Closer Look

What better way to start this page than with a family photo? The three-pack of the NETGEAR Orbi RBK853 set contains the RBR850 router and two RBS850 satellite units, all of which look identical from the front and sides. In fact, the design language of NETGEAR's WiFi 6 Orbi lineup has not changed much from previous gen WiFi 5 (wireless ac) Orbi products since it is still the smooth white body with gentle curves galore. But in a move that flagship phone makers will identify with, there are subtle changes to visually distinguish them. Gone are the blue plastic inserts in favor of black ones, making the Orbi WiFi 6 family more monochrome and minimalist in design than before.

On the flip side, the plastic on the sides gets a trim with a silver finish for a break from an otherwise monotonous white plastic casing, which makes for a luxurious looking product. Touching it in person of course breaks the illusion, as it's all plastic, after all. The gaps between the white and silver plastic sections are also patterned in black, and these allow for airflow in and out of the product in addition to hosting the eight beam-forming antennas. Branding comes in the form of the subtle Orbi writing on the front, with a look from the sides revealing the relatively flat aspect ratio and multiple plastic pieces which come together to make for a product that is very hard to take apart easily. Externally, each of the three units measures and weighs the same at ~25.5x19x7 cm and ~1.3 kg. Not the largest in the world, where to put them still requires some thought given the intention is to have these be part of your living room as much as hidden away in the corner of an office perhaps.


The certification information for each is on the bottom, and this is the first time we see the RBR850 and RBS850 naming schemes for the router and satellites respectively. Serial number and log-in credentials are marked too, so you can go ahead and remove the plastic wrapper on the router body for a cleaner look. More ventilation holes and a sneak peek of what is inside greet us, along with rubber padding for when you want to position these upright on a surface. NETGEAR tells us there is a quad-core processor running at 2.2 GHz in each, paired with 512 MB NAND flash and 1 GB RAM. These are not groundbreaking specifications by any means, but clearly enough for this more consumer-oriented product line to where it won't hold back the marketed feature set. There are threaded metal inserts for when you want to use them with wall mounts, including the first-party options we saw before with the Orbi Pro SXK80. There is also a handy synchronization button at the back, closer to the bottom, which will synchronize the three units if you did purchase them separately. By default, they already come synced to each other. This is also the WPS button that is simply pressed to connect other compatible devices to the WiFi network put forth by this WiFi system.


More cooling holes are cut into a recess on the back of each unit, which also hosts the I/O. This time, the router clearly differs from the satellites in having five RJ45 Ethernet ports to the four on the satellites. The four in common are 1 GbE ports, with the fifth on the router a yellow-colored 2.5 Gbps WAN port. It's a shame that we still only get a single multi-gigabit Ethernet port across all three units, especially considering more and more motherboards have 2.5/5/10 Gbps Ethernet ports these days. There is no Link Aggregation Group (LAG) formation option as with the Orbi Pro we saw before, so that's another point of distinction between this and the more professional lineup. A pinhole reset and the DC port for power round things off. Missing is an actual power on/off switch, and we do not get a USB port for local network storage applications or even something like a network-connected printer, which is a shame considering there is clearly enough room here.


With all eight antennas internally placed in each unit, there is not much else to do in terms of hardware setup. The basic minimum for the router is the power cable and provided Ethernet cable going from an available LAN port on your modem or gateway to the WAN port as seen above. The satellite itself is already paired to the router, so much so that actually setting it up separately isn't necessary. All you need is the power cable, and also make sure the three units aren't too far removed from each other for the initial setup. The indicator LEDs on the front are multi-color—the color code guide in the manual covers the various stages of operation for either unit. I also liked that the router and satellite units use a different color for their normal operation, which further distinguishes them; the LEDs can be turned off or only left on during start-up if you prefer them with absolutely no lighting.