Netgear has launched a new product line, the Orbi, which can split into two parts. Will it attract you if you don’t have a house?

If someone tells you, "My router is NETGEAR."

You must think that he is very good at pretending, as he dares to use a Netgear router. This person must be rich or noble and lives in a large apartment of more than 100 square meters or even a villa.

Of course, these are all affirmations of Netgear routers. Among router products, Netgear represents high-end routing products such as high quality, fast speed, high price and wide coverage. As a global high-end router brand and the leading overlord in the US router industry, Netgear has always been known for making routers with ultra-high-speed WiFi above 1700Mbps and stable signal strength.

But recently, Netgear launched a product that changed the "black spider" shape of the previous Nighthawk series into a small and beautiful white round "pebble", which is - Orbi.

Through Orbi's clone design, NETGEAR provides a new networking experience with the system's three-band WiFi. If you live in a villa, then here is a benefit. By cloning the main body of the Orbi router, WiFi can cover indoors, in the courtyard, swimming pool, garage, attic, basement and other corners.

Just a simple router clone? That doesn't fit Netgear's tone.

So how does Orbi work?

It is understood that Orbi includes a "main router" and one or more "clone routers". The main router is inserted into the gateway or modem to serve as a full-featured router. When the main router in the Orbi routing system passes its network speed to the clone router, the tri-band WiFi allows a 1.7Gbps 5GHz dedicated frequency band between them, while the other two WiFi bands serve as exclusive frequency bands for all connected devices in the home. In this way, the tri-band WiFi ensures that the Orbi routing system provides high-speed WiFi at home.

Currently, there are two types of WiFi coverage solutions for villas and large apartments on the market: first, a high-power single router solution, which achieves coverage by strengthening the antenna to increase the transmission power of the wireless router; second, there are various router plus extender solutions, which achieve coverage through bridging with a simple wireless extender.

Although the former achieves physical coverage by adjusting the transmission power, the excessive radiation will cause irreversible health damage to the family. Due to the technical bottleneck, the latter causes the WiFi speed after the extender bridge to decay by nearly half, and the user terminal device after the extension has lost the high-speed Internet experience.

Unlike previous router clone solutions, the Orbi router system uses a dedicated wireless channel between the main router and the clone to connect seamlessly, making the main router and the clone equivalent to a virtual super router. This multi-router system design ensures a wider coverage range while meeting wireless radiation standards, and guarantees the maximum speed connection for all connected devices in any corner.

The Orbi router system uses AC3000 tri-band WiFi + quad-core processor + 4G flash memory + 512M memory, and supports the second-generation 802.11ac technology. Its installation is also relatively simple. You only need to insert the "main router" in the Orbi multi-router system into the gateway or modem as a full-function router, and then place the clone router on other floors of the villa.

Simple operation, no signal attenuation and wide coverage are the characteristics that make Orbi different from traditional routing clone solutions.

Will you buy this new product?

At present, it is obvious that the demand for routers in the Chinese market is rising rapidly. A large number of devices that need to use WiFi, such as mobile phones, TVs, laptops and even various home appliances that use WiFi smart control, can be seen everywhere in life. It is not uncommon for a person to have two or three WiFi devices. The pressure that a home router needs to bear is no longer comparable to that 6 or 7 years ago when smartphones had not yet emerged. With the changes in people's living environment, the demand for high-performance WiFi in large households is also growing.

According to Liu Bin, product manager of Netgear, Orbi is different from Nighthawk products in that it is mainly aimed at home users rather than geeks. Nighthawk is still Netgear's most core and advanced router product, while Orbi is completely designed for life scenarios.

David Henry, senior vice president of NETGEAR home networking equipment, pointed out that NETGEAR applied its nearly 20 years of experience in home WiFi innovation to design the Orbi multi-route system to solve the current problems of dense building design and high density of building materials that affect network speed. In addition, today's home network needs to support more terminal devices, which is a challenge for broadband. Therefore, NETGEAR's focus is not only on WiFi coverage, but also on the performance at the edge of the connection.

The domestic price of an Orbi router plus a clone is RMB 2,999. In the future, they will be sold separately. In addition, the Orbi main body can also be connected to the Nighthawk series routers to expand the signal range.

As we all know, the selling price of Netgear routers has always been high, more than ten times that of domestic routers. Netgear has also made it clear that it will not engage in a "price war" in the Chinese market. Focusing on the development of the high-end market is what Netgear values ​​more. At present, the domestic high-end routers are indeed in a state of almost blank, and Netgear hopes to fill this market.

Unlike the common single-family houses in the United States, the average Chinese home does not need a router with strong coverage. Faced with the large number of heavy load-bearing walls in Chinese buildings, almost all router WiFi will show strong attenuation. According to previous evaluations, even NETGEAR products will not be able to adapt to the local environment. Perhaps Orbi's solution can improve this situation.

The price of RMB 2,999 may seem a bit expensive for the working class, but for high-income users who own villas in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, it is necessary to equip their houses worth tens of millions with a quality router worth several thousand yuan. After all, a good horse deserves a good saddle.

In addition, it is understood that the Nighthawk X10, known as the world's fastest wireless router, will soon be available to everyone.

Founded in 1996, Netgear, an American company, is now 20 years old and can be regarded as an absolute pioneer in the router industry. Different from domestic Internet companies, Netgear is more like a technology control and focuses more on traditional products. From the new product Orbi, we can see that Netgear is also trying to change and become more fashionable and more life-oriented.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.