Netgear Orbi 770 Series (RBE773) Review: A Straightforward, Well-Performing, Yet Imperfect Wi-Fi 7 Mesh

The Orbi 770 series, first announced in June, is Netgear's second major Wi-Fi 7 mesh system, and it's totally different from the first, the 970 series. As a matter of fact, as the first tri-band hardware without a dedicated backhaul, it's unlike the rest of the Orbi family.

Here's the bottom line: For those with modern Wi-Fi devices with sub-2.5Gbps broadband, at the current relatively friendly street pricing, the Netgear Orbi 770 series is a much better deal than the higher-end 970 series that costs more than double. The new mesh performed essentially as intended during my testing.

However, compared with competitors from other vendors, such as the Asus ZenWiFi BT10 or TP-Link Deco BE63, the lack of Wi-Fi options alone could render the Orbi 770 a headache for those with lots of legacy devices.

Netgear Orbi 770 Series (vs. RBE973S): Sensible hardware with the potentially problematic combo of MLO and limited Wi-Fi options

As mentioned, the Orbi 77O is different from the rest of the Orbi family. It's the first Orbi in a long time—since the Orbi RBK13—that doesn't have an additional 5GHz band that works as the permanent backhaul link, which for years has been the hallmark of the Orbi ecosystem.

Consequently, it's the only tri-band Orbi that allows devices (clients) to access all of its three bands. That's a huge step compared to all previous tri-band and quad-band Orbi sets, including the mighty (yet buggy) 970 series, where half of the 5GHz bandwidth is permanently locked to backhauling, even when you use network cables to connect the hardware units.

If you're worried that the new mesh will be inferior in a wireless setup, there's no need to fret. Wi-Fi 7 has lots of bandwdith, especially with the MLO feature, enough to deliver multi-Gigabit sustained rates even in the case the hardware needs to handle both backhauling and front hauling simultaneously. As a result, the dedicated backhaul band is unnecessary. In fact, it no longer makes sense.

However, the devil is in the details. Just because all three bands are available to clients doesn't mean you can customize them to your liking.

Addtionally, the combination of Wi-Fi 7's MLO and the Orbi ecosystem's limited Wi-Fi options can be problematic. We'll get these issues shortly, but first, in terms of hardware, the Orbi 770, as the name suggests, is a lesser piece of hardware compared to the 970 series. The table below shows the side-by-side specs of the two.

