Today, Amazon released another eero pro series with latest wifi 6e in addition to the most popular eero 6 pro which compete tightly with top rated Orbi series in the few online stores. Which Orbi series is comparable to eero 6 pro and which one gives you best value for your home wifi environment?
Eero 6 Pro
It is a common understanding that pro series products have few advantages over non-pro products. And of course folks will expect a lot of advantages from the pro series product. Likewise, Amazon always releases two types of eero series, the original series and the pro series and of course there is a big price difference between them. That makes sense why should invest to a pro label product with more expensive price if you don’t get more values compared with the original one.
Previously, the first generation of eero products based on wifi5 had been released, which also had two series including eero pro series. And today with the latest wifi-6 technology, two series were also released including the pro series. Actually, there are still two more eero series that have just been released, namely the eero 6 plus and the ultimate product, the eero 6e pro.
If you come to choose between eero pro and Orbi, you don’t find the pro series of Orbi but different model. For example, Orbi rbk753 with ax4200 network segment and Orbi Rbk852 with ax6000.
Now back to eero, what is the difference between the ori and the pro series?
Eero 6 vs eero 6 pro
With the eero 6-pro you will find a huge price difference that is more than double the price of the regular eero 6 and you should expect a very noticeable difference in performance between the two series. To make it easier to find out the differences between these two series, table 1 below shows spec comparison table between the two series as a reference.
Capacity
Unlike Orbi, which does not differentiate between pro and original products, the eero 6 pro provides more than double the bandwidth compared to the original series, as well as being designed with three radio bands compared to only dual band in the original series. And the coverage of the pro series is much wider which is perfect for your large home.
And one more thing, the capacity of eero 6 pro can be for internet plan up to 1.0Gbps compared to the original series which is only up to 500Mbps internet plan. So if you require high speed internet plan for smooth online gaming and 4k video streaming, then the eero 6 pro you should choose which the price is twice as expensive as the original series.
Other specs and features you can see on the following table 1 below for details.
Table 1 eero 6 pro vs eero 6
| Eero | Eero 6 | Eero 6 Pro |
| Wifi | Dual band ax1800 | Tri-band ax4200 |
| Signal rate | 1,200Mbps @5GHz 2×2 600Mbps @2.4GHz 2×2 | 600Mbps @2.4GHz 2×2 1,200Mbps @5GHz 2×2 2,400Mbps @5GHz 4×4 |
| Coverage | 4,500 sq ft | 6,000 sq ft |
| Internet speed | Up to 500Mbps | Up to 1.0 Gbps |
| Antenna | 2.4GHz 2×2 5GHz 2×2 | 2.4GHz 2×2 5GHz 2×2 5GHz 4×4 |
| Dimension (W x L x H) | 97 mm x 99.4 mm x 61.5 mm | 139 mm x 139 mm x 52.6 mm |
| MSRP | $249.00 | $599.00 |
To get in depth insight about this eero 6 pro series, we will compare it with the Orbi product. You can also choose which orbi series to compare and make up your mind which one to choose.
Which Orbi to compare
There are two orbi series that can be compared with this eero pro 6 series, both of which can be considered as original and pro model like in eero, which are orbi rbk753 and orbi rbk853.
In order to cut the long discussion short, the following table 2 compares Orbi rbk752 and rbk852. The numeric notation on the tail of rbkxx3 indicates the number of units in the package. Orbi rbk852 or rbk752 indicates there are two orbi units in the kit. Orbi rbk853 means there are three orbi units in the kit.
Table 2 Orbi rbk852 vs Orbi rbk753
| Orbi series | Orbi Rbk853 | Orbi Rbk753 |
| Wifi | Simultaneous tri-band ax6000 mesh wifi 6 with 12 streams | Simultaneous tri-band ax4200 mesh wifi 8 with 6 streams |
| Signal rate | 1200Mbps @2.4GHz 4×4 2,400 Mbps @ 5GHZ-1 4×4 2,400 Mbps @ 5GHZ-2 4×4 | 600Mbps @2.4GHz 2×2 1200Mbps @5GHz 2×2 2400Mbps @5GHz 4×4 |
| Ethernet Ports | Orbi router: 1x RJ45 2.5G BaseT for WAN; 4x RJ45 Gigabits BaseT for LAN; Orbi Satelite (orbi rbs850): 4xGigabit LAN ports | Orbi router 1x Gigabit WAN + 3xGigabit LAN ports Orbi satellite (Rbs750): 2x Gigabit Ethernet LAN |
| Processor | Powerful Quad-Core 2.2 GHz processor with 512MB NAND Flash and 1GB RAM | 1.4GHz quad core processor with 512MB Flash and 1GB RAM |
| Price | $999.99 | $599.99 |
See that eero 6 pro (3-pack) is tagged with the price almost the same price as Orbi rbk753 (3-unit of orbi). So which is comparable to eero 6 pro? I already thought you would compare it with rb752 since both products have almost the same price, even though sometimes the prices are fluctuated by the time.
Eero vs Orbi
Now it comes to compare eero 6 pro with the middle tier of orbi series, rbk753. It looks like they are comparable since they are tagged with almost the same price in some online stores like in Amazon or Best buy.
