Netgear Orbi 870 Series

Introduction

For all the benefits of Wi-Fi 7, the high starting prices of the initial set of devices put off all but those with the deepest pockets. While I’ve seen several cheaper Wi-Fi 7 mesh systems since, they usually compromise on performance somewhere along the line. The Netgear Orbi 870 Series is designed to redress that balance.

It can’t be described as cheap, but it offers most of the same features as its high-end sibling, the Orbi 970 Series, but at half the price.

Design and Build Quality

• Plenty of Ethernet ports
• Separate router and satellites
• Available in two- or three-packs

I’ve got the three-pack of the Orbi 870 Series on review, which consists of one router and two satellites. At £1099.99, it’s hardly cheap, but it’s half the price of the three-pack 970 Series, a couple of hundred pounds more than the 770 Series, and cheaper than the similarly specced Eero Max 7.

There’s also a two-pack available (£699.989), or you can buy an add-on satellite for £449.99 if you need further network expansion. As with Netgear’s most recent mesh systems, this one is available in black and in white, which I have on review.

This mesh system looks similar to the 770 series, using a tall tower design for the router and satellites. Both are the same physical size, but differ in terms of the physical ports available.

The router is the part that needs to be plugged into your internet via the 10 Gigabit Ethernet port. That’s fast enough to cope with the fastest internet connections available now and some way into the future.

There are then four 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports, which is an upgrade on the Orbi 770 Series. However, you miss out on an additional 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, which both the Orbi 970 Series and Eero Max 7 provide.

With the satellites, you get four 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports (two more than on the 770 Series) but no 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Does the lack of 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports make much of a difference? I don’t think so. With 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, you can easily run it over the same Cat 5E cables you’re likely to have in your home, so it’s an easy upgrade that’s easy to take advantage of. I think that 10 Gigabit Ethernet is something that only the absolute heaviest users will need today.

Ethernet isn’t just for connecting external devices, it can also be used for connecting satellites together, using a backhaul rather than the default wireless one.

Satellites and the router both have screw connectors underneath for a wall mount, which is handy if you don’t want the devices taking up shelf space.

Features and Performance

• Fast at close range
• Settings split between app and web interface

If you’ve used one Orbi device, then the Netgear Orbi 870 Series will be familiar to you, as it’s configured and controlled via the Orbi app. All I needed to do was scan the QR code on the front, follow the wizard, and within 20 minutes, I had a mesh network with my satellites connected wirelessly.

It’s a simple-to-use app, which makes it easy to see which devices are connected to your network, and the general status. I could use the app to change the Wi-Fi name and password, turn on the IoT network (a separate isolated network for smart devices), and toggle the guest network on and off.

Channel selection and advanced settings, such as port forwarding, are available through the web interface. However, it’s mildly frustrating that the app still doesn’t provide access to everything. In that regard, the cleaner, simpler Eero app is easier to use.

As with other Orbi devices, there are built in profiles. With the free version, you can create profiles for household members and assign their devices to them manually. Upgrade to the paid-for tier, and there’s proper web filtering and scheduling, which is useful in a house with children.

Armor, Netgear’s security service, is also available on a subscription basis. This adds in BitDefender-powered security across the entire network, plus you can have up to 50 devices supported on-the-go with full AV protection. That’s a clear step-up from Eero Plus, which offers app-based security to three devices only.

New is the higher Armor Plus tier, which gives you a VPN, AdBlocker and Anti-Triacker, too. Prices vary by region and current offers, so the app is the best place to check for the current information.

Like the 770 Series, the 870 Series doesn’t have a dedicated wireless backhaul for communication between satelites; only the 970 Series has this for the company’s Wi-Fi 7 devices. Instead, the 870 Series assigns bandwidth from the 5 and 6 channels.

Both the satellite and router have the same internal Wi-Fi 7 specs: 4x4GHz (11,520Mbit/s), 4×4 5GHz (8647Mbit/s) and 2×2 2.4GHz (688Mbit/s). That’s double the bandwidth on the 5GHz and 6GHz channels that the 770 Series supported.

Performance, unsurprisingly, is better here than with the 770 Series, although behind the crazy throughputs that the 970 Series offers, and a touch behind the more expensive Eero Max 7.

I tested with an OpenSpeedTest server, running on a Mac connected via 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet to the satellite. My wireless devices was an iPhone 16 Pro.

At close range, the 1550Mbit/s was faster than the 770 Series could produce, although a good way behind the 2334.5Mbit/s that the 970 Series produced. However, given the huge price disparity between the two, that’s to be expected.

Moving up to the first floor, near the satellite that I placed there, speeds only dropped a little to 1199.35Mbit/s, outdoing the 770 Series. Moving to my second floor, the speeds dropped to 612.55Mbit/s, even after multiple re-runs. That’s better than the speeds the 770 Series delivered, but the Eero 7 Max was faster yet, while the 970 Series’ dedicated backhaul proved its worth.

Should you buy it?