NETGEAR - Orbi AX3000 WiFi Mesh System (RBK653)
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Based on 1 year's data from Feb 24, 2026 How it works
Liked most:
4
3
"If you want good enough, simple outta the box, then Orbi mesh is great. ... It’s been dead simple to administer."
"the mesh works so much better, both in coverage, speed, and ease of use."
"the mesh works so much better, both in coverage, speed, and ease of use."
16
4
"I have a 2 story 2350sf house. I have an Orbi with the master AP upstairs in the hall covering all the bedrooms rooms. Downstairs I have 2 Orbi Client APs on either end of the house covering all the downstairs, garage, and outside. ... I’ve never had any issues with coverage or bandwidth."
"The furthest room away from the primary is the “throne room” in the master bathroom. I get awesome signal and because of that, three units are not excessive for a 2,000ish sqft house ;)"
"Deployed 2 Orbis with wireless backhaul in my brothers house that is an open floor plan and he have the best coverage ever."
4
1
"As far as *hardware* goes, the Orbi is a good premium mesh system ... my best performing wireless devices I've owned were my nighthawk and my Orbi. ... Out of desperation I dropped a lot on a 4 station orbi triband and it just worked so well out of the box. ... I have a 3,000 sqft home so 4 strategically placed APs wirelessly connected to each other over the dedicated 5ghz third band works really well."
"a good quality mesh like Netgear 6e or 7 will have a dedicated wireless backbone channel and be miles better than any client pcie or USB wifi adapter."
"I have an Orbi setup and it tells me if my backhaul connection is good or not."
12
2
"I have a 2 story 2350sf house. I have an Orbi with the master AP upstairs in the hall covering all the bedrooms rooms. Downstairs I have 2 Orbi Client APs on either end of the house covering all the downstairs, garage, and outside. ... I’ve never had any issues with coverage or bandwidth."
"The furthest room away from the primary is the “throne room” in the master bathroom. I get awesome signal and because of that, three units are not excessive for a 2,000ish sqft house ;)"
"We have an Orbi system it goes through all the layers and delivers full (5 bars) connection throughout our over 3500 sq ft 1730 home."
9
7
"I have a 2 story 2350sf house. I have an Orbi with the master AP upstairs in the hall covering all the bedrooms rooms. Downstairs I have 2 Orbi Client APs on either end of the house covering all the downstairs, garage, and outside. ... I’ve never had any issues with coverage or bandwidth."
"I have an Orbi setup I got from Costco on black friday a few years ago, it's a couple gen old now, but still works fantastic."
"As far as *hardware* goes, the Orbi is a good premium mesh system ... my best performing wireless devices I've owned were my nighthawk and my Orbi. ... Out of desperation I dropped a lot on a 4 station orbi triband and it just worked so well out of the box. ... I have a 3,000 sqft home so 4 strategically placed APs wirelessly connected to each other over the dedicated 5ghz third band works really well."
Disliked most:
1
13
"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"
"Netgear told me to factory reset after every firmware update. It took over one hour every time…They write it in every forum thread. They never fixed their firmware. This was an awful experience."
"firmware updates breaking basic functionality"
2
11
"Netgear told me to factory reset after every firmware update. It took over one hour every time…They write it in every forum thread. They never fixed their firmware. This was an awful experience."
"If the power went out, it wouldn’t come back on until after I manually unplugged."
"firmware updates breaking basic functionality"
0
8
"Netgear told me to factory reset after every firmware update. It took over one hour every time…They write it in every forum thread. They never fixed their firmware. This was an awful experience."
"firmware updates breaking basic functionality"
"I've tried Orbi several times over the last few hardware generations and it had been the same shitty experience for me each time. It seemed there was always something up with it"
0
5
"Netgear told me to factory reset after every firmware update. It took over one hour every time…They write it in every forum thread. They never fixed their firmware. This was an awful experience."
"firmware updates breaking basic functionality"
"if the router loses power all he'll breaks loose, I have to factory reset everything and set it all back up. ... This includes anytime a firmware upgrade happens."
