Orbi 960 vs. Orbi 970:
Unpacking the WiFi 7 Revolution

Speed

With WiFi 6E support, the Orbi 960 provides whole-home speeds of up to 10.8Gbps, which is impressive but still limited compared to what’s possible with WiFi 7.

On the other hand, the Orbi 970, leveraging the power of WiFi 7, offers a remarkable increase in speed, reaching up to 27Gbps. In practice, WiFi 7 provides boosts of up to 2.4x the speed of WiFi 6E, making it capable of supporting the most data-intensive tasks with ease.

Bandwidth

Both 970 and 960 systems feature Quad-Band WiFi capabilities, allowing them to tap into the uncrowded 6Ghz band – a significant leap from their WiFi 6 predecessors.

Orbi 960 can use channels up to 160MHz in width, allowing for gigabit-plus speeds on your connected devices. Orbi 970, on the other hand, offers download speeds that are up to 2.4X faster with 320MHz ultra high-capacity channels and 4K QAM. It’s particularly beneficial for AR and VR applications, as well as congested neighborhoods.

Latency

While Orbi 960’s WiFi 6E significantly reduced latency compared to older standards, it doesn’t hold a candle to its successor. The Orbi 970 offers a reduction of up to 100x in latency, making it almost imperceptible. This is a game-changer for real-time activities like gaming and video conferencing.

Data Transmission

Utilizing technologies like MU-MIMO and beamforming, the Orbi 960 ensures efficient data transmission and optimized communication between devices. It’s efficient and powerful, however, WiFi 7 offers additional performance and capabilities.

The Orbi 970, adds all-new 4K QAM modulation, allowing a 20% increase in the data packed into WiFi radio waves. This modulation upgrade from 10-bit to 12-bit ensures that more data is transmitted at once, making video streaming and calls clearer than ever.

Device Support

Both systems are fully backward compatible with earlier versions of WiFi, with the Orbi 970 also supporting a new generation of WiFi 7 devices.

Both systems seamlessly support up to 200 connected devices – meaning they won’t break a sweat for an extensive IoT network, ever expanding smart home, or large gatherings.

Network Security

Equipped with NETGEAR Armor, the Orbi 960 and 970 offer advanced network security to protect your network and devices from malware, viruses, and data theft. But given the latter’s increased throughput and broader device support, NETGEAR Armor’s role becomes even more critical in protecting a greater volume of data and a larger number of devices.

Both mesh routers also feature WPA3, VPN, guest networking capabilities, and other advanced security features you can expect from a NETGEAR WiFi router or mesh system.

Parental Controls

Both Orbi 960 and 970 offer comprehensive parental controls allowing you to manage content and time online for your children. Features include website filtering, pause internet functionality, and the ability to set online time limits.

Compatibility

The Orbi 960, with its WiFi 6E support, is compatible with a wide range of devices that support WiFi 6E, WiFi 6, and older WiFi standards, like iPads, laptops, Xbox, and smart home devices. Although it might not be able to make full use of the capabilities of newer, more advanced devices that require higher speeds and lower latency.

Backward compatible with older WiFi standards, The Orbi 970 can also connect with older devices in your home without any issues. But with its WiFi 7 capabilities, it’s better poised to support upcoming smart home devices that may require higher data rates and lower latency, ensuring a longer lifespan for your home or office network setup.

Future-Proofing

Orbi 960 Router comes equipped with 10 Gig Internet Port, 2.5Gbps Multi-Gig LAN/Backhaul Port, and 3x 1Gbps Ethernet LAN ports, supporting a variety of wired connections. However, several of the Ethernet ports are limited to Gigabit speeds, which could become a bottleneck for some homes as home network and internet services continue to evolve.

Orbi 970 Router also has 10 Gig Internet Port, and ups its game with 10Gbps LAN/Backhaul port and and 4x 2.5Gbps Multi-Gig LAN ports. Given its WiFi 7 architecture, it is more adaptable to future high-speed internet plans and wired peripherals that can take advantage of faster data rates. It also ensures support for future advancements in modems and mesh networking technologies.

Set-Up and Network Management

Both the Orbi 960 and Orbi 970 offer easy set-up and comprehensive network management through the Orbi App (available for both Android and Apple phones).

Both Orbi 960 and 970 can be configured with a wired Ethernet backhaul when WiFi range or penetration is a concern. Orbi 960 Wired Backhaul tops out at a powerful 2.5Gbps, whereas the advanced Orbi 970 is up to 4x faster with 10Gbps Wired Backhaul capability.