Netgear Orbi 370 Wi-Fi 7 mesh router review: Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 hardware finally makes Orbi affordable

Netgear has a well-stacked lineup of Wi-Fi mesh routers, including the Orbi 770, 870, and 970. The Orbi 770 and 870 are tri-band products, while the Orbi 970 is the company’s sole quad-band Wi-Fi 7 router. I have long championed the performance that Netgear’s Orbi lineup offers, but have also lamented that there aren’t less-expensive models to cater to a broader audience.

Finally, Netgear has entered the entry-level Wi-Fi 7 mesh market with the Orbi 370, and as you might expect, given its positioning, it’s a dual-band (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz) model. Best of all, the Orbi 370 starts at just $249.99 for a two-pack and costs $349.99 for a three-pack. That pricing is largely in line with what we’ve seen from other entry-level dual-band Wi-Fi 7 routers.

So, the price is right, but how do the features and performance of the Orbi 370 stack up to the competition? Read on to find out.

Design of the Netgear Orbi 370

When I first received the box containing the Orbi 370 review unit (3-pack), I initially thought someone had opened it and yanked a satellite or two out – it was that light. I was shocked to open the box and see that all three nodes were accounted for, along with their accompanying power bricks and a single CAT6 patch cable. I’m used to mesh satellites having an immense weight to them, but the Orbi 370 felt featherweight in comparison. The Orbi 370 router weighs 0.79 pounds, and each satellite also weighs 0.79 pounds. The TP-Link Deco BE5000 nodes each weigh 1.12 pounds.

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The Orbi 370 shares a similar design language with other members of the Orbi family (essentially a tall white tower). Orbi branding is near the bottom front face of each node, with a status LED just above the base.

All of the ports and buttons for each node are located on the back spine. Here, you'll find a Sync button at the top, followed by a pinhole reset button, for taking the hardware back to factory default settings. Below that, the primary router features a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port and a 2.5 Gbps WAN port. Finally, there's a port for the barrel-style power adapter. The two included satellites only include a single 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port. For reference, the Deco BE5000 includes two 2.5 Gbps ports on each node. The Orbi 370 supports wired backhaul between the router and satellites.

Netgear Orbi 370 Mesh Router Specifications

Setting up the Netgear Orbi 370

You can complete the initial setup of the Orbi 370 using the WebGUI via a desktop browser or the Netgear Orbi app on a smartphone. For this review, I opted for the desktop WebGUI, and pointed my browser to orbilogin.local. If, for some reason, that doesn't work, you can enter the default IP address for the router: 10.168.168.1. A welcome screen appeared and configured my internet connection automatically. After completing that step, the setup program asked me to create an admin password, along with two security questions.

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I was next allowed to choose a wireless SSID and password (which I kept as the default for my testing purposes), after which the setup program checked to see if there was any updated firmware for the Orbi 370 (it didn’t find anything). Next, the two satellites were immediately detected, and the setup process was complete – it took roughly three minutes from starting the setup process until it finished and dropped me off at the router’s homepage.

Netgear Orbi 370 Software

If you’ve used any Netgear Orbi router in the past 6 or 7 years, there’s nothing new to see here. The WebGUI looks mostly the same as when the first-generation Orbi mesh router debuted. It’s a text-heavy interface that is short on color and sleek graphics. Compared to the AsusWRT 5.0 software platform found on Asus mesh routers, Netgear’s interface looks ancient. However, it gets the job done, even if some of the menus are a little confusing and redundant. If you prefer, you can also configure your Orbi network with the Orbi smartphone app.

The router homepage offers up five tiles that provide pertinent information at a glance: Internet, Wireless, Attached Devices, Guest Network, and Netgear Armor security. There are also two tabs on the left-hand side of the homepage labeled Basic and Advanced. Basic gives you duplicate access to the five previous tiles, plus the option to add an Orbi satellite.

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The Advanced tab provides more granular control over detailed wireless settings, network access control, IoT networks, and more. You also have access to DNS settings, router backup settings, firmware updates, and more.