As a reference, table 3 below represents spec comparison table between eero 6 pro (3-routers) and orbi rbk753 (instead of rbk752 in general which is two units orbi). With this orbi rbk753 selection, both eero 6 pro and orbi come with the same ax4200 network segment, so technically the wifi signal rates are the same with three radio bands.
Backhaul links
Link communication between nodes in mesh wifi uses wifi radio band as backhaul links. However, you can use wired Ethernet backhaul as an option.
The eero 6 pro is designed with simultaneous tri-band where the need for connection between nodes (backhaul) uses all three bands both @ 2.4GHz and @ 5GHz radio bands and share with connected devices.
Unlike the eero 6 pro, the Orbi rbk753 series uses one of the radio bands @ 5GHz @2,400Mbps as dedicated backhaul, leaving two other radio bands for connected devices. So total bandwidth for connected devices is only 1,800Mbps (1,200Mbps @5GHz + 600Mbps @2.4GHz), the 2,400Mbps @5GHz is used as dedicated backhaul.
Wired backhaul option
With the wifi backhaul link is very susceptible to signal interference, both products provide wired Ethernet backhaul option using UTP network connection between the router and satellite nodes via the their Ethernet ports. Wired connection is more reliable than wifi connection, it is relatively very stable.
Eero only provides two Ethernet ports, so you can only use a daisy chain topology for backhaul links. To use the star backhaul topology, with eero it is necessary to add a separate unmanaged Ethernet switch and connect all the eero units to the switch.
Unlike the eero which only has two ethernet ports, the orbi rbk752 has more ethernet ports on the router unit, while the orbi satellite only has two ports as well. Orbi distinguish which one is to work as Orbi router and which ones are Orbi satellites; they cannot be exchanged like the eero router.
WAN port
Both of these products are equipped with one 1.0 Gbps wan port that allows you to subscribe to internet plan up to 1.0gbps. However, if multi-gig internet speed is required, the eero 6 pro cannot support more than 1gbps. In contrast to orbi which supports link aggregation for wan by combining wan port and one of the LAN port for multi-gig internet plan up to 2Gbps. However, you also need a modem that is also equipped with two ethernet ports and supports port aggregation such as the Netgear cm1100 cable modem.
Zigbee smart hub
One thing that makes eero series different from orbi and other mesh wifi routers in general is that eero series is designed with built-in zigbee smart hub. You know that in the future there will be more smart devices that can be controlled from your Smartphone seamlessly. In the past you had to come to make settings for each home device such as electric locks, lights, switches, temperature controllers etc. Now with smart devices in your home that support ZigBee protocol, with the Eero series all these smart devices can be connected and controlled via eero wifi network and can easily be controlled with Alexa.
Processor
Both eero 6 pro and orbi products are powered by Quad core CPU, however they come with different frequency clock and the memory capacity is also different. The eero 6 pro comes with larger Flash memory capacity. Flash memory is a solid-state chip that can still save stored data even if the router device is not powered or when the power is off. This flash memory is a kind of hard disk storage for storing configuration and firmware data for the mesh router or mesh satellite.
The larger Flash capacity the more complex program or firmware and system configuration can be stored to the memory. Read more detail the spec comparison between the two products, eero vs orbi mesh wifi 6 systems.
Table 3 eero 6 Pro vs Orbi rbk753
| Model | Eero Pro wifi-6 (3 eero units) | Netgear Orbi Rbk753 (3-pack) |
| Wifi technology | Simultaneous tri-band ax4200 mesh wifi-6 with TrueMesh technology | Simultaneous tri-band ax4200 mesh wifi-6 |
| Wifi speeds | 600Mbps @2.4GHz 2×2 1200Mbps @5GHz-1 2×2 2400Mbps @5GHz-2 4×4 | 2.4GHz (600Mbps) 2×2 5GHz (1200Mbps) 2×2 5GHz (2400Mbps) dedicated backhaul 4×4 |
| Coverage | 6,000 sq ft / 3-pack | 7,500 sq ft / 3-pack |
| Backhaul link | Wifi backhaul via both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands | Dedicated backhaul link @5GHz 2,400Mbps |
| Ethernet Ports | 2x Gigabit Ethernet WAN/LAN port with auto sensing / unit | Router (rbr750): 1x 1Gigabit WAN port support Link aggregation using WAN port and one of Gigabit Ethernet port (2Gbps) 3x Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports Satellite (rbs750): 2xGigabit LAN ports |
| Internet speed | Up to Gigabit Internet plan | Up to 2Gbps internet plan (with link aggregation) |
| Security | WPA2 / WPA3 supports | NETGEAR Armor – anti-virus and data theft protection for all connected devices |
| Processor | 1.6 GHz quad core processor with 1GB RAM and 4GB Flash storage | 1.4GHz quad core processor with 512MB NAND Flash and 1GB RAM |
| Smart features | Supports Amazon Alexa, built-in Zigbee smart home hub, Thread, Bluetooth 5.0, auto firmware update | Supports Alexa, Google assistant |
| Price | $599.00 (3-pack) / $399.00 (2-pack) | $419.99 (2-pack) |
Now you judge which one is suitable to meet your home business. For home with smart home devices with zigbee compliant, eero 6 pro will give you best value. On the other hand, if smart home with zigbee compliant is not a must, orbi would be the best choice with cheaper price.
Click the product’s link below to read more details and shop the product in Amazon (#ads).
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