Podcast #1272: Netgear Orbi 770 and Aqara Camera Review

On this week's show we have a listener review of the NETGEAR Orbi 770 Series WiFi 7 Mesh System as well as a review of the Aqara cameras. We also read your emails and take a look at the week's news.

News:

• Yamaha's Unveils Its Most Compact Dolby Atmos Soundbar Yet
• Philips Adds Two TV Lighting Sync Options
• Fubo will offer local hockey games in four markets
• Sony Is Skipping CES 2027 for the First Time in Over Six Decades
• Apple's Smart Home Launch is Set

Netgear Orbi 770 and Aqara Camera Review

This week we have a listener review of the NETGEAR Orbi 770 Series WiFi 7 Mesh System. These can be bought in One, two, and three packs costing $300, $550, and $700 respectively. Netgear's specs say that a single unit can cover up to $2750 square feet and a three pack can cover 8000 square feet combined. And just for good measure John talks about his experience with Aqara cameras.These are the same cameras Ara uses so let's see if John has similar results.

Product Features:

• Tri-band hardware with a dedicated backhaul is meant to keep throughput more consistent when many devices are online at once.
• WiFi 7 peak rating is up to 11 Gbps and it also connects WiFi 6 and WiFi 5 devices; real speed depends on your plan and hardware.
• Devices can easily roam between the router and satellites.
• Setup, device management, and guest WiFi are handled in the Orbi app.
• Sold for use in the United States only.

John Lyman's Review

A few years ago, I replaced my old Netgear Orbi system with a TP-Link Deco XE75 mesh system. At the time, my older Orbi just wasn't able to handle all the devices we had in the house. After doing some research, the Deco XE75 and XE75 Pro had great reviews, so I decided to give Deco a try.

The Deco worked, but as we added more devices—and because of the design of our house—I kept having to add more and more nodes to get good, consistent coverage. Even with gigabit fiber, I never really felt like I was getting the speeds I should have been getting throughout the house.

When Amazon Prime Day came around in July, I decided it was time for an upgrade. At the same time, I decided this was going to be MY "year of home automation."

Back to Orbi — This Time with Wi-Fi 7

For the network, I went with the Netgear Orbi 770 Series Wi-Fi 7 mesh system.

I considered going down the Ubiquiti route, but ultimately I wanted something easier to manage and more "set it and forget it." I spent enough time around networking years ago. These days, I'd rather leave my network-engineering hat in the past and have something that simply works.

I've now been running the Orbi 770 for about four months, and—with one exception—it has been pretty much bulletproof.

That exception was automatic firmware updates. I didn't realize they were enabled, and Orbi decided to install an update in the middle of the day. That's something I'd definitely check when setting up the system.

Other than that, the performance has been excellent.

I have AT&T Fiber with the AT&T gateway configured to pass the connection through to the Orbi. My office is upstairs and away from the main router, but I have my computer connected by Ethernet to an Orbi satellite. I'm consistently seeing speeds in the low 900 Mbps range both down and up.

My media/home-theater room has historically been the hardest room in the house to reach with good Wi-Fi. With the Orbi, I'm seeing roughly 700–800 Mbps there over Wi-Fi, connecting on 5 GHz.

More importantly, coverage throughout the house is now excellent and the system has been extremely stable.

If you're considering a mesh system and aren't ready to go down the Ubiquiti route, I'd strongly suggest looking at the Orbi 770. Based on my experience with both systems, I'd skip the Deco, spend a little more and get the Orbi.

The Orbi also gives you separate IoT and guest Wi-Fi networks. Devices connect quickly, stay connected and, in my experience, have worked considerably better than they did with my Deco system.

Moving Away from Ring

The next part of the project was home automation.

Over the years, I had accumulated a hodgepodge of smart-home products: Ecobee thermostats, Ring doorbells, different cameras, Hue lights and other devices. Even the Ecobee that was supposed to work with Apple HomeKit would periodically disconnect.

I wanted to simplify everything, and I particularly wanted to move away from Ring.

While researching alternatives, I came across Aqara. They make doorbells, cameras, thermostats, switches, sensors and a number of other smart-home products, with particularly strong integration with Apple's Home ecosystem.

So during Prime Day, I jumped in. I bought two thermostats, two cameras and two doorbells.

There was definitely a settling-in period. Between changing the network and adding all the new smart-home equipment, it probably took about six weeks before everything really fell into place.

Since then, however, it has been remarkably solid.

