Netgear Orbi RBKE963 mesh router review - fast and simple long-range WiFi setup

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If you’ve noticed your WiFi not quite reaching the furthest corners of your home, or looking to strengthen it, there’s no easier way than a proper mesh router setup. Along with a long-range setup, you can also get onto one of the top specs of WiFi 6E from the Netgear Orbi RBKE963, although not the latest generation like the Nighthawk RS700, it still boasts great performance.

In that case, we put the 960 series Netgear router to the test, with a combination of router and satellites to create a mesh. Of course, they are available separately as a strong wireless router option but as a combination, it might be a strong solution to your troubles. So, let’s see what it brings to the table.

Netgear Orbi RBKE963B WiFi 6E Mesh Black

4.5 /5

Editor’s Rating

How We Review

Specifications

Standard: WiFi 6E
Frequency Bands: 2.4GHz, 2x 5GHz, 6GHz
Max Speed: 10.8Gbps
LAN Ports: 1x 2.5Gbps, 3x 1Gbps (Router & Satellites)

WAN: 1x 10Gbps (Router)
CPU: Quad-Core 2.2GHz (Router & Satellites)
Memory: 512MB NAND Flash and 1GB RAM (Router & Satellites)
USB: None
Dimensions: 279.4 x 190.5 x 76.2mm (11 x 7.5 x 3in)
Weight: 1.36kg (3.0lbs)

What We Think

The Orbi RBKE963 is certainly a top-spec mesh router out there. Although not the latest WiFi standard, the 6E still enables a 6GHz network to your home and is much more widely adopted on your devices. With so much control and features available the router and satellites extend your network wherever you need it with a lot of ease and security.

The app provides a lot of access and control through it. unfortunately at the same time bringing a lot of subscription opportunities and locking some behind a paywall after tempting you with a trial first. Either way for those with lots of space to cover and wanting a good separation of fast connectivity it offers a perfect solution if you can afford it.

Reasons to Buy

Easy to set up with the app, including connecting up satellites to the main router
Lots of control and separation in the app and web including per-device child control
Ability to set up separate guest and IoT networks to keep networks separated and minimize traffic
Incredible performance and range with multi-gig connectivity
Smart security features with subscription trial and network VPN

Reasons to Avoid

Over the top expensive for most users and serves a niche
Lacks USB connection on any device
Lots of features behind subscriptions are being pushed and advertised on the app
Top-line specs seem overkill for most use cases

Design

Both the satellites and router overall look very similar and have the same design, with only the backports differing, as the router is the only one with a 2.5G WAN connection. Otherwise, the three impose a slim but tall design, an oval shape that narrows as it rises.

They are also separated into three pieces, with the black version sporting plates at the front and back allowing the vents to billow out the heat generated from inside. The bottom and middle are a more silver-grayish color making it easy on the eyes and with a small area it should be easy to place anywhere you need it or you can mount it with the available mounting spots on the bottom if you buy the separate mounts.

With so much control and features available the router and satellites extend your network wherever you need it with a lot of ease and security

The gigabit router is of a WiFi 6E standard that offers you a range of frequencies to use. With a selection of 2.4GHz, two 5GHz channels, and one 6GHz. But by standard, you can only separate out the highest frequency, and with 2.4 and 5 using smart connect and not being able to be separate. Instead, you do get an IoT channel, which means your main network does not get bloated with traffic from all those smart home devices and is a great way to separate it out, that also includes being able to set up a guest network to keep your guests from causing any harm to your own which are all provided with 12 internal antenna and amplifiers for a range of 3,000 sq. ft. per device.

As for the wired router selection, there is a good amount of speed available to you. Firstly only the router itself features WAN for your ISP to access which is a 2.5Gbps port for any of you that has that fast a connection. There also is a 2.5Gbps ethernet on the router and each satellite, along with three 1Gbps ports for a load of connections. Although it does lack any USB connectors, so if you’re looking for some network storage an ethernet NAS is what you have to go for.

Other features

For the hardware specs in the Orbi 960 mesh system, you can find a Quad-core 2.2GHz CPU, that’s in each of the satellites as well. That is quite a powerful processor to feature in your router but with that much speed available there is a lot of processing to be done. Plus they also feature 512MB NAND Flash and 1GB RAM for the memory to support the power and keep the speed up.