The Orbi 370 also comes with a 30-day trial of Netgear Armor. Netgear Amor supports up to 50 connected devices and includes virus/malware protection, 24/7 tech support, and an extended warranty. After the trial period, it costs $99/year. There’s also Netgear Armor Plus ($149/year), which adds unlimited VPN, an adblocker, and anti-tracking software.

Netgear Orbi 370 Performance

Our client rig for wireless tests uses an MSI Pro B650M-A Wi-Fi motherboard, AMD Ryzen 5 7600 processor, 32GB of DDR5 memory, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, an MSI Herald-BE Wi-Fi 7 adapter, and Windows 11 Home. The server is a Windows 11 Home machine with a 10 GbE network card connected to the 10 GbE port on the Orbi 370 router.

The iPerf3 wireless throughput tests are run at 6 feet and 25 feet, with and without traffic across the network. Tests are conducted separately on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. In the congested traffic tests, we add six wireless clients streaming 4K YouTube and 4K Disney+ content evenly across the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.

By default, the Orbi 370 creates a combined 2.4 GHz/5 GHz network under a single SSID. However, you can specify the wireless network to operate only as 2.4 GHz or only 5 GHz. However, we’d imagine that most people will just leave it in the dual-band mode for broad compatibility (especially with IoT devices).

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The Orbi 370 delivered the highest 5 GHz performance we’ve seen yet for an entry-level Wi-Fi 7 mesh router. The router averaged 1,390 Mbps in iPerf3, which was cut in half to just 694 Mbps at 25 feet. However, both of those figures were well above the TP-Link Deco BE5000 (1070 Mbps, 472 Mbps), the MSI Roamii BE Lite (934 Mbps, 541 Mbps), and the Amazon Eero 7 (1,097 Mbps).

Shifting gears to the 2.4 GHz band, the tables turned for the Orbi 370. Here, the router came in last place in the 6-foot and 25-foot tests. Granted, it only trailed the Deco BE5000 by 3 Mbps on average at 6 feet (99 Mbps versus 102 Mbps). The difference was much greater at 25 feet, where the Orbi 370 dropped to just 30 Mbps compared to 57 Mbps and 69 Mbps for the Eero 7 and Roamii BE Lite, respectively.

It was a similar story with congested traffic, with the Orbi 370 leading the field by a fair margin on the 5 GHz band – it delivered 1,200 Mbps, on average, compared to 886 Mbps for the next-closest Eero 7. Performance at 25-feet was also untouched, where it managed 551 Mbps versus 433 Mbps for the Roamii BE Lite and 189 Mbps for the Deco BE5000.

Finally, the Orbi 370 again found itself at the back of the pack with 2.4 GHz congested traffic, achieving 77 Mbps at 6 feet and a dismal 25 Mbps at 25 feet. For comparison, the Roamii BE Lite saw minimal performance drop-off, with 108 Mbps and 65 Mbps at 6 feet and 25 feet, respectively.

Bottom Line

I’ve been harping for a while that Netgear needs to introduce a cheaper Wi-Fi 7-based Orbi product. Well, the company has certainly delivered with the Orbi 370. You won’t find a tri-band product at this price point, but the Orbi 370 does offer the highest sustained 5 GHz throughput speeds that we’ve seen for an entry-level Wi-Fi 7 mesh router. However, that comes at the expense of 2.4 GHz band performance, which lags well behind the competition, especially at 25 feet. If the majority of your 2.4 GHz devices are IoT/smart home devices, this performance shortfall shouldn’t be too much of a hindrance.

Aside from the 2.4 GHz performance, it would have been nice to see two 2.5 Gbps LAN ports per satellite instead of one. However, that’s me being nitpicky with an entry-level product.

But taken as a whole, $349 for a router and two satellites is an excellent launching point for the Orbi 370. 5 GHz performance will be strong for your desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. The only thing standing in its way is the TP-Link Deco BE5000 (also marketed as the Deco BE25). It has a retail price of $299 for a three-pack, but is currently on sale for $269, minus a $50 instant coupon at Amazon. The Orbi 370 is a good product, but in the price-sensitive entry-level segment, it’s hard to argue against a $219 Deco BE5000.