Netgear Wi-Fi 7 hardware: Orbi 770 series vs. Orbi 970 series

	Netgear Orbi 770 Series	Netgear Orbi 970 Series
Mesh Composition	Router + Satellite(s)
Model	Orbi 770 series Router: RBE771 Satellite: RBE770 2-pack: RBE772) 3-pack: RBE773)	Orbi 970 series Router: RBE971 Satellite: RBE970 2-pack: RBE972S) 3-pack: RBE973S)
Pre-Synced Hardware	Yes
Dedicated Backhaul Band (default)	None
Wired Backhaul	Yes (all bands are available to clients)	Yes (backhaul band unavailable to clients)
Multi-Gig Wired Backhaul (before a switch is required)	2.5Gbps throughout via daisy-chaining	10Gbps (first satellite) 2.5Gbps (2nd satellite)
Dimensions  (each unit)	9.88 x 5.28 x 3.95 in (25.12 x 13.42 x 10.04 cm)	11.58 x 5.68 x 5.15 in (29.40 x 14.42 x 13.8 cm)
Weight (each unit)	2.02 lbs (0.92 kg)	3.96 lbs (1.79 kg)
Wi-Fi Designation	Tri-band BE11000	Quad-band BE27000
1st Band (2.4GHz)	2×2 BE: Up to 688 Mbps (20/40MHz)	4×4 AX: Up to 1147 Mbps (20/40MHz)
2nd Band (5GHz upper channels)	2×2 BE: Up to 4324 Mbps (20/40/160/240MHz)	5GHz-1 4×4 BE: Up to 8647 Mbps (20/40MHz/160/240MHz)
3rd Band (6GHz)	4×4 BE: Up to 5765 Mbps (20/40MHz/160/320MHz)	4×4 AXE:  Up to 4800Mbps (20/40/80/160MHz)
4th Band (5GHz lower channels)	None	5GHz-2 4×4 BE: Up to 5765 Mbps (20/40MHz/160MHz)
Mobile App	Netgear Orbi
Login Account Required	Yes
Web User Interface	Yes
Features	Armor, Parental Control premium subscriptions via mobile app
AP Mode	Yes (as a router or a mesh)
USB Port	None
Gigabit Port	None
Multi-Gig Port	Router: 1x 2.5GBASE-T WAN, 3x 2.5GBASE-T LAN, Satellite: 2x 2.5GBASE-T LANs	Router: 1x 10GBASE-T WAN, 1x 10GBASE-T LAN, 4x 2.5GBASE-T LANs Satellite: 1x 10GBASE-T LAN, 2x 2.5GBASE-T LANs
Link Aggregation	No
Dual-WAN	No
Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC)	No (Netgear has no plan to enable this feature for the Orbi family.)
Multi-Link Operation (MLO)	Yes
Processing Power	Quad-core 1.5GHz CPU, 4GB flash, 2GB RAM	Quad-core 2.2GHz CPU, 4GB flash, 2GB RAM
Internal Fan	No
Firmware Version (at review)	V10.5.8.1	V9.10.4.1_1.1.17
Power Consumption (per 24 hours, measured at the router unit)	≈ 260 Wh	≈ 550 Wh
Release Date	June 11, 2024	September 2023
US Retail Price (at launch)	$999.99 (3-pack) $699.99 (2-pack) $399.99 (satellite unit) Buy now!	$2,299.99 (3-pack) $1699.99 (2-pack) $899 (satellite unit) Buy now!

A familiar Wi-Fi 7 Orbi without 10Gbps ports

As shown in the table, compared to the Orbi 970 series, the Orbi 770 series lacks 10Gbps ports.

Specifically, all of its ports are 2.5Gbps, which is the entry-level of Multi-Gig. As a result, the best connection speed you'll get from it, be it wired or wireless, will be capped at 2.5Gbps. No matter how fast its wireless performance can be, the hardware can't give out more bandwidth than it can take in.

That makes its mid-tier (2x2) Wi-Fi specs on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz band make sense, and the 4x4 specs of the 6GHz overkill. Again, due to the port speed grade, there's no way anyone can benefit from higher-than-2.5Gbps Wi-Fi bandwidth.

Other than that, the Orbi 770 series remains a familiar Orbi set compared to the Orbi 970 series, as well as the rest of the Orbi family.

Specially:

• The hardware is pre-synced. All you need to do is set up the router unit, and the satellites within the pack will become part of the system when plugged in.
• You can set up the router unit via the web user interface by pointing a browser on a connected computer to its default IP address (192.168.1.1) or routerlogin.net. After that, you can handle it the same way as any standard router with a web user interface.
• During the initial setup process, Netgear will repeatedly suggest that you use the Orbi mobile app. Unfortunately, the app has limited access to the router, feels stagnant, and often lags in showing the router's real-time status.
• There's a standard set of WAN and LAN settings for the Internet and local networks. However, there's no dual-WAN or link aggregation in the Orbi family.
• The hardware has a modest set of network features. Noteworthy are Dynamic DNS, port forwarding, and OpenVPN—since mid-2021, all Netgear routers no longer feature web-based remote access. To have more features, including vendor-assisted remote access, online protection, and parent control, users need to pay for add-on subscriptions and use the Orbi mobile app, which requires a login account with Netgear.

Overall, if you have used a Netgear Nighthawk router or another Orbi set, you'll be comfortable with the new Orbi 770 series. However, if you have used hardware from some other vendors with more robust firmware, such as Asus, TP-Link, Synology, or Ubiquiti, you'll find the new Orbi both limited and lacking.

And it gets a bit worse.

