Orbi Mesh Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi 6 For The Gigabit Internet Home - #NETGEARCES2019

Wifi 6 will have different radio hardware, so there won't be any way to upgrade existing devices to Wifi 6 unless you can swap out components, like on a desktop, or a USB dongle for a laptop. But anything with an integrated radio (laptops, phones, tablets, probably nearly all "smart" devices) will just be capped at whatever level it left the factory with. A Wifi 4 device can only work at Wifi 4 levels, even on a Wifi 5 router. You can still use it with a Wifi 5 or Wifi 6 router, but you won't get all the benefits of Wifi 6 unless both the router and the device are Wifi 6.

(Assuming Netgear gets the firmware fixed on the current models) just keep using them until they fail or are insufficient to meet your needs. Factory reset it and sell it used if you really feel the need to upgrade before hardware failure or end of support from Netgear. There aren't even any consumer devices with Wifi 6 hardware yet, so even if you upgraded to the latest and greatet Orbi, you won't have any devices able to take full advantage of it. Even once they hit the market, it'll depend where you are in your upgrade cycle for phones, laptops, consoles, etc., anyway. If all your devices are Wifi 5 (or lower), there's simply no need to get a Wifi 6 router unless you already need a new router anyway. IMO, the bare minimum requirement to elect to upgrade your router to Wifi 6 (as opposed to a mandatory replacement due to failure) is that you have at least one device with Wifi 6, you are maxing out the Wifi 5 with that device, and you would actually benefit from upgrading the router to Wifi 6. Anything less than meeting all three of those conditions is just throwing money away to have the latest and greatest for the sake of having it now. You'd be better off deferring the purchase for six or twelve months and getting the same Wifi 6 router for less when the price comes down. Or even a better one for the same price. Either way, a better value.

I used my old cable modem for over a decade, and only upgraded it when I got bumped up to a plan that was faster than my old modem could handle. I've only replaced routers when the old one either failed or didn't cover as large an area as I needed.