The security feature on the router is 802.11i, 128-bit AES encryption with PSK to keep your internet secure. Along with that, you get a 30-day trial of Netgear armor, which adds another layer to your network safety and allows you to worry less. This also comes with the Parental Controls available so you can set up different profiles for each device connected and keep it safe.

That is handy all from the app, along with a strong web app that allows plenty of control. But it does require a lot of information to use, including having to sign up and log in for the app. That automatically starts your warranty and trial, which of course you need to subscribe to utilize Armory and Smart Controls in the long term. But in general, it does make setting up and controlling easy and simple including adding satellites and updating your hardware.

Pricing

Of course, a big deal of how much the mesh router is worth to you is the cost, and this one comes at quite a high cost. Although you are getting a lot for your money each of them is a powerful device in itself as well as sporting strong connectivity. The set of three 960s has an MSRP of $1,500, but at the time of writing and for quite some time it has been on sale for around $1,300 at the Netgear store.

But other retailers vary from that especially depending on the color you choose as we’ve seen the black version more than the white. Either way, it’s certainly made for a certain target audience that has a need for that much wireless coverage for the area they have available. But there are certainly other WiFi 6E choices that won’t cost as much but might lack the performance which we take a look at below.

RBKE963 mesh system is an incredible all-in-one mesh solution

Performance

For the performance testing, we put the router through a range of different tasks and uses to see how well it does. Although up against many other routers we tested in the same week, we came across some limitations in our office environment where we did these tests.

To start off we only had a WiFi 6 device in the Samsung S21 FE that we conducted these tests on, which means only 2.4 and 5GHz. Additionally, the network is limited and throttled to around 300Mbps which can affect the performance of some and can be dependent on the number of people and traffic. But we tried to keep the comparisons as close as possible and normalized to each other for a good comparison and instead of specific numbers but a good range. Also with the lack of a USB port on the router, we don’t have a storage speed test that we have on some other choices.

In general, when testing the wireless connection to the router we had it set to a few distances. With both 10ft/3m and 30ft/9m being uninterrupted between device and router. Then around 60ft/18m had a wall between the two, and the last around 90ft/27m is behind several walls and furniture and is likely a test for any router but we see how well they do.

Signal strength and latency

The signal strength tells us how well the connection between the device and router is. Measured in decibel meters the lower the number or closer to zero, the better strength means you get a faster speed and performance to it. It can depend on the antennae in the router and the interference between the devices. We tested it via the WiFiman app that measure the connection between the two.

Overall the Orbi 960 provides strong strength at 2.4GHz across the board, and although the 5GHz reaches far it is a bit weaker than others. I imagine the 12 antennae help with reaching even the furthest corners of our office and through all the walls even though they’re not protruding out of the device. In particular, at 2.4GHz we got between -41dBM and -70dBm, with 5GHz getting between -48 and -89dBm.

Then there is the latency of the router and how long it takes for info to travel between the device and router. For the RBKE963B, we see a quick response for both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies. As for the former, it ranges from 13ms to 26ms as it gets more interrupted and further away. Whilst the latter goes from 10 to just 20ms as it gets further away but still does well compared to the other choices we tested.

Speed tests

As for the actual speed, there’s the physical and network speed. The first is the speed between the phone and router as reported by the WiFiman app. The second is the actual network speed it achieves from the Oopla speed test app, although we tried to be as accurate as possible, the performance may vary especially if the network is throttled or the interference gets stronger.

The physical download speed ranged from 229 to just 8Mbps at 2.4GHz but each wall dropped that significantly, whilst 5GHz topped 1080 and dropped down to 25Mbps but still was high in between. Whilst the upload for 2.4 ranged from 286 to 51, with 5GHz between 1080 and 34.

As for the wireless network speeds, the 2.4GHz download goes from 65.3 to 35.5Mbps as it fails to work at the full range, whilst upload jumps from 67.9 to 6.2. 5GHz goes from 197 to 57Mbps at 60 ft download, with upload running 227 to 83.9Mbps. As for the LAN speed that achieved a 254.8Mps download and a 275.5Mbps upload.

Conclusion

Overall, the RBKE963 mesh system is an incredible all-in-one mesh solution. For those needing to cover a lot of area without dropping signal, it’s a strong choice if you can afford it. With impressive speeds and specs, it does have a high cost but is a strong choice for fitting out your network.

But it does lock plenty of useful features behind a paywall but still has a lot of control from the basics that give it a lot of options for your setup. It also provides a strong and easy setup including the satellites, even though aren’t wired can be a a strong addition to keep even the furthest corners connected.