Affordable Wi-Fi 7 doesn’t suck

If you’re having difficulty connecting to the Internet in your home and you’re using a Wi-Fi router provided by your Internet provider, it may make sense to switch to a mesh router. Not only will you get better wireless coverage; In many cases, it will save you a few dollars a month in rental fees. But not everyone wants to spend the hundreds of dollars that some of the fancier mesh systems out there can cost, and that’s where Netgear’s cheaper mesh Wi-Fi 7 system, the Orbi 370, comes into play.

The Orbi 370 is a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 range aimed squarely at everyday households. Its appearance reflects that – more oil diffuser than network equipment – as does its solid performance but it’s not designed to blast a hose of data packets down your computer’s Internet slot. And Netgear’s Orbi routers, including this one, are very similar to Eero, in that you have very little control over how they work. If this sounds terrible to you, you can go ahead, my friend; These are not the routers for you.

But many people have no interest in delving into router configuration, and most of us don’t have access to better-than-gigabit (or even gigabit, for that matter) Internet. That’s what the Netgear Orbi 370 is for.

More family sedan than hot rod

The Orbi 370 comes in sets of up to four long, slim routers — one primary and three satellites — that look nice enough to be left out in the open without being an eyesore. That’s $449.99; I tested the $349.99 three-pack, but the two-pack starts at $249.99. It’s not the cheapest mesh system, but it’s in the ballpark of other similar options e.g Aero 7 ($279.99) or TP-Link Deco BE25 ($229.99). The primary router in every Orbi 370 system features two 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports: one you can connect your laptop to and one to connect to your modem. The Orbi 370 satellites have one 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port each, so you’ll need an Ethernet adapter if you want to connect a bunch of devices to them.

See Netgear Orbi 370 on Amazon

In terms of specs, the Orbi 370 is suitable for things like 4K video streaming and casual gaming. It’s limited to the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands and doesn’t have a 6GHz band, which means it also lacks Wi-Fi 7’s maximum channel bandwidth of 320MHz. Think of this as a measure of the size of the “pipe” your data is passing through – the larger the pipe, the faster your downloads will be. This is part of the reason why you can see the Ookla Speedtest result over Wi-Fi with the right equipment Up to over 2 Gbps. Netgear’s mesh system uses 240MHz channels on the 5GHz band, which Wi-Fi 7 also enables, but only for backhaul between router nodes, not to your devices. This still means higher throughput when connected to a satellite device, but if you’re lucky enough to have something like a 2Gbps fiber internet connection, don’t expect this router to let you take full advantage of that over Wi-Fi; It wasn’t designed for that.

Another big feature of Wi-Fi 7 is Multi-Link Operation (MLO), which lets you connect to two bands simultaneously, in this case the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands. The Orbi 370 uses this feature for its back-end connection, but you’ll also be able to use it with your smartphone or laptop, as long as it’s newer and has Wi-Fi 7 capability. The only problem is that this feature requires WPA3, the latest Wi-Fi security protocol, to be turned on, but the Orbi 370 only uses WPA2 by default – so you’ll need to know how to turn on WPA3 if you want to use MLO. Not many router companies enable WPA3 out of the box because many older devices aren’t compatible, but none of them seem to go out of their way to make sure you know WPA3 is an option, or why you should strive to move your network to it. (The short answer is that It’s saferespecially when used for public or commercial networks.)

But the Orbi 370 will get you where you go

My tests involved using a laptop connected to the Orbi and another connected wirelessly to the Orbi MSI BE6500 WiFi 7 USB Adapter. I measured productivity using A testing program called iPerfwhich lets me simulate file transfers from one device to another over the network — it’s better than just running Internet speed tests, because with these tests, I can’t be sure whether to blame my router or my Internet service for a bad result.

I saw the best throughput results while using Wi-Fi 7, just one Orbi 370 device, and no satellites, with a pull of about 1.5 Gbps at about 15 feet from the router. Once I added a satellite and started adding other devices to my network, that number dropped to between 900Mbps and 930Mbps, depending on which version of Wi-Fi I was using. Wi-Fi 5, which is the best version of Wi-Fi you’ll see on devices made between 2013 and 2021, was on the low end of that, but every other test I did in that band, whether Wi-Fi 6 or 7 on the 5GHz band, or Wi-Fi 7 with MLO using both bands, was between 921Mbps and 927Mbps.