The network can go down and come back up, and the Aqara devices reconnect on their own. About the only problems I've encountered have been when somebody physically unplugged one of the doorbell hubs. Since some of the other devices were relying on that hub, unplugging it naturally caused those devices to disappear as well.

The $34 Camera That Surprised Me

One of the biggest surprises has been the Aqara G100 indoor/outdoor cameras.

I paid $33.99 each for them, and they've been excellent. For the price, I'm genuinely impressed with how well they've worked and how nicely they integrate into the Apple ecosystem.

Security and privacy were also part of my decision to move away from Ring. I like having my cameras integrated with Apple Home and being able to use iCloud/HomeKit Secure Video rather than building my smart-home camera system around Amazon.

The Doorbells — A Big Improvement Over Ring

The Aqara doorbells have also worked really well.

I have two of them. One is at our front door, and the other is on a door that we added to the house where I don't have wiring available. For that one, I use rechargeable batteries, and that setup has worked well.

The front-door unit is very small and unobtrusive, which I like. More importantly, both doorbells have been rock solid.

That's probably the biggest difference I've noticed compared with my old Ring setup. The Aqara doorbells are consistently connected and integrate directly into Apple HomeKit. I don't feel like I'm waiting for the doorbell to connect when I actually need to see who's at the door.

They just work, which is becoming a recurring theme with most of the Aqara equipment I've installed.

For me, replacing the Ring doorbells with Aqara has been one of the better parts of this whole home-automation upgrade.

Aqara Thermostats — Simple, Which Is Exactly What I Want

The Aqara thermostats were very simple to install. I was replacing my Ecobees, and the changeover was straightforward. They connected to Apple HomeKit easily and, since getting everything settled, they just run.

Easy peasy. There's really not much more I want from a thermostat. I don't need it to be exciting—I need it to control the temperature, stay connected and work when I open the Home app. So far, that's exactly what they've done.

One feature that really interested me is Apple Home's Adaptive Temperature. Instead of relying on a traditional fixed schedule, the temperature can automatically adjust based on whether people in your Apple Home are actually home or away.

There are four modes you can configure: Home, Away, Night and Extended Away. Home and Away automatically adjust the temperature depending on whether anyone from the household is home. Night mode lets you set different temperatures for specific days and times, so the house can automatically adjust while everyone is sleeping.

The one I'm particularly happy to have is Extended Away. When we're going to be gone for an extended period, the system can automatically adjust the temperature appropriately. That's one less thing I have to remember to change before we leave—and, more importantly, remember to change back when we get home.

It's another example of what I'm looking for with this whole project: home automation that actually automates things instead of giving me another app and another device to manage.

The One Finicky Aqara Device

I also bought an Aqara Smart Climate Sensor with three programmable buttons. This has been the one finicky device in my Aqara setup.

Getting it set up properly with HomeKit was a little tricky. Each of the three buttons is supposed to support three different actions—a single press, double press and long press—which theoretically gives you nine different programmable actions.

In practice, I've only been able to get the single-press actions to work somewhat reliably. I currently use Button 1, the middle of the three buttons, and even that hasn't been as seamless as the rest of my Aqara equipment.

That said, I like the concept enough that I'm planning to put a second one in my media room. The idea is to program the buttons for lighting and temperature control so the kids can simply push a button rather than flipping off the actual light switch—which, of course, defeats the whole purpose of having smart lights.

So this one is still a work in progress. I really like what the device is supposed to do; I just wish the HomeKit button actions worked as reliably as the rest of my Aqara setup.

Finally, One Home App

That's probably the biggest improvement from this whole project.

Instead of having different pieces scattered across different ecosystems, I can now open Apple's Home app and see essentially everything in one place.

I've also settled on Nanoleaf as my primary smart-lighting platform. I still have some Philips Hue lights in the house, and I'm not ripping out perfectly good bulbs just for the sake of replacing them. As those eventually die, however, I'm replacing them with Nanoleaf.

Four months into this project, I'm very happy with where I've ended up.

For networking, the Orbi 770 has been fast, stable and about as close to "set it and forget it" as I could have hoped for. If you want a high-performance home network but don't want to make the jump into something like Ubiquiti, I think Orbi deserves a serious look.

And if you're an Apple/HomeKit household and looking to build out a smart-home ecosystem, I'd also recommend taking a look at Aqara.

The combination of Orbi, Aqara, Nanoleaf and Apple Home has finally given me what I was looking for:

A smart home that doesn't require me to constantly mess with it.