A few months ago, I signed up for Spectrum’s Invincible internet service, and wasn’t too impressed with the coverage their hybrid WiFi + cellular router provided. I’d never had problems getting a strong signal from a single, high-end router from the front to the back of my apartment, but here I was, buying a range extender. I literally couldn’t play videos in my Master Bedroom, which is in the back of my apartment. And all the content screens on my Apple TV interface wouldn’t load. It was bad!

Most people will tell you to buy a mesh network bundle to deal with signal strength issues that can be the result of the distance from a router to your smart TV, or the construction materials used in your home, and they aren’t wrong. I’ve been living with theTri-band WiFi 7 Orbi 770 for the last few weeks, and it solves a lot of the issues you might be dealing with, while reinforcing the advice I always give folks: DON’T use your ISP’s equipment. Buy your own.

Let’s talk about that!

4.5/5

Coverage

Up to 8,000 sq. ft.

Number of Devices Supported

100

Bands

6GHz (2×2), 5GHz (2×2), 2.4GHz (2×2)

Speed

Up to 11Gbps

Price, availability, specs

The Orbi 770 series is available now from Netgear.com and many brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy, starting at $300 for the single router, $550 for a 2-pack, and $700 for the 3-pack that I’ve reviewed.

You can do this the easy way or the hard way…

Setting it up

Unboxing the router and two satellites foreshadowed what was to come. Everything was so neatly packed and clearly laid out. The packaging was simple and minimalist. Pull the units and their respective power bricks out of the boxes, grab the card with the QR Code on it, and download the mobile app onto your phone. Then create a Netgear/Orbi account and log in.When you log in, you’ll see a screen where you can tap “Set up an Orbi.” You’ll scan the QR code on the top of the router, follow the instructions for setup, watch the status LED on the router, create a router administrator account, and once that’s done, you’ll go place and plug in the satellite nodes, waiting just a few minutes for them to be discovered, connect, and update the firmware if that’s needed. Setup took me around 20 minutes from start to finish. The beautiful thing about the LEDs is that they’re only on during setup (shown below), but once everything is connected, they turn off completely. No “breathing” or dimmed states.

I wanted the 2-pack, but I received the 3-pack from Netgear, so I only set up the router and a single satellite. My apartment is around 1500 sq. ft., but that has caused problems for lesser routers in the past, likely due to the building materials used in my apartment. The router and satellites are tall and cast a pretty visible presence in your space, but the white units will blend in with many people’s decor.

The main router has a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port for your modem, plus three additional 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports for other wired connections. The two nodes have only two 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports, and all three units have reset and sync buttons.

While the mobile app has enough features for most people, the Orbi 770 also has a web interface you can log into for more advanced settings. It’s worth familiarizing yourself with both interfaces so you can easily identify which features you still may want to access after the basic setup.

Problems solved?

Mesh for less mess

I recently switched to Spectrum’s Invincible WiFi. That was around the time the Asus ROG Router I was using was starting to give out. It was nearing the end of its useful life, so I used Spectrum’s supplied WiFi router with built-in cellular backup. When I found out Spectrum had a great deal on gigabit WiFi speeds, I switched to their standard WiFi router to get the best deal, but it didn’t have the power to reach my back room. I’d watch TV back there, or use the master bathroom, and content would buffer or not play at all, so I purchased a range extender, and that solved the problem.

Many people would tell you that instead of buying a range extender, you should buy a mesh networking kit. So, here we are. Let’s back up a bit. When I first plugged in Spectrum’s router, I got full gigabit internet speeds. Once I connected all my TVs, laptops, and smart home appliances and gadgets, that speed dropped significantly to 500-700 Mbps, depending on how far I was from the router. Not the case with the Orbi 770. Even with the weight of my household’s tech bearing down, I was actually getting between 1.1 and 1.3 gigabits. That is why I always recommend buying your own router or mesh networking products. They’re almost always better than whatever your ISP is going to provide.

In this case, the difference matters because when you have a full house of kids gaming and streaming, and the adults are streaming 4k content, you’re likely to hit bottlenecks with ISP-provided gear. This is because a third-party router generally has more overhead, meaning it can handle more simultaneous connections at speed.

Using the Orbi 770 for these last couple of weeks has been a boon for my heavy movie and music streaming. No matter how many TV and social media streams I’ve had running with four people in my home, I haven’t experienced any lag. That includes four cameras streaming video at 2k resolution. Looking at the output of those cameras and sitting down to watch streaming movies and shows, load times have been nearly instant every time, showing that this mesh network is not only fast but also has solid throughput at the distances my devices are used.

While the speeds and throughput I’ve experienced have been excellent, know that if your space is much larger than my 1500 sq. ft., you may see a decrease in speed when you’re farther from the router and nodes, since the Orbi 770 uses the 5GHz and 6GHz bands for wireless backhaul. The good news is the system also supports wired backhaul, so if your home is configured for Ethernet in various rooms, or if you don’t mind running cabling between nodes, you’ll get faster speeds and throughput farther away from your routers and nodes, like when you’re in the backyard streaming your favorite 4k content.

Buyer beware

Not bad, but these are things you should know

The units are pretty tall. They’re about twice the size of a can of soda, or sparkling water (shown above), so unlike smaller, flatter systems like eero, they’re going to standout more, in your room. They’re also almost twice the height of Google’s Nest WiFi Pro mesh networking system.

One of my favorite features of the router’s mobile app is the ability to enable a separate IoT network for your smart home devices like lights, thermostats, and smart switches. This is important because it frees up bandwidth that would otherwise be shared by all devices on a band/network.

The downside is that the main WiFi configuration settings don’t let you split the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands into separate networks. Instead, it uses band steering to push your devices to the band best optimized for their use. In the past, I’ve had issues printing to a network-attached printer because of that functionality. I’ve also had my smart front doorbell intermittently lose its network connection throughout the day when it was “steered” to the network that router decided it should be on.

The router and nodes don’t have USB ports, so you can’t connect a USB printer or external drive/flash drive directly. My printer has an Ethernet option, so that isn’t a problem, and I’m more interested in a true NAS which uses Ethernet than external drives (aka direct-attached storage). Also, if you’re using any streaming networking gear that connects via Ethernet, the Ethernet ports on the router and nodes all max out at 2.5Gbps. Some mesh networking products have 10GbE ports but cost hundreds of dollars more.

The router comes with some powerful security software and parental controls, and while some of it is available to you at no extra cost, there are definitely some options that families may find useful but you’ll need to subscribe to access them. That access doesn’t come cheap at up to $170 for all the bells and whistles.

I’ve reviewed quite a few routers and mesh networks through the years, and Netgear’s Orbi 770 is definitely one of the better mesh networking products that I’ve had the pleasure to put through its paces. If you have the coin, this kit should keep your home’s internet connections moving fast enough for your needs, with room to expand your gear as newer consumer technology is released. The Orbi 770 has enough overhead to keep you from serious growing pains as you add streaming products, gaming systems, computers, mobile devices, and smart appliances.

4.5/5

Coverage

Up to 8,000 sq. ft.

Number of Devices Supported

100

Bands

6GHz (2×2), 5GHz (2×2), 2.4GHz (2×2)

Speed

Up to 11Gbps