It was the same when I tested the connection in my office, except that the transfer rate seemed to max out at around 150Mbps. I adjusted my test settings, thinking this was Netgear’s Quality of Service (QoS) in action. Routers use QoS to try to keep things smooth by adjusting the bandwidth for each device, based on the type of data being used, such as streaming video or gaming. And sure enough, once I took that into account, productivity in my office nearly doubled…for one test, anyway. It decreased after that, settling at an average of 184 Mbps.

Test numbers don’t tell the whole story, largely because of service quality and other similar features; Even more important is how your network devices perform when they’re actually there user. To its credit, using the Orbi 370 on top of my network was largely indistinguishable from using the Eero Pro 7 or any other decent router, although some things took a little longer, like loading video feeds from my security cameras.

For example: I streamed a mix of 4K and 1080p videos from YouTube, Apple TV+, and Sony Pictures Core on seven different devices, all without any signs of buffering or additional compression. This isn’t necessarily a huge challenge, considering the low bitrates of most of these options with the exception of Sony’s service, which can reach 80Mbps. (Physical media is still the norm, but if you have… Supported Sony device(Sony Pictures Core is really the next best thing outside of home local streaming with something like Plex.)

With live streaming in full swing, I continued working by issuing smart home commands to my HomePods. I also played some rounds online Mario Kart World Long 24-man knockout round. The Orbis handled the whole thing mostly without problems, although there were signs of entry Mario Kart Worldlike missing turtle shells, only to have their target fall off a few seconds later as if it never happened. Meanwhile, various video streams remained sharp throughout. Overall, the Orbi 370’s performance story was good.

Easy to use, impossible to modify

Setting it up is a fairly painless experience, too. The easiest way is to use the Orbi app, which basically does it for you after scanning a QR code printed on a sticker attached to the front of the basic Orbi, but you can Use your computer’s web browser Alternatively, if you prefer. Connecting satellites is as easy as tapping the sync button on the back of them, then doing the same on the primary router, and waiting for the status light on the satellites to turn blue.

Once set up, the Orbi app lets you do things like change your network name (SSID) and password, look at the list of devices connected to each Orbi system node, run internet speed tests, and activate a dedicated guest or IoT device network. Otherwise, it’s a barebones experience that basically feels like a pipeline for Netgear’s subscription services.

One of these is called Smart Parental Controls. It costs $7.99 per month (or $69.99 per year) and lets you set up profiles and add devices to them, then set time ranges in which those devices can be active or limit how long they can be used, as well as restrict the content the router will allow based on a few age tiers. The other service is Netgear shielda $99.99 annual subscription that adds virus and malware blocking and turns your network into a VPN node through which you can route your traffic from devices you have the Netgear Armor app installed. Not every router company charges for features like these. Asus, for example, offers its own similar parental controls and security software running TrendMicro for free at The RT-BE86U router I recently reviewed.

For more advanced router options like setting up IP reservations or configuring custom DNS, you’ll need to head to the browser interface. But like a lot of mesh systems, you can’t split your SSID into two, one for 5GHz Wi-Fi and one for 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. (IoT networking is a way around this, but that doesn’t make your main SSID just 5GHz.) And you can’t do any deep, enterprise-level customization of things like Wi-Fi radio strength or tweak QoS priorities — you just get what Netgear thinks is best, and that’s fine for most people. If that’s not for you, you probably already know about Ubiquiti, Asus, and the like.

How much control do you want?

Wi-Fi 7 routers are starting to get more affordable, and the Orbi 370 is part of that trend. $249.99 isn’t a bad deal for a set of two routers that can easily cover my roughly 2,000-square-foot house and then some (Netgear says it’s good for up to 4,000 square feet) and seems, at least in my case, to handle a lot of active devices with few issues.

The calculus changes if you’re interested in additional security features and parental controls since other companies offer such things for free. There are other good reasons to avoid the Orbi 370, such as if you’re hoping to set up your network for the eventual fiber dream. If you expect to get lucky, or are already lucky enough to get better-than-gigabit fiber internet, a 6GHz Wi-Fi 7 router might help you make better use of it. Also, not being able to control things like prioritizing QoS or splitting your SSID is a deal breaker for some people. As is the limited number of ports, at least for those who like to plug in Ethernet cables to whatever they can without using network adapters. If you need more granular control over your router, look elsewhere; Includes some of the most convenient options for configuration Ubiquiti U7 Lite or Asus Zenwifi 5 BD.

The Orbi 370’s strengths are its stable and reliable Wi-Fi and its easy-to-use software. If you haven’t made the jump to fiber internet, aren’t trying to speed up your game downloads, and aren’t interested in delving into the depths of your router’s settings, Netgear’s cheaper Orbi 370 Mesh system is the perfect solution.

See Netgear Orbi 370 on Amazon