{"id":204839,"date":"2025-10-11T06:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T06:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204839\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T06:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T06:43:11","slug":"netgear-gets-the-cost-of-wifi-7-mesh-below-500-pickr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204839\/","title":{"rendered":"Netgear gets the cost of WiFi 7 mesh below $500 \u2013 Pickr"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest networking technologies tend to cost a little more than the older tech you can find, but the latest Orbi gets both mesh and WiFi 7 working for under $500.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest complaints we hear from readers and listeners has to do with WiFi: why is it that so many people have such mediocre WiFi?<\/p>\n

The answer is complex, but often stems from the type of router in their home.<\/p>\n

A gadget usually supplied by an internet provider, the WiFi router you get with an internet connection is one that can do the job for a few devices, but may not cover everything in your life<\/a>. An older router will only be able to handle some of the gadgets you use, but as more come into your life, the system will hit its breaking point.<\/p>\n

Worse, that supplied router may not use recent wireless standards, and as you buy more gadgets and more modern gadgets, the speed can feel slow.<\/p>\n

The latest phones, tablets, and computers tend to rely on WiFi 6E<\/a> and WiFi 7<\/a>, technologies boasting more range and speed, but they can also come with hefty price points.<\/p>\n

In the past year, we\u2019ve seen WiFi 7\u2019s price fall from its introduction of $4K<\/a> down to below the thousand-dollar mark<\/a>, but it still has room to move, particularly when you mix it with mesh networking, a technology that creates a sort of Venn diagram of WiFi activity.<\/p>\n

Netgear\u2019s Orbi looks to be changing that, offering a new option in the range designed to bring the cost of mesh WiFi 7 to below the $500 mark.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The newly announced Orbi 370 brings two mesh WiFi 7 routers to a $459 price point in Australia, offering up to 3.6Gbps of wireless speed and bandwidth across a range of up to 360 square metres. Technically, that covers up to 70 devices, though realistically, 3600Mbps is more likely to be a little tighter in what\u2019s connecting to it, bringing the number closer to 20 to 30.<\/p>\n

To get to this point, Netgear has had to move to a dual-band WiFi system, using a 2.4GHz band for the slower devices and a 5GHz for the faster ones, and skipping over the extra 6GHz band commonly found in the WiFi 7 arsenal (also skipping the extra second 5GHz Netgear uses in its flagship Orbi 970\u2019s WiFi 7 router).<\/p>\n

The result aims to be a less expensive take on WiFi 7 with just enough speed and coverage for people who want a whole-house approach to modern WiFi, but who may not need the fastest speeds around.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Orbi 370 Series, we\u2019re making next-generation WiFi more accessible than ever for today\u2019s connected families,\u201d said Jonathan Oakes, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Home Networking at Netgear.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe designed this system in response to the growing demand for reliable and trusted WiFi connectivity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The router system also includes a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port making it practically ready for the high-speed NBN upgrades internet providers have been boosting home speeds with<\/a> since September, as well as 30 day trials of router-based security and router-based parental controls, additions Netgear charges extra for.<\/p>\n

The whole thing is backwards compatible with older technologies, supporting 802.11ax WiFi 6\/6E, 802.11ac WiFi 5, and 802.11n WiFi 4, standards that we\u2019ve committed to memory for some reason or another that older phones, laptops, and other devices may use.<\/p>\n

Australians can expect to find a two-pack Orbi 370 with one router and one satellite for $459, with an extra second satellite for expanding the mesh costing $229 or available in a three-pack for $649.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest networking technologies tend to cost a little more than the older tech you can find, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,31808,127328,105,40538],"class_list":{"0":"post-204839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mesh-networking","11":"tag-netgear","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-wifi-7"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}