Orbi RBK 852 Review: Top of the Class

The Best WiFi 6 Mesh Money Can Buy

Phones, tablets, computers, smart home devices… nowadays, the number of devices connecting to our WiFi networks is starting to get out-of-control. Having tried many different WiFi solutions including expensive routers and mesh systems, I believe I have finally found a solution to my high-traffic network: the Orbi RBK852.

For better or worse, my home has now over 100 connected devices. I started out with the TP-Link Archer C9, and it was great little wireless internet slinger for an apartment. Bought a house. Got a Ring security system. Added a few lights. And all of the sudden I’m coming up on 30+ devices on my network. That’s when I decided it was time to make the switch to WiFi 6. First came the Netgear Nighthawk MK62. Then it was the Netgear Nighthawk RAX50. And of course finally, I had to try the spaceship! All worked ok for a while, but would lose connection too frequently for my liking.

Enter the Orbi RBK 852.

To date, I have had zero lost connections, zero dead zones, and zero kids yelling about Netflix being down. This triband mesh network boasts 12 streams and has a dedicated 5 GHz backhaul channel. As such, it has been more than enough to handle all our devices.

The setup was actually quite simple. I used my existing Netgear account (you can create one on their mobile app if needed) and it was basically plug-and-play. But fair warning – as with any new router, if you do have a large number of devices, be prepared to spend some time changing over all of them to the new WiFi name (SSID).

I thought it might be too early to see a lot of the benefits of WiFi 6, but the added device capacity and speed in our phones, computers, and tablets alone has paid dividends. Not to mention, all the devices I’ve been able to offload via the 4 extra LAN ports. And there are more WiFi 6 devices being added to the market daily. 6 Gbps might seem like overkill now, but I wanted something that is somewhat near-future-proof.

I highly recommend this mesh WiFi system for any tech or smart home enthusiast. Trust me – it’s worth the money.

Products Mentioned In This Review

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