Netgear Orbi 960 Series Quad-Band WiFi 6E Mesh System Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Netgear Orbi 960 Series AXE11000 Mesh WiFi System (RBKE963) Quad-Band WiFi 6E System is available now with an MSRP of £699.99 for the base unit, but the triple pack I reviewed is currently £1699.99 on Amazon or £1199.99 for a double pack. You can buy additional satellites for £699.99, but it’s £100 per device cheaper if you purchase them as an appropriate bundle, and you can get them in anything from two for £1199.99 to six units for £3649.99, which means you can get up to 15,000 sq. ft of coverage. I wish I had the small fortress that it could cover, but unfortunately, I do not. However, you also get 1-year NETGEAR Armor included, which provides an automatic security shield for your WiFi and connected devices for real-time protection against hackers and added privacy with VPN.

Overview

This clearly isn’t a router a lot of people need, or at least, it’s a router a lot of people will want, but at this price, it’s simply out of the range of a sensible purchase for many of us, myself included. That being said, I can’t fault the price, as this is a flagship product, delivering all the latest speeds and technologies, as well as some truly epic coverage for larger properties that most single units and even many other mesh routers couldn’t even dream of.

I don’t have 25,000ft that needs WiFi 6E, but I’m sure there are people that certainly do. That being said, the mesh aspect of this router is what’s pushing the price into the thousands, and while a single unit is still a penny shy of £700 if you want a really high-quality router that doesn’t look like an RGB-lit up-turned spider, this is certainly going to put a smile on your face.

The setup was incredibly easy, the installation of the hardware is superbly simple, and the aesthetics are certainly on point here. If you drop it in your living room, hallway, or office space, it’s going to look great and that’s something I can say about very few routers. Plus, despite being expensive, the UI is the same as we see throughout the NetGear range, so getting online support and tips on what to do is really easy, which I like.

Overall, this is out of my price range, so I can’t say it’s a product I would buy myself. However, if you’re running 1-10Gbps internet, or ultra-fast 10G LAN in your home network for whatever reason, and you have the latest WiFi 6+ hardware on your PC, Laptops, and the latest phones, then you’ll need a potent router like this to get the most out of it. The fact it can be scaled up to cover huge spaces is a welcome bonus for larger homes or properties with WiFi killing thick walls that need multiple hubs to keep the games, movies and calls running smoothly.