0
4
"Netgear told me to factory reset after every firmware update. It took over one hour every time…They write it in every forum thread. They never fixed their firmware. This was an awful experience."
"I would have probably kept going with Orbi if I could call support, but you need to buy a subscription from netgear!"
"Netgear support was marginal, but once they determined it was faulty, they wanted me to send it back on my dime and they'd send me a new one. Again, the unit was a week old."
Timmy2Two 1.0My RBK50 system was rock solid but EOL, my RBK653 is OK, but if the router loses power all he'll breaks loose, I have to factory reset everything and set it all back up. This includes anytime a firmware upgrade happens. I'm probably going with an Eero Max 7 system when I save enough money to go WiFi7.
cvflowe 0.3I feel you. I’m literally dealing with the same thing. I have the Orbi rbr750. Reading reviews, it seems everyone is having some type of problem. I finally gave in today and ordered the TP BE 1100 from Costco. If I can get by a week with no problems, that would be a win.
Golden-Dragon2-14 0.3I recently got the standard kit and using Netgear Orbi RBR 750. Flawless.
Silver_Director2152 0.2eero and tp link DECO units are gonna be the best options. i can’t believe no one has said this but orbi has very good options. i have tried tp links one mesh and it has a lot of problems. if your a gamer i wouldn’t buy one tp link router and then have wall access points. get a actual mesh set up as if you want best overall speeds EVERYWHERE then get mesh. deco have very nice, cheap and reliable options, eero is more expensive but has a lot more extensive security settings and parental controls which i do believe is included with the piece if you add there subscription. the biggest thing eero has is, SQM which basically takes network debloating and latency and somehow it fixes it. which is very good for wireless connectivity between mesh devices as if you connected to one satellite mesh network you’ll see a upload latency increase. i think in general the best bang for your buck is tp link. and best overall is orbi. the reason i love orbi is my parents bought the rbr750 or something but it was 6 years ago and it’s still giving the speeds they paid for and still is getting firmware updates. eero is the in between because there a little less than most of the orbi systems i would suggest but have just any the same amount of features. so to sum it up eero is middle ground, orbi is the best, tp link is best bang for buck. hope this helps!
SkysTheLimit888888 0.2I have an Orbi wifi6 with 2 satellites and while I don't think there serious issues with them, they aren't exactly stable or speed demons. My macs have trouble connecting to satellites at times and speed isn't always fast. I have better luck with the main 5ghz router in the basement sometimes than with the orbi mesh. So overall the system is just meh in my experience. I might return it to Costco and get a refund once I find something to replace it with.
TedMich23 0.1My parents have same kind of house, with their Xfinity broadband in the 3rd floor TV room. I ran Cat6 across the back down to the 1st floor for back haul and an Orbi WiFi6 mesh router now gives great signal house-wide (yard too!)
adamaragon 0.1I 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
beyeg 0.1Orbi 6 currently Costco usually has great deals on newer mesh systems.
PabloX68 0.1I had a WiFi 6 Orbi set up. It worked for about a week and then the mesh point died. The problem was that it died silently. It said it was working but nothing would connect to it. Netgear support was marginal, but once they determined it was faulty, they wanted me to send it back on my dime and they'd send me a new one. Again, the unit was a week old. I returned it and went back to using (already old) Airport Extremes for another year. I had 3 around the house and they started needing to be rebooted regularly. Given their age I couldn't complain at all but I replaced them with Amplifi Aliens. Those have been rock solid. I'll never buy Netgear products again.
brotkel 0.1I hated the WiFi 6 Orbi system I bought. It was lacking so many fairly basic features, such as QoS, firmware updates breaking basic functionality, and a very lackluster app-focused experience. I replaced it with an ASUS WiFi 7 system comprised of a RoG router with two Zen nodes and it’s been a lot more solid with far more configuration options than I’ve ever seen on a residential router. Maybe the Orbi WiFi 7 line has solved their earlier issues, but I’ll never buy one again based on my prior experience.
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