Orbi Triband WiFi 7 Mesh System (RBE873) - Router + 2 Satellites - Coverage up to 600 m², 150 Devices - 10 Gigabit Port - BE21000 802.11be (up to 21Gbps), Ideal for Thick Walls

Unfortunately, this is a one-star product for me. For a system at this price point, it has a critical flaw that fundamentally limits its capability. The main issue is its inability to sustain multi-gigabit throughput when operating over PPPoE, which is required by most UK ISPs. PPPoE introduces significant CPU overhead because every packet must be encapsulated and processed individually. The Orbi 870’s 1.5GHz processor simply does not have the processing headroom to handle this efficiently at multi-gig speeds. As a result, performance is heavily constrained. My line rate is 1.8Gbps, yet the router delivers only around 900Mbps over PPPoE. Upload throughput is also impacted, at times dropping to zero, and the system regularly experiences packet loss, leading to a noticeably degraded connection. Running the system in AP mode allows me to achieve full line speed, but that comes with substantial trade-offs. All the intelligent routing and optimisation features are disabled, including band steering, beamforming, and client steering to the closest satellite. In AP mode the system becomes little more than a basic access point, and for an £800 device that is far from acceptable. Several app features are also unavailable when AP mode is enabled. To its credit, the wireless performance is excellent. Coverage is strong, roaming between satellites is seamless when using Ethernet backhaul, and band steering across the 5GHz and 6GHz bands works very effectively. I have also not encountered any issues with IoT device compatibility. The mobile app is relatively minimal with few settings to adjust. For many users this may be a positive, as the system is intended to be plug-and-play with minimal configuration. Overall, the experience has been disappointing. If you have multi-gig broadband and expect to achieve your full speeds, this system does not justify its cost.

This is the third time I have upgraded my Orbi, but the first time I used as a router. The hubs that BT/EE supply are trash so I tried connecting this new system directly to my full fiber access point. That went fine but even though I positioned the sats in exactly the same place as my previous Orbi setup, it has taken two days for the system to figure out the optimal pathway. I literately called Netgear's support (which is excellent and easy to access) and the Satellite topology appeared on the app correctly as I was describing the issue to the tech! since then so far so good. The desktop app is prehistoric and the apple app very limited. Connections seem sound now. A big bonus is the improvement in stability of the main 2.4/5 GHz network channel when dealing with temperamental IOT 2.4 Ghz devices like my EV charger. Although I did set up the dedicated IOT access I haven't needed it. This alone is worth the cost. Netgear really need to improve the apps and documentation to get the best out of this. I had planned to use the old system as a handmedown in my other property but now seriously considering buying another of these just to improve the IOT stability.

For such an expensive product the reliability is really poor, dropping connections and needing to be reset daily. Seems to be a known problem with no solution.

Excellent product and setup was easy, the only criticism I would say rebooting the system takes a while and it is expensive, but other than that it is a great product for anyone looking to fully utilise their fibre optic plan. I’m currently using community fibre on an 1GBPS plan and the mesh setup they provided wasn’t to my liking so swapped it out with this. Now I get 1GBPS download and upload speeds on WIFI and the signal is amazing with no interference. I would say to anyone. If you do use your own equipment with your ISP, you may find the speed will drop a little bit for the first few hours and once the system configures it self you should be up and running normally. Also from reading a few articles if you are using community fibre and have issues, clone the MAC address from their supplied router or call them up to reprovision the supplied ONT.