Current Orbi (RBK50) owner, thinking about switching to Nighthawk X8..thoughts?

[bfam2284]

Hi everyone!

I am currently on my 2nd Orbi. The first one I bought, the 1.12 update bricked it and I was unable to use it. The same thing almost happened to the second one, but was able to get it to update through the orbi app. Overall speeds and coverage is fine, but I am getting random disconnects..but its only happened a few times. I have been looking at the Nighthawk X8..and I see it is an AC5300. I live in a tri level home, with just under 1400 SQ ft. What do you all think, stay with the Orbi? Or switch to the X8? The X8 looks to have some pretty advanced features. Any help would be appreciated!

[Silver0066]

Stay away from anything by Netgear.  My Orbi experience has proved that they are unable to produce stable firmware.

[ppilot212]

Have you thought about Google Wifi?  If you bought an Onhub and one satellite unit you should be pretty good in a house that size.  

[DarrenM]

Hello bfam2284

Have you gone into the advanced wireless settings and enabled beamforming and mimumo?

DarrenM

[raven_au]

I have the D8500 and R8500.

I have found the firmware to be (mostly) stable for both devices.

I did have some problems trying to use the Broadcom wireless with Qualcomm wireless but that may have been the D7800 which I found to be (IMO) unstable.

Others have had problems with the R8500 (haven't seen anything myself on the D8500) so you should check well the forums here on that.

As far as multi-story coverage goes I can't really be of any help, all I can say is from my own experience in a fairly small house (4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, single level) both the 8500's had fairly good coverage as far as wireless AC goes.

Ian