Netgear Orbi 870 Series Review

Netgear Orbi 870 Series: Introduction

The first lot of Wi-Fi 7 devices were almost comically expensive. Sure, they were extremely fast under the right circumstances, but the prices would have even the rich wincing a little. Cheaper Wi-Fi 7 devices have been emerging, but they often compromise on performance. Hence, it’s good to see the Netgear Orbi 870 Series: a more reasonably priced Wi-Fi 7 mesh system without significant feature sacrifices.

Sure, this mesh system isn’t cheap, but it does cost around half the price of its big brother, the Netgear Orbi 970 Series, while not seriously reducing features.

Setup and specs

• Available in a two- or three-pack
• Tri-band Wi-Fi 7
• 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet

As with the other Orbi systems, the Netgear Orbi 870 Series is available as a three-pack (which I have here) or a two-pack. Add-on satellites are also available if you want to expand further. Unlike the Eero system, you can’t mix and match satellites from other Orbi ranges, so there’s no reusing older satellites or putting in a cheaper 770 series satellite where you don’t quite need the same levels of performance.

Using a similar tall, thin tower design to the Orbi 770 Series, the Netgear Orbi 870 Series consists of one router device and one satellite device. Each are the same size and have mounts underneath for wall-mounting.

With the router you get one 10 Gigabit Ethernet port for the internet connection and then four 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports for home networking, which is a nice upgrade. It’s also one more 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port than the 770 Series offered.

It’s a little disappointing not to have one 10 Gigabit Ethernet WAN port, which the 970 Series has, as does the Eero Max 7.

The satellite looks the same as the router, only they don’t have the WAN port and just have the four 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Internally, both systems have the same Wi-Fi 7 specs: 4x4GHz (11,520Mbit/s), 4×4 5GHz (8647Mbit/s) and 2×2 2.4GHz (688Mbit/s). This means that the 870 Series has double the 770 Series bandwidth on the 5GHz and 6GHz channels.

What you don’t get is the dedicated wireless backhaul channel that the 970 Series has, with the available network bandwidth shared between clients and inter-satellite communication. If you’re going to wire the Orbi devices together (a wired backhaul), then the lack of the dedicated wireless backhaul isn’t such an issue.

Features

• Optional parental controls and security
• Integrated IoT network
• App doesn’t do everything

Setting up the Netgear Orbi 870 Series means using the Orbi app. It’s mostly straightforward to use, and the basic configuration is easy. The app took me through getting an internet connection, placing my satellites and getting a secure wireless network.

From the app, I could see which devices were connected and change the wireless network name, as well as toggle the Guest and IoT networks (the latter provides a secure, separate network for smart devices).

As useful as all of this is, if you want to set up port forwarding or manually change wireless channels, you have to connect to the web interface. That’s a shame and feels a bit old-fashioned; in comparison, all of Eero’s features are accessible through the app.

As with other Orbi devices, you can use the free version of parental controls to set up profiles for household members and then pause them manually. If you want web filtering and scheduling, you need to upgrade.

Likewise, if you want to turn on security, you need to subscribe to Netgear Armour. This service adds BitDefender-powered security to your network, plus software for 50 client devices to protect them when they leave your home.

This security package is a big boost from the equivalent Eero service, which only offers software for three devices. There’s a new Armor Plus tier, which also adds in VPN, AdBlocker and Anti-Tracker. Prices do vary by region and current offers, and there’s currently not a standard price for everything.

Performance

• Fast close-up
• Speed drops at range

Performance is as you’d expect: considerably better than with the 770 Series but behind the 970 Series. Testing with an Wi-Fi 7 enabled iPhone 7, and running an OpenSpeedTest server on a computer connected by 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, I got very fast speeds at close range, of 1550Mbit/s. That’s better than the 770 Series, a bit behind the Eero Max 7 and a long way behind the 970 Series.

Moving to the first floor, speeds dropped to 199Mbit/s which is close to the Eero Max 7’s speed and a good way ahead of the 770 Series. On the second floor of my home, with a satellite on the floor below, I saw speeds of 613.55Mbit/s. That’s faster than I saw with the 770 Series, but the 970 Series and Eero Max 7 did better. Switching to a wired backhaul, if possible, would increase performance.

Final thoughts

PerfoHalf the price of the 970 Series, the Netgear Orbi 870 Series is a great mesh system that plugs the gap in the company’s line-up. It’s an ideal system for those that want excellent Wi-Fi 7 performance without paying the highest prices. Speeds drop off at range, but for those with smaller homes or that have Ethernet everywhere, this won’t be an issue.

How we test

When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.

Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular mesh system compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.

FAQs

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