The Netgear Orbi RBKE963 is a great mesh system with a wide range of coverage and great speeds. This mesh kit is a jack of all trades thanks to its quad-band Wi-Fi 6E connection, which makes it faster than Wi-Fi 6 alone in the real world. On paper, this looks a lot like Netgear’s flagship from the last generation with a 6GHz band added on, but in practise, the speed boost is much more noticeable than what the specs show.
Netgear Orbi RBKE963: Description
In practise, both the RBR960 router and the RBS960 satellites are much better than the previous generation in terms of hardware. This includes upgrading the router to 10Gb Ethernet and the LAN to 2.5Gb Ethernet. A 2.5Gbps port that can be used for the mesh connection is also added to the satellites. With the upgrade to AXE11000 Wi-Fi 6, this is one of the fastest home Wi-Fi solutions you can buy.
The Orbi RBKE963’s nodes also look better than those of earlier models because they have a slightly different design. The old unit’s grey plastic frame has been replaced with a golden color and a less noticeable frame in the new design. You can also get it in black from Netgear, which gives it some of the aggression of the Nighthawk line.
The Nighthawk RAXE500 was Netgear’s first AXE11000 router, so the Orbi RBKE963 is not the company’s first AXE11000 router. Even though the total speed is the same, the RBKE963 spreads it out over four bands instead of three. A band is a piece of the wireless spectrum that the router uses. Until recently, there were three bands: one at 2.4GHz and two at 5GHz. Most Wi-Fi 6E routers swapped out one of the 5GHz bands for a 6GHz band.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Blazing performance
- Supports 6GHz Wi-Fi
- Easy to install and manage
- Multi-gig connectivity
Cons
- Incredibly expensive
- Very large mesh-node devices
- Only 90 days of free tech support
Netgear Orbi RBKE963: Specifications
| Wi-Fi specification | AX10800 (802.11ax, 10.8 Gbps throughput) |
| Satellite ports | 4 LAN, can be used to connect satellite to router with cabling |
| Size | 11.1 x 7.5 x 3.0 inches |
| Total Rated Throughput | AX11000 |
| Wireless Specification | 802.11axe |
| Security | WPA2, WPA3 |
Netgear Orbi RBKE963: Design
With the Orbi RBKE963 kit, the designers, engineers, and software writers at Netgear have brought mesh routing into the high-performance Wi-Fi 6e era. Both the router and the satellites have the rounded tower shape that is unique to Orbi, but they are very big at 11.1 x 7.5 x 3 inches. That’s seven times the size of Amazon’s Eero mesh units and twice as big as Asus’s ZenWiFi AX XT8 mesh units, which are already big.
We’re used to seeing Orbi routers in white with chrome accents, but the RBKE963 also comes in a limited-edition black colour. No matter what colour they are, it will be hard to hide these mesh units. They are probably too big for a desk, but they should fit on most shelves and can also be used as bookends. They can’t be hung on the wall right out of the box, but Netgear’s RBKWM bracket which costs $23, makes it possible.
Unlike some other routers and mesh systems, the Orbi Wi-Fi 6e units don’t have a lot of blinking lights that make them look like Christmas trees. Instead, each has only one LED status strip at the bottom. When the status strip is blue, everything is fine and data is flowing between the host and its satellites. But if the LED strip lights up magenta, it means that the unit has stopped working.
The Orbi RBKE963 units are powered by Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Networking Pro 1610 chipset and a 2.2GHz quad-core processor. Both the main router and the satellites have 1GB of active memory and 512MB of storage space for firmware and settings.
Software and Setup
This Orbi system comes with Netgear’s Smart Parental controls, which let you make profiles for each member of your family, control how much time each person spends online, and pause their internet access. A Premium subscription costs $7.99 per month or $69.99 per year and gives you more control over things like age-based content filtering, internet time rewards, internet time limits, and detailed browse history reports. With the Premium plan, you also get the My Time app, which lets you set parental controls even when your child is using a different network or cellular data.
