108 PCWorld MAY 2020FEATURE WHY I SPENT A BUNDLE ON A WI-FI 6 ROUTER
A
s a long-time freelancer and
work-from-homer, I’ve owned a
lot of routers in my quest for the
speediest and most pervasive
possible Wi-Fi. I had the original Apple AirPort,
followed by the AirPort Extreme (go.pcworld.
com/arpx), the Linksys WRT3200ACM (go.
pcworld.com/wrt3), and most recently, the
Netgear Orbi RBK50 (go.pcworld.com/rb50).
Each time I replaced my router, the
speeds and coverage boost was measurable
but relatively muted. The jump from 801.11n
(Wi-Fi 4) to 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) was noticeable,
but not monumental. And upgrading to a
mesh router was easy, but it didn’t deliver a
huge leap in coverage over the bridged
AirPort routers (go.pcworld.com/
brdg) I was using
previously (I had
configured one AirPort
as a router, and a second
as a range extender).
When I wanted a speed
boost, I paid for a
higher-speed tier from
my ISP.
But when I hooked
up my new Netgear
Orbi Wi-Fi 6 system
(go.pcworld.com/
norb; specifically, the
Costco-exclusive Orbi
RBK842-1CCNAS,
which set me back$550), it was like going from dial-up to
broadband. Yes, it’s an expensive router. And
Netgear’s slightly faster Orbi RBK852—
available from other retailers—is even pricier.
Amazon (go.pcworld.com/amob) was selling
it for about $700 at this writing. Both models
are tri-band mesh systems consisting of a
router and one satellite, but the Costco SKU
delivers slightly less bandwidth on its 2.4GHz
network: 900Mbps vs. 1.2Gbps.
Most of my client devices have dual-
band (2.4- and 5GHz) network adapters
onboard, and the ones with 2.4GHz-only
adapters don’t need high bandwidth, so I’m
OK with it. The bottom line is that this Wi-Fi
6 router is worth every penny. And it’s notThe Netgear RBK852 is a
high-end Wi-Fi 6 mesh router
plus one satellite.