Netgear's Orbi 870 rounds out its premium Wi-Fi 7 mesh router family

Today at CES, Netgear announced a new Wi-Fi 7 mesh router that neatly slots between its existing Orbi 770 and Orbi 970 product lines. As you might have already surmised, the new mesh system is conveniently called the Orbi 870.

As the middle child in Netgear’s mesh router lineup, the Orbi 870 takes some of the best features of its siblings below and above its position in the family. Like the Orbi 770, the Orbi 870 is a tri-band system, offering one 2.4 GHz band, one 5 GHz band, and one 6 GHz band. However, the Orbi 870 offers four streams instead of two at 5 GHz and 6 GHz, doubling throughput over the Orbi 770 on those bands.

As a result, the Orbi 870 offers up to 21 Gbps combined Wi-Fi throughput across all three bands compared to just 11 Gbps for the Orbi 770. The quad-band Orbi 970 remains the performance champion, offering up to 27 Gbps combined throughput. Of course, the Orbi 870 also supports multi-link operation (MLO), as it can combine the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands to improve the performance and reliability of the wireless backhaul and for fronthaul wireless clients.

Netgear says that the Orbi 870 is suitable for internet connections up to 2.5 Gbps and supports up to 150 Wi-Fi devices (50 more than the Orbi 770 and 50 less than the Orbi 970). The main router features a 10 Gbps WAN port for internet and four 2.5 Gbps LAN ports. Each satellite features four 2.5 Gbps WAN ports. When used in a three-node setup, Netgear says that the Orbi 870 covers up to 9,000 square feet.

The Orbi 870 is offered in a two-node package (router and one satellite) for $999. A three-node package (router and two satellites) costs $1,299. If you need to bring in additional satellites, they are priced at $549 each. You can purchase the mesh system today directly from Netgear or through one of its many retail partners. The mesh router also includes a 30-day trial subscription to Netgear Armor, a security suite with added VPN functionality powered by Bitdefender.