Netgear expands its Orbi Wi-Fi system into a product family, adding two less-expensive models

Netgear’s Orbi RBK50 is one of the best Wi-Fi systems we’ve tested, and now the company is expanding the brand into a broader family of products with today’s introduction of the Orbi RBK30 and the Orbi RBK40. Like the original Orbi, both of the new models are tri-band routers that dedicate one 5GHz Wi-Fi channel for data backhaul from satellite access points.

Both of the new systems will use the same router, but will have different satellites. The router is an AC2200 model supporting two spatial streams up and down on each frequency band to support one 2.4GHz network with to 400Mbps of bandwidth, a 5GHz network with up to 866Mbps of bandwidth, and a third 5GHz network dedicated to data backhaul with up to 867Mbps of bandwidth. The original Orbi RBK50 is also a tri-band router, but it operates a 4x4 radio for backhaul, delivering up to 1733 Mbps. Like that router, the new model will come equipped with a four-port ethernet switch, but it won’t have a USB port.

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