intense Activities – Connect up to 200 devices, such as security cameras, smart home devices, and speakers, while enjoying smooth 4K/8K video streaming, ultra-responsive online gaming, AR/VR entertainment, and uninterrupted UHD video conferencing.
• More Multi-gig Wired ports on Router and Satellites – Plug in wired devices to improve performance via a 10Gbps and four 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports.
• Wi-Fi 7 Qualcomm® Networking Pro Series platform – Delivers uncompromising WiFi 7 performance for today’s hyper-connected homes.