NETGEAR®, Inc. introduced the next generation in smart home Wi-Fi mesh systems. The Orbi™ Quad-band Mesh Wi-Fi 6E System (RBKE960 Series) adds the newly available 6 GHz Wi-Fi band to deliver quad-band technology with faster Internet speeds to more devices simultaneously with less interference and wait time. The most powerful Orbi to date supports multi-Gigabit Internet throughout the home, improving Wi-Fi performance for the growing number of devices in today’s homes while paving the way for new devices and experiences to come.
This past year pushed home networks to their limits. Average US household Internet speeds rose 30 percent and peak Internet traffic increased 38 percent over pre-pandemic levels. Activities necessitated by the pandemic such as remote work from home, virtual Zoom meets with friends and relatives, first-run movie streaming, online shopping, exercise, gaming and ordering food are becoming the norm now and going forward. At the same time, Internet service providers are providing Gigabit plus Internet connections at scale, ranging from 1.2 to 2 Gigabits and even 10 Gigabits to homes. High performance Wi-Fi based on the latest 6E standard in the clear 6 GHz band is the only means to harness such Internet speed at home to handle all these applications unimpeded.
New Wi-Fi, New Orbi
The new Orbi Quad-Band Wi-Fi 6E system builds on NETGEAR’s top-of-the-line Orbi Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6 system (RBK853) by adding a fourth band for the newly available 6 GHz Wi-Fi. This new band provides the much-needed additional Wi-Fi spectrum to handle multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi speed on new smart phones and laptops, free of interference from other devices on the existing 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. And the Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem is poised for rapid growth. Many devices already support Wi-Fi 6E such as the Samsung Galaxy S21, and Fold 3 mobile phones, Dell Latitude 5520 and Lenovo Thinkpad T14 laptops, Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV and Intel Wi-Fi 6E PCIe card, with more to come before Christmas.
Devices running on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi bands will also experience an improvement in coverage and increased speeds of up to 30 percent with the Orbi RBKE960 Series due to the system’s upgraded Wi-Fi radio and antenna designs relative to the previous flagship model, the Tri-band Orbi RBK850 series. To augment the increased Wi-Fi speed, the Internet connection has also been upgraded to support up to 10 Gigabits, the fastest Internet speed available now or in the near term. Additional 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports have been added on the router and satellites to provide an option for wired connections for customers with the latest multi-Gigabit Ethernet devices.
The industry’s first quad-band Wi-Fi 6E system, Orbi ensures maximum throughput with 16 Wi-Fi streams–the highest specification available—at all three bands, 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz. Furthermore, similar to the previous tri-band Orbi systems, the RBKE960 series uses a dedicated Wi-Fi 6 backhaul, pioneered by NETGEAR, for data exchange between the router and satellites without impacting the performance of connected devices.
Orbi Wi-Fi 6E three pack (RBKE963) provides lightning-fast, wall-to-wall Internet access to homes of up to 9,000 square feet for Wi-Fi 6 connections and is easily expandable for larger spaces or denser coverage of Wi-Fi 6E connections with the addition of extra satellites.
"As a leader in networking for more than 25 years, NETGEAR is committed to creating best-in-class Wi-Fi products that maximize the benefits of the latest Wi-Fi technology. This next technological leap represents everything we’ve been striving for,” said David Henry, president and GM of Connected Home Products and Services at NETGEAR. “From the moment multi-Gigabit Internet enters your home through our 10 Gb Ethernet port, to our quad-band architecture, 2.5 Gigabit LAN ports and improved 5 GHz performance all the way down to your latest Wi-Fi 6E devices, there’s not a single bottleneck in this system. Our new Orbi Quad-band Wi-Fi 6E Mesh System delivers top-of-the-line performance for not only today’s needs, but also for the future requirements of even the most demanding and sophisticated smart homes.”
