Amplifi HD vs Orbi vs Velop

Amplifi introduced the mesh wifi system as one of the entrants that enlivened the market of mesh wifi network devices together with Netgear Orbi, Linksys Velop and others. Physically one box of Amplifi HD sold in the market consists of an Amplifi HD router and two units of Amplifi Meshpoint. The Amplifi Meshpoint is a kind of satellite on Orbi or as a mesh wifi range extender.

Basically you can combine two or more Amplifi routers to form an excellent and high performance mesh wifi system, and you can still have all the available Ethernet ports as LAN port in each node. Amplifi Meshpoint doesn’t come with Ethernet port.

Unifi Amplifi HD 

Amplifi HD

As the network center is the Amplifi HD router and you will be proud to show off the Amplifi router in your living room considering its beautiful appearance. Unlike Orbi or Velop, Amplifi router is designed with a square shape with smooth and neat on each edge and more interesting is the round screen on one side of the front case that displays internet speeds, while the other port interfaces are located at the rear side.

Wifi

Amplifi HD router as well as Meshpoint is designed with dual band AC1750 technology delivering speeds of up to 1,300Mbps @5GHz and up to 450Mbps @2.4GHz for a total bandwidth of up to 1750Mbps each unit technically. And each of router or Meshpoint can cover up to 2,000 sq ft technically. When you combine three Amplifi routers, or one Amplifi router plus two Meshpoint devices you can technically cover up to 6,000 sq ft. This product is still based on legacy wifi 5 technology, see also new products, best of wifi 6 ax6000 mesh routers.

Highlights

• Amplifi HD router plus two Meshpoints delivers total speeds of up to 3x 1750Mbps (5,250Mbps)
• Simultaneous dual band with 6 MIMO chains each unit router or Meshpoint
• Dual band antenna with Tri-polarity 
• Covers up to 6,000 sq ft fit to your large home with high performance mesh system
• One Gigabit WAN port and four Gigabit LAN ports on Amplifi router, no Ethernet port available on Meshpoint unit
• Meshpoint unit with powerful adjustable antenna to find best signal and comes with LEDs signal strength indicator to find the best position for optimal performance
• Add Meshpoint unit to any wifi router for mesh wifi system
• One single Amplifi router covers up to 2,000 sq ft, add more Amplifi router for best performance, or add two or more Meshpoint units for mesh multi-hop 
• Amplifi router with full color 1.6” screen shows you internet speeds
• Comes with intuitive Amplifi app for network management including setup, configuration, remote access and still more

The Amplifi Meshpoint unit is a wall-plug model for easy plug in into the power outlet; it’s like Velop wall-plug model. 

Amplifi HD vs Orbi vs Velop

Now, we compare this product with two other competing mesh wifi products in the market – the Netgear Orbi RBK33 with three units of Orbi devices and Linksys Velop AC4800 that consists of Velop router plus two wall-plug Velops.

Orbi Rbk33 consists of Orbi Rbr40 mesh wifi router plus two wall-plug Orbi satellites (Rbw30). Both Rbr40 router and Rbw 30 satellite are tri-band AC2200 technology.

Orbi Rbk50

Linksys Velop AC4800 consists of Velop AC2200 mesh router with three band technology, and two wall plug dual band AC1300 technology. Now take a look at the following two spec comparison tables. Table 1 shows you spec comparison between Amplifi HD vs Orbi, and table 2 represents spec comparison between Amplifi HD vs Velop.

Wifi

Amplifi HD is a dual band AC1750, both router and Meshpoint have the same AC1750 (1,300 + 450Mbps) and with 3x3 streams for total of 18 streams (router + 2x Meshpoints). Amplifi HD shares the users and backhaul together @5GHz band. However, when you deploy three Amplifi router nodes you can configure the wired Ethernet backhaul so your connected clients use full two bands, no share with backhaul.

Orbi router and satellite are tri-band AC2200 (867 + 867 + 400Mbps), however one of its 5GHz bands is used as dedicated backhaul link so connected clients use two other bands 867Mbps @5GHz and 400Mbps @2.4GHz.

Linksys Velop doesn’t use dedicated backhaul, but wifi backhaul shares with users @5GHz band. You can imagine when Velop use dedicated backhaul, with two band wall-plug satellite you will only have 2.4GHz band for clients.

Table 1 Amplifi vs Orbi

Product model	Amplifi HD (1x router + 2x Meshpoint)	Orbi Rbk33 (Router plus 2x wall-plug Satellite)
Wifi technology	Simultaneous dual band AC1750	Router + wall plug: simultaneous tri-band AC2200
Wifi speeds	1300Mbps @5GHz 450Mbps @2.4GHz Aggregate speeds ~ 5,25 Gbps (3-pack)	Router / Satellite: 867Mbps + 867Mbps @5GHz + 400Mbps @2.4GHz
Coverage	~ 6,000 sq ft	~ 2,000 sq ft + 2x 1,500 sq ft (5,000 sq ft)
Ethernet ports	Router: 1x Gigabit WAN + 4x Gigabit LAN; no Ethernet port on Meshpoint	Router: 1x auto-sensing Gigabit Ethernet ports for WAN and 3x Gigabit LAN Satellite: None
Others	1,6inch full color screen Intuitive Amplifi app for network management	Implicit/Explicit Beamforming for 2.4 & 5GHz bands; Alexa supports; MU-MIMO
Backhaul	Wifi and you can hack for wired Ethernet backhaul for routers, no wired backhaul with Meshpoints	Dedicated @5GHz backhaul 867Mbps
Price (Apr 2020)	$499.99	$199.99

 

The table 2 here for spec comparison between Amplifi HD and Velop AC4800.

Table 2 Amplifi vs Velop

Product model	Amplifi HD (1x router + 2x Meshpoint)	Linksys Velop AC4800 (Router + 2x wall-plug satellite)
Wifi technology	Simultaneous dual band AC1750	Router: simultaneous tri-band AC2200 Satellite: simultaneous dual band AC1300
Wifi speeds	1300Mbps @5GHz 450Mbps @2.4GHz Aggregate speeds ~ 5,25 Gbps (3-pack)	Router: 867Mbps + 867Mbps @5GHz + 400Mbps @2.4GHz Satellite: 867Mbps + 400Mbps
Coverage	~ 6,000 sq ft	~ 2,000 sq ft + 2x 1,500 sq ft (5,000 sq ft)
Ethernet ports	Router: 1x Gigabit WAN + 4x Gigabit LAN; no Ethernet port on Meshpoint	Router: 2 auto-sensing Gigabit Ethernet ports for WAN and LAN Satellite: None
Others	1,6inch full color screen Intuitive Amplifi app for network management	Alexa supports Optional Linksys Shield a paid subscription
Backhaul	Wifi and you can hack for wired Ethernet backhaul for routers, no wired backhaul with Meshpoints	Wifi backhaul
Price (Apr 2020)	$499.99	$299.99

 

The price of Amplifi HD is almost stable all the time from the beginning released to the market at around $ 500 (router plus two Meshpoints), on the other hand Orbi and Velop fluctuate all the time considering Orbi and Velop have diverse product variations, while Amplifi only releases Amplifi HD, Amplifi Gamers and its newest product is Amplifi Alien mesh wifi – a mesh wifi based on Wifi 6 technology. See also best whole home mesh wifi.