MLO, high encryption requirement, and the 6GHz blue

The Orbi RBE770 features Wi-Fi 7's MLO feature, which is generally a good thing.

However, this feature is turned on by default, and users can't do anything about it—it can't be turned off, and there's no way to separate the bands as different Wi-Fi networks (SSIDs). The way any Orbi works, all of its bands are lumped into a single Wi-Fi network, which is now an MLO-enabled SSID.

Consequently, due to the higher security requirements of Wi-Fi 7, this primary SSID does not support any existing device without WPA2 or higher encryption methods. And there are a lot of them out there.

The point is that with the Orbi 770, you'll likely have to say goodbye to many existing legacy devices (such as the iPhone 5 or older) in terms of Wi-Fi connection unless you get a separate access point for them. That's generally the case with any Wi-Fi 7 broadcasters with a limited number of SSIDs and inflexible security options.

Other than the main SSID, like all Wi-Fi 7 Orbi, the RBE770 has an IoT SSID and Guest Wi-Fi SSIDs for segmenting the network. Both of them only feature the 2.4GHz and/or 5GHz.

As a result, there's nothing users can do about the 6GHz, such as having an SSID only for this band. The only way to use the 6GHz band is to connect your device to the primary MLO-enabled SSID, and with some luck, they will use this band instead of the other two.

In my testing, my Wi-Fi 6E was sometimes connected to this band, though not always, and there was no way to enforce that. The point is that I couldn't test the performance of this band just by itself (and not as part of the MLO link) because there's no way to make sure you have a pure 6GHz connection to the broadcaster.

Netgear Orbi RBE773: Good performance for the specs

I tested a 3-pack RBE773 for over a week and was generally happy with it. As mentioned, per my method of testing, there's no way for the hardware to deliver faster than 2.5Gbps of sustained rates, and it didn't. Still, it was fast.

As a single router, the RBE771 delivered an excellent performance for a mid-tier Wi-Fi 7 router with 2.5Gbps ports. In fact, in some tests, it outdid the Orbi RBE973S (which was tested with older firmware when Wi-Fi 7 was still really new.) Overall, you can expect high Gig+ sustained rates out of it.

That was also the case with the RBE770 satellite unit in a wired backhaul setup. However, in the wireless setup, the satellite did noticeably worse, though it still managed to be around Gigabit-class sustained speeds in most cases.

In terms of range, the new mesh did quite well, similar to that of the Orbi 970 series.

Specifically, you can expect the RBE771 to cover some 2000 ft2 – 2500 ft2 (232 m2) of space with decent wireless real-world rates and then add another 1700 ft2 (158 m2) or so out of each satellite. Of course, the Wi-Fi range is tricky, and your mileage will vary depending on your environment and how you arrange the hardware units.

I also tested the system's wired and wireless backhaul bandwidths, and the numbers met the expectations.

Specifically, the RBE771's network ports deliver sustained speeds of around 2.4Gbps, very close to the theoretical ceiling. And the wireless link between it and an RBE770 unit at 40 feet (13 meters) away averaged around 2.2Gbps per my way of testing. Both of these numbers were excellent, considering the hardware's support for the entry-level Multi-Gig.

The Orbi RBE773 passed my 3-day stress test without any disconnection. However, the connection speed out of the satellite unit fluctuated at times. Also, any device connected to a wireless satellite suffered from added lag—this is not a system for gamers.

Like the predecessor, the Orbi 770 series has no internal fan and was completely silent during operation. It also produced almost no heat—the hardware remained cool to the touch.

Availability

While inferior on paper, Netgear's new Orbi 770 series is an overall better Wi-Fi 7 mesh option than its much more expensive predecessor, the 970 series. However, it's still far from perfect due to the lack of Wi-Fi configuration, which can render it problematic for those with lots of legacy devices.

So, if you have primarily new Wi-Fi devices (Wi-Fi 5 and newer) and are on the market for reliable mesh options for a home with sub-2.5Gbps bandwidth needs, consider it today!