Also included is a 30-day trial of Bitdefender-powered Netgear Armor network security software. This service checks for security threats and keeps malware from getting into every device on your network. If you want to keep using the Armor software after the trial period is over, it will cost you $99.99 per year.
Using the Orbi mobile app on your phone or the web-based management console on your computer, you can control the RBKE963 system. The web console has some advanced settings that the app doesn’t have, like the ability to manage access control lists, set up a separate IoT network for all of your smart devices, and set up VPN settings.
Performance and Features
Here we get to the main reason most people will buy the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E (RBKE963) system: how well it works. This system has AXE11000 Wi-Fi 6E speeds of 10.8Gbps, which, for those who don’t know, are insanely fast and the best you can get on the market right now. It also has a coverage area of 7,500 square feet and can connect up to 250 devices.
This mesh networking system can cover up to 17,500 square feet with the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E (RBKE963) router and six satellites, which are sold separately. Yes, we are no longer in Wi-Fi Kansas. The Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E (RBKE963) can support internet speeds of up to 10Gbp. A quad-core 2.2GHz processor and 1GB of RAM are the main parts of the router that make it work well.
The most important thing to know about the system is that it has Wi-Fi 6E. This means that the Orbi adds a 6GHz wireless band that can be used by new high-performance Wi-Fi 6E devices, like the best TVs, phones, and laptops. So, this system’s quad-band capabilities include direct connections between the router and the satellites and 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz Wi-Fi bands that your different devices can connect to.
This is very helpful because, no matter how fast your paid broadband connection is, you can put the most important devices on the higher bands of connectivity. For example, a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone that works with Wi-Fi 6E and is used often can sit on the fast and clean 6GHz connection, which isn’t slowed down by older or less important devices that can work on the 2.4GHz.
Pricing and availability
The Orbi RBKE963 kit I looked at had the RBRE960 host router and two RBSE960 satellites that could send and receive data on the 2.4-, 5-, and 6-GHz Wi-Fi bands. Netgear engineers say that the whole system can cover up to 9,000 square feet, which is more than three times as big as the average American home you can buy this product directly from Netgear’s website.
The whole system costs a whopping $1,500, which is more than the average rent or mortgage payment in the U.S. A second satellite will cost another $600, which is the same price as Netgear’s best Wi-Fi 6e gaming router. It will add about 3,000 square feet to the network’s range.
If you think all of this is too expensive, Netgear will soon start selling the RBKE962, a cheaper two-piece system with a host router and a satellite that will cost $1,100 and cover 6,000 square feet.
Final Words
The Netgear Orbi RBKE963 from Netgear is the best of the bunch. This is the best mesh system in terms of how well it works, what it can do, and how safe it is. The mesh network’s quad-band design, dedicated 5-GHz backhaul channel, and Wi-Fi 6e capabilities, along with Netgear’s Armor security software, make it fast and safe to use the internet. The $1,500 price tag for the Orbi RBKE963 shows that it is what other mesh systems wish they could be.
The Orbi RBKE963 is one of the easiest mesh systems to manage because Netgear routers let you set up and manage them using a connected browser or a smartphone app. But its units are big and hard to hide, it only comes with free tech support for 90 days and a one-year warranty, and it might be too much for people who don’t have gigabit broadband or who don’t live in a huge house.
FAQs
Is RBKE963 worth it?
It’s by far the fastest mesh system we’ve tested to date, and with a sky-high price tag of $1,499.99, it’s also the most expensive. Still, you can justify the cost if you need the high-end specs, extreme coverage, and fast performance of the Orbi RBKE963.
Which Orbi router is best?
With full support for Wi-Fi 6 and a second 5GHz band that acts as a dedicated backhaul connection for the router and its satellites, this powerful system has performed very well in speed tests over a number of years, with close-range wireless speeds of up to 900Mbps.
How long do Orbi routers last?
There are no things that wear out or move. They should work for a long time, just like a TV. Definitely more than four or five years.
