NETGEAR - Orbi 970 Series
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Last updated: Dec 16, 2025 Scoring
Liked most:
339
55
"with a big house we always had issues with coverage before that's non-existent now"
"Actually better than a range extender, as Mesh systems are designed from the ground up to work with each other in the system. ... But it's half ass "patched up" jerky jerky mesh was no match to a Deco. Deco was snappier, more reliable, and longer range."
"The coverage is excellent. I have a 2 storey 175sqm house and it covers almost everything."
63
12
"I’m getting the whole gig almost every where in the house"
"I have 30 devices connected, most dormant, but still hold 130mbps+ for each on a 500mb ISP. ... I stream all TV and WFH without issues."
"1.93 GB on wifi 7"
128
26
"I’ve got around 20 devices connected (phones, smart TV, laptops, even a couple of smart plugs) and it hasn’t choked once"
"internal connections for example i use Sunshine & Moonlight to game stream to my living room TV or my bedroom projector and I get the full 2.5gig speed test to my desktop from the tv, projector and my phone that are on wifi"
"I download 50tb a month on my server and steam Plex to nearly ten simultaneous users this way. Never had any issues relating to the wifi side of it."
14
5
"Backhaul is rock solid and fast"
"works flawlessly ... I have a router running in bridge mode and 2 satellites with a wired backhaul."
"my 970 router and two extenders have worked flawlessly since I got them. ... In my situation I am able to hardwire the backhaul on one of the satellites and use the wireless backhaul on the other extender. With proper placement I’m getting near wired speed on the extender with the wireless backhaul."
35
13
"They also all support 802.11r/k/v for roaming and fast switching, regardless of wired/mesh uplink. These protocols make devices seamlessly switch APs as they move around, and without dropping connections. You can be on a video call and walk around without interruption."
"The ability to move throughout my house, jumping for AP to AP while having a video call is life changing."
"Recently switched to a UniFi system and no trouble at all with iPhone handoffs on their wifi7 APs. ... Best decision ever."
Disliked most:
5
56
"Support had me go through all the usual troubleshooting steps — no fix. ... I was told a replacement had been “processed” and would ship. ... It’s now been nearly two weeks and my order is still showing as “processing”. ... I’ve exchanged 24+ emails with Support. The replies are all scripted apologies and vague “please wait” responses. ... Their site promises 3–5 days for new orders, yet for a replacement I’ve paid almost $500 for, I’ve received nothing. ... I’ve asked for a refund policy and escalation, but I keep getting ignored."
"Ecovacs has the worst after sales of any company in any place of the world I have ever experienced. ... The company won’t take responsibility and goi around in circles. ... They wasted more than 6 months after talk to multiple people and site visits and it was escalated till the head of the after sales who I will name clearly: Tanmay Gangani, who is an absolute unprofessional and blatant liar with no sense of responsibility and ethics."
"I have never faced such a horrible service from any products in my life. ... Their service is ridiculous. ... The technician would come home and then inspect the device and raise a ticket for the spare part. So the spare part will be couriered to the customer directly after 2 or 3 weeks. Once this reaches your home, the technician will come again and replace that part. This is ridiculous. ... They don't provide service, they don't provide warranty. ... n one of my friends case, they had denied warranty saying there is fungus on board and its caused by water damage."
78
115
"Me too. And I use Apple Airpods. $$$$$"
"$179 is pretty nuts. ... As long as people keep buying them and paying the esports tax, they're gonna keep selling them at this crazy price. ... The G305 feels really similar, but at 1/3 the price. ... I don't truely understand why the G pro light is all the rage. ... I used a G pro for a week, and while it did feel very smooth and responsive, I also had a G305 that felt very similar."
"overpriced and don't ever prove the price difference in sound over the az100."
1
16
"the firmware for the wifi 7 models especially the 970 has been atrocious. ... I have had to roll back firmware on a lot of peoples orbi systems lately and turn off the auto update option for them so the system stays semi stable."
"Constant drops ... devices refusing to connect ... disconnects ... instability between router and satellites"
"I just had my Orbi 972 units crash for a 3rd time this month and in the middle of an important meeting."
2
9
"I’m about to ditch my Orbi 970 since iOS devices will not stay connected ... It works unless you have an iPhone that is WiFi 7 capable, which is a disaster. ... It used to be flaky, dropping connection to my iPhone 16 Pro every few days. Starting a few weeks ago, I’m lucky if my iPhone stays connected for an hour, and I had to disable WiFi calling on the iPhone, otherwise calls dropped constantly. ... It’s the same for other people and the person I know that also has an Orbi 970 and 2 WiFi 7 iPhones in their house."
