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Forum Discussion
2nd gen Eero announced.
Well. Eero just announced a new 2nd gen hardware, and I must say, I have pre-ordered it. Orbi raw speed is great (when it seems to work) but you have some major flaws that I just think it's time to...
I think it is disgusting of Netgear to rely on their customers to beta test their products. The Orbi has been out for 9 months and they are still using their customers to fix it instead of hiring some talented IT people to fix. They are dishonest in marketing a product to the public that is full of bugs.
Silver0066 wrote:
I think it is disgusting of Netgear to rely on their customers to beta test their products.
I spend most of my time in the ReadyNAS forums, but happened to run across this.
To clarify - Netgear certainly does their own Q/A, and that includes automated testing in shielded rooms that allows them to precisely measure wifi performance under a lot of different signal conditions. I was able to visit their San Jose facility last year, and saw them testing Orbi in one of those rooms.
They use closed beta testing to supplement the normal testing, not to replace it. Only some products are chosen for closed betas - I imagine it is quite expensive to do. In my opinion Orbi is a good candidate for these betas, since it's ideal to test the backhaul performance in homes, and not just in lab conditions.
If you participate in these tests, you do get to keep the equipment. Generally it is beta-quality, and not final production. In my opinion the beta testers do more than enough to earn that equipment - the testing takes quite a bit of time.
FWIW, I do have an Orbi setup and it is working out well for me. Nighthawks gave better near-router wifi speeds, but Orbi gives good wifi speeds throughout the house. I agree there's more that can be done, and no doubt there are still bugs to fix.