Performance Testing

This section will continue to evolve and change depending on how it is received and whether I manage to get our hands on some useful tools that will help better measure the performance of routers and other Wi-Fi systems in general. As it stands today, a combination of the excellent, freely available iPerf3 on my Win 10 desktop PC, my laptop, and even an iPerf3 Android app was used to measure throughput for the Orbi Pro SXK80, with a ruler/tape measuring the distance from it and a Wi-Fi analyzer using my phone/laptop's Wi-Fi antenna and connection to measure signal attenuation as I moved from right on top of the router to further and further away inside my residence. Please note that signal attenuation depends heavily on a number of factors apart from just distance, including any physical barriers and other devices operating in the bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, etc). With a common test location, the variable being tested is the router/Wi-Fi itself, and it would as such be valid to compare results to other products tested thus.


Anyone interested in the Orbi Pro SXK80 is going to use the router and satellite together, so I tested the Wi-Fi system accordingly. The plot above shows how the antennas in the system cope with clients connected at various distances. The client was positioned at varying distances in a 3D space, with the shortest distance measurement taken between the two. Given the nature of the supported bands, this test was conducted for Wireless N at 2.4 GHz and Wireless AC at 5 GHz first, and we can see that signal loss is heavier for the 5 GHz network relative to the 2.4 GHz network, which is as expected. Signal strength decreases slightly in both cases as you move even barely away from the router, and it drops more drastically the further away until you get in range of the satellite unit for a boost in signal strength. Note that I never got very close to the satellite unit, having positioned it such that it merely helped overall vs. providing a concentrated field of strong signal strength, and I added a data point with a drywall (typical in many residences today) in between as well. If your residence has walls out of brick or wood, for example, the signal loss will likely be higher, so you may want to position the satellite unit where you have another hub of activity—a home office or living room, for instance.


But what about WiFi 6, you ask? The Orbi Pro SXK80, as with pretty much everything WiFi 6 (not 6E), operates on the 5 GHz band for 802.11ax, the same as Wireless AC (WiFi 5). Channel occupancy being the same, there is a negligible difference in signal attenuation between the two. Indeed, this was more of a control experiment since I henceforth will not be testing wireless ac for WiFi 6/6E routers to avoid drowning in data that is mostly redundant. The antennas on the source and receiver are rated for WiFi 6, so take that for what you will as you may also see that ~2% benefit, which is well within error margins.


By removing the actual internet speed variable from the equation, a TCP throughput test done at these same spots from the router paints a more useful story, while also helping with a comparison of those numbers across test residences by having the X-axis as the signal's attenuation instead of distance from the router. This is where WiFi 6 really shines with a higher maximum throughput on the same frequency. In fact, WiFi 6 on 2.4 GHz will also perform better than wireless N at 2.4 GHz, but no one is going to use this on 2.4 GHz unless really suffering from poor signal strength. The Orbi Pro SXK80 not only is a mesh system to account for this, but also features 2x2 radios with a total throughout of 2400 Mbps per radio for two bands, and the standard 1200 Mbps for the third. There is dedicated backhaul too, so you are not really going to lose any performance if connected to the router or satellite. What this ultimately results in is a massive increase in throughput over the downlink, with the test results coming quite close to the 2400 Mbps mark at 2265 Mbps right on top of the router. Both wireless AC and N throughput is of course lower, and they all dip down with a decrease in signal strength as expected. In reality, you are going to be bottlenecked by your service provider as well as actual internet traffic, but this can work well as a replacement for wired LAN networks; say, for a Plex server connected wirelessly to your TV?


Given the different continent compared to my other router reviews, I only have four other points of comparison here. I also added the Orbi Pro SX80 in Wireless AX as a data point in the 5 GHz comparison chart, if only to more obviously show you the performance differential here. In the future, I will separate the Wireless AX comparisons to a third chart. As shown, the Orbi Pro SXK80 also benefits greatly from currently being the only mesh system tested in my new digs. If I were to compare to the results in the US, the absolute numbers are slightly lower than a couple of flagship class Wireless AC mesh WiFi systems, but they of course can't be directly compared. Wireless AC performance also seems lacking with the mesh system not doing that much better than a single, high-performance Wireless AC router by itself.


The power-draw comparison chart identifies whether specific routers are vastly different from others, which turns out to be the case here. A Brand Electronics 4-1850 power meter was put between the power adapter for the router unit and, subsequently, the satellite unit and wall socket. Simple Kill-A-Watt units are good for basic checks, but not reliable enough for tests in my opinion. Each router was set up for a minimum of 24 hours of use across multiple days, and power consumption was averaged across a period of idle (inactivity at night) and normal operation (during the day). Note also that the Nighthawk MR2100 has different battery modes, including a battery-only operation, which does throw things off somewhat.

The wireless performance may be exceptional, but so is the power draw! Now, I will point out right away that each unit consumes about half as much as the values reported above, which is still quite high compared to the other single solutions. The Orbi Pro with its 2x2 radios and tri-band with a dedicated backhaul is clearly a power-hungry high-performance beast of a setup.