Review: Netgear Orbi 970 Series

With the pool of Wi-Fi 7 devices steadily expanding and several certified routers hitting the market, you may consider upgrading. Netgear’s Orbi 970 mesh is one of the most capable Wi-Fi 7 systems available. This quad-band colossus delivers blazing-fast speeds, expansive coverage, ease of use, and some potentially handy extras. But the price is ridiculously high.

Cutting-edge gear is always pricey, and early adopters expect to be taxed, but a Netgear Orbi 970 Series three-pack will set you back an upsetting $2,300. Most folks can get by with a two-pack, but that will still cost you a whopping $1,700. It comes with a one-year subscription to Netgear Armor, the company’s all-in-one internet security protection, and a 30-day trial of Smart Parental Controls, but can it justify such a high price? The answer is yes and no, but mostly no. Let’s dig into why.

Off to the Races

Every Wi-Fi 7 mesh router I have tested has been physically big, and the Orbi 970 is no exception. Almost 12 inches tall, these rounded routers are around 5.5 inches across and heavy. There’s a gold metallic sheen on the vaguely triangular frame with black trim and white panels and a vertical stack of Ethernet ports on the back. The Orbi units, which also come in black, look nice, and the extra space allows for a range-boosting antenna design inside, but they don’t exactly melt into the background.

The Orbi 970 is a quad-band system, so you get one 2.4-GHz band, two 5-GHz bands, and one 6-GHz band. One of the 5-GHz bands is reserved for wireless backhaul, enabling the main router to send traffic back and forth to its satellites. Because this is a Wi-Fi 7 system, it can also use Multi-Link Operation (MLO) to connect on more than one band at a time, so the wireless backhaul can also borrow a chunk of space on the 6-GHz band.

Netgear pushed the boat out with Ethernet ports. The main router has two 10-Gbps ports and four 2.5-Gbps ports. The satellites have one 10-Gbps port and two 2.5-Gbps ports each. That’s enough to satisfy folks with multi-gig internet speeds and allows for lightning-fast wired backhaul if you have the cabling. The only omission is USB, which might have been handy for folks with network-attached storage.

Setting up a Netgear system is easy, because the main router is pre-paired with the included satellites. Patience is required, however, because it takes several minutes to connect and optimize, then several minutes more to connect each of the satellites. If you don’t have them within range, the system will warn you, and they should be fairly close together for best results (think of the mesh as a Wi-Fi spine for your home).

Premium Performance

The Netgear Orbi 970 did very well in my tests. You can expect speeds of 2 Gbps at close range, and two units easily blanketed my 1,600-square-foot home and extended into the garden (Netgear says a two-pack can cover up to 6,600 square feet). Longer-range tests, where devices likely switched to the 5-GHz band, were excellent but not exceptional, with speeds falling some way short of the top-of-the-table Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro.

The system is very stable and never balked at four simultaneous movie streams and online gaming sessions. Where the Orbi excelled, compared to other mesh systems, was wireless backhaul. If you have a multi-gig connection, the 970 Series is a great way to make the most of it, especially if you can situate the satellites reasonably close to the main router so they can employ MLO to take advantage of that relatively short-range 6-GHz band.

The Orbi app is easy to use, with tabs to review connected devices (it’s good at correctly identifying gadgets), internet speed tests, and some analytical tools. It sets up a separate IoT network (2.4 GHz by default) for your smart home devices, and there’s a guest network option, but the main network is a single SSID, and Netgear does not give you the option to split bands. This will suit most folks seeking a hands-off setup but could disappoint network tinkerers looking to dig into the nitty gritty.

While the Netgear Orbi 970 Series has impressed me over the past month, it is not flawless. I first tried to test this system before it was released and had to give up after encountering frequent network drops. To be fair, I had issues testing many pre-certified Wi-Fi 7 systems, particularly with Google’s Pixel 8 (and I’m not the only one). Netgear has updated the Orbi 970 firmware, so it runs far more smoothly. I had issues with the Xiaomi 14 Ultra this time, but deleting its network settings and reconnecting fixed my problems.

Premium Price

There’s a lot to like about the Netgear Orbi 970 Series, but it makes the Eero Max 7 (7/10, WIRED Review) and the TP-Link Deco BE85 (7/10, WIRED review) look relatively affordable, and both of those systems slightly bested it in many of my tests. The scenario where the Orbi comes out on top is for very large homes with multi-gig internet connections. If you have a big house, you can likely afford it, but why pay more? One possible answer is the extras.

Netgear Armor is a comprehensive security package with many features. It scans devices when they connect to your network, proactively blocks threats, including malware and dodgy websites, and includes Bitdefender Security and VPN service to safeguard your devices outside the home. This package certainly adds value, and some families will find it very useful, though you only get the first year for free. It costs $100 a year after that.

Basic parental controls are free but limit you to creating profiles for your kids’ devices and pausing their internet. If you want to set limits, track website and app usage, apply age-appropriate filters, set bedtimes, and more, you need Smart Parental Controls at $8 a month or $70 a year after the 30-day trial. These are comprehensive parental controls, but that’s a hefty extra fee.

While the subscription model is now dominant, Asus still offers much of the same functionality for free with its router range. It’s not quite as user-friendly, but you can tweak more settings. If you prefer the set-and-forget approach, you can save hundreds with the Eero Max 7 at $1,700 for a three-pack or $1,150 for a two-pack (less if you wait for a sale). It is every bit as easy to use, and an Eero Plus subscription at $100 a year includes everything you get with Netgear Armor and Smart Parental Controls, plus genuinely handy extra smart home features and one of our favorite password managers.

You might pay a premium for some consumer electronic brands because you love the design or for unique features, but that's harder to justify for something as utilitarian as a router. The Netgear Orbi 970 Series is undoubtedly an excellent mesh, but it doesn’t do much, if anything, that another mesh system cannot do for less. Ultimately, it is overpriced and overkill for most folks.