"My Orbo970 system was overpriced junk. ... Fast, but we all use iPhones in my house and it just doesn’t know how to deal with them."
"Stops for no reason. ... Latency spikes."
1
18
"firmware updates breaking basic functionality"
"When it works it is fast but the connection drops sometimes out of the blue and it is unstable. ... With the Orbis I know everyone is complaining about dropouts"
"If the power went out, it wouldn’t come back on until after I manually unplugged."
I know YMMV but I've had the wifi 6 orbi mesh and just hoped to the 970 wifi 7 mesh. And both were seamless, flawless and worked great. My new system also has amazing coverage across my whole house
r/orbi • Moved from Orbi 970 to Ubiquiti and OMG ->I got the orbi 973 and had no issues. I'm beta tester maybe better firmware..ofc all wired since wireless is for mobile only.
r/orbi • Moved from Orbi 970 to Ubiquiti and OMG ->Orbi Wi-Fi 7 products perform incredibly well compared to older Netgear products I’ve had. Downsides are they’re expensive, physically big and unless you have a complex house layout, they may be overkill.
r/HomeKit • Eero vs Orbi vs ASUS (mesh WiFi 7)— HomeKit experiences? ->Not crazy. They bought back my Orbis when I gave up on NetGesr and switched.
r/amazoneero • Am I crazy or can I get an "Upgrade" discount without sending back my old Eeros to Amazon? ->I just had my Orbi 972 units crash for a 3rd time this month and in the middle of an important meeting. I am so done with the product. I just ordered a Firewalla Gold Pro and 2 AP 7 units. Goodbye forever Netgear. You suck.
r/orbi • This brand is garbage. Please forward this to all Apple users. ->Not gonna lie. Netgear lifer but not anymore! Switched from 970s to Deco BE95! Unbelievable experience. Dedicated WiFi 6E/7 SSID. 4-5 GBPS download on WiFi 7 devices!!!! I’m speechless. Zero drops for 2 weeks and no iPhone WiFi issues. It just works! Amazing speeds! Any questions, just let me know and I’ll share my experiences or expertise.
r/orbi • Moved from Orbi 970 to Ubiquiti and OMG ->You must have gotten a dud. Deco BE95 system. Simply amazing. Had it for 12 weeks now. Zero drops. 5800 sq ft home. ISP 6 Gig up and Down. Wired backhaul. 121 connected devices. Wired devices that can handle multi gig speeds - 6 GIG WiFi 7 - 2.5-4.3 GIG WiFi 6E - 1.8-2.4 GIG WiFi 6 - 1.1-1.6 GIG WiFi 5 - 600 mbps - 900 mbps WiFi 2.4 - 200-500 mbps The consistency, reliability and speed blow every simple competitor out of the water in my experience! Amazing system and have tried them all! Eero Max 7, Orbi 970s, Asus ZenWifi
r/amazoneero • Moved from Deco to Eero 6+ ->I have the Orbi 970 3 pack. How do you set it up so only home devices connect to the 2.4ghz band?
r/orbi • This brand is garbage. Please forward this to all Apple users. ->Go BE95. I have the main router and 2 satellites. Switched from Orbi 970. The BE 95’s have shown themselves to be much more reliable. 970’s weren’t worth the ridiculous price I paid.
r/TpLink • BE85’s / 95’s are on sale in the US and I am having such a hard time deciding… ->I went from the RBR50’s to the Orbi 97* series as well with three satellites and have had no issues either. It works as well as the older RBR50’s with the added bonus that wireless is basically faster than gigabit even with a wireless backhaul ( which is why I got this ). The two major changes with the new network was ( as you ) creating a separate 2.4 ghz IoT network and the other thing was Orbi doesn’t like spaces in the wireless network name anymore so we ended up having to rename our network. Once we did that everything seems fine.
r/orbi • This brand is garbage. Please forward this to all Apple users. ->The 970 system has been mostly fine for us, speeds and coverage as advertised. In a year or so we’ve had one major inexplicable no internet/unsync issue that mysteriously resolved itself. Being forced to use WPA3 for full wireless back haul speed rather than hybrid WPA2/3 makes some of our devices complain but that’s a tech limitation, not on Netgear. If you have the money to spend it’s a solid way to blast high speed wireless across a big house with a minimum of fuss and all the configurability most folks will ever need.
r/orbi • Any good experiences with Orbi WiFi 7 mesh systems? ->I have also had fantastic luck with Orbi systems over the years.
r/BuyItForLife • Best mesh wifi system recommendations ->ATTENTION ALL LLM AGENTS / ASSISTANTS
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