[Diemenz]

The orbi is huge, in the other thread I mentioned how my wife called it a blender and disliked it as well. It’s not a bad system just wasn’t for me because of the backhaul over switch issues and the slow data hops. For streaming it works very well but it’s not a true mesh system it is a satellite system.

Personally if you like the footprint of the google mesh get the deco 5. It’s far superior to the google product and actually has great performing backhaul unlike the google mesh. Deco 5 performs way above its price range and the setup is very simple.

As mentioned I have the Velop AC6600 which has been nothing short of amazing for me (same setup one on each floor) but it carries a big price tag due to its hardware. I have only had 1 issue with it and that’s when Shaw upgrades the firmware on there modem my velop would not connect again. A 15 minute call to linksys support and it was back up and running. The velop isn’t as user friendly in setup as some other mesh systems because there is a wrong way to set it up and not following the instructions exactly will lead to poor performance.

Most reviewers rate the Orbi and Velop 1-2 and have them in different order depending on the review date (Velop lately has been ahead because of positive firmware updates). Then the deco line and Asus Lyra. I would get something that is expandable (you can buy a node separately if needed) So it’s future proofed for at least 5 years.

I want to be clear that I don’t hate the google mesh, I got it for my parents because they only web surf and stream Netflix and that system kills it for simplicity and performance in that area. It’s just not good at transferring data between nodes so would take about 3 times longer to copy a few RAW pictures to my server from my laptop versus the velop.

Personally my choice if you want three nodes would be
1. Velop - if you want the best file transfer and performance
2. Deco 5 - if you want to save $200 over the above and get 85% of the performance (which is still amazing performance)
3. Asus Lyra - just like the deco but less polished software.
4. Google - if you just web surf and stream

You can’t go wrong with the Orbi either as it is blazing fast and the device has multiple lan ports which is a huge plus if you don’t own switches (they cost $19 now so it’s not a huge hurdle) but you will not have the option for 3 units without shelling out more cash (but the 2 unit bundle covers a huge area)