Technical Specifications:
• Industry-first quad-band Wi-Fi System – Supports four Wi-Fi bands -2.4, 5 and 6 GHz, for connecting the router/satellite to all your devices and an additional dedicated fourth 5 Ghz Wi-Fi band for connecting the router to the satellites.
• Supports all-new Wi-Fi 6E 6 GHz Wi-Fi band – The 6 GHz Wi-Fi band adds more than double the bandwidth of 5 GHz, resolving issues with interference and congestion in the 5 GHz Wi-Fi band, and enables amazing multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi speed for connected Wi-Fi 6E devices.
• 16 Wi-Fi Streams – to provide the best speed, range and performance to blanket your home with Internet speeds similar to what you receive from your Internet provider.
• 10 Gbit Ethernet port for Internet – Future-proof your home network with support of up to 10 Gbps Internet speeds.
• 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port for wired connections –Multi-gig Ethernet port for wired connection to network storage, LAN gaming, in-home media streaming or use it to set up a wired multi-gig connection between the router and satellites with structured Ethernet wiring in your home.
• More Flexibility to Manage your Home Network with support for four different Wi-Fi Networks – Main mesh Wi-Fi Network for all your devices using the latest WPA3 for secure connections; IoT Network for all your legacy and IoT devices; 6 GHz Only Wi-Fi Network for all latest Wi-Fi 6E devices and Guest Wi-Fi Network.
• Orbi® App – Easily set up your Wi-Fi System, manage your network remotely, pause the Internet on any device, track your Internet data usage and more.
State-of-the-Art Security and Services
The Orbi Quad-band Wi-Fi 6E Mesh System supports the new, more secure Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3). With 128-bit encryption, the next generation of WPA protects against weak passwords that are easily cracked by hackers.
The new Orbi system also supports four separate Wi-Fi networks. In addition to the default home WPA3 mesh network for 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz devices and a guest network, users have the option to set up their new 6E devices on an exclusive Wi-Fi 6E network to ensure these devices realize the best speeds and performance possible. There is also an IoT network for smart home devices such as smart plugs, lights, sprinklers, etc. that only support WPA2. These discrete networks allow for flexibility of network configuration, maximum performance and the separation of less secure devices from the main network.
For added peace of mind, Quad-band Orbi Wi-Fi 6E includes a free 30-day trial of the newly enhanced NETGEAR Armor™ service to protect the connected home from online threats. Unlike traditional endpoint Internet security products, NETGEAR’s Armor is built into the router as a comprehensive security solution to monitor activity going to and from the Internet, protecting all the devices on a network, including Smart TVs, security cameras, game consoles, smart speakers, streaming players, and other smart home gadgets which typically would not be able to be loaded with Internet security protection software by users. NETGEAR’s Armor also protects the traditional computing devices such as smart phones, tablets, laptops and desktops, while eliminating the need for multiple security subscriptions or software on each of these computing devices. Also available as a paid subscription on the new system is NETGEAR’s Smart Parental Controls™, which help parents easily manage their children’s time and access online across all connected devices—ultimately promoting safe and healthy screen habits.
Availability
The award-winning design of Orbi has made it an elegant and unobtrusive element in some of the world’s most sophisticated homes. The Orbi Quad-band Mesh Wi-Fi 6E System RBKE963 (router and two satellites) will be available for preorder today in the US and shortly in the UK on NETGEAR’s online stores—shipping in time for the holidays—and in other regions as Wi-Fi 6E is approved. NETGEAR will also offer the Orbi Wi-Fi 6E Black Edition for a limited time on NETGEAR.com. For larger homes looking to expand Wi-Fi 6E coverage throughout every room NETGEAR will offer additional satellites and bundles on NETGEAR.com as well.
Pricing: Orbi Quad-band Mesh Wi-Fi 6E System
• RBKE963: Router and two Satellites – three pack, $1,499.99 MSRP
• RBKE963B: Orbi Black Edition Router and two Satellites – three pack, $1,499.99 MSRP
• RBSE960: Add-on Satellite, $599 MSRP.