Orbi to ZenWIFI?

[digital10]

Any one tried this switch? Wirecutter.com has made tests and they seem to highly favour the ZenWIFI over Orbi, there seems to be huge advantage over latency. I wonder if one would see real life usage differences or are these "lab numbers" ?
One graph I didn't understand is this, I know longer bars are higher throughput(speed?) but didn't get the red,blue and green part.

Some issues that worry me are:

• Does it smoothly make the switch one node to the other
• are there dropouts
• stability of the firmware
• can I run Merlin firmware, or is the Merlin firmware less stable?
• reliability

Last thing I want to do is make the purchase and then not notice any real world difference.

 

[thiggins]

That graph is described in the review text. It's the sum of throughputs of a single laptop at the three locations shown on the diagrams.

The tests are in open air and the methodology is one of the most careful and comprehensive that I've seen. It was originally developed by Jim Salter, who used it to do our AP roundup and AiMesh reviews.

The benchmarks do not test roaming time.

 

[The PyroPath]

• Does it smoothly make the switch one node to the other.
• are there dropouts
• stability of the firmware
• can I run Merlin firmware, or is the Merlin firmware less stable?
• reliability

No experience with Orbi, but this is my experience with the XT8's
1: node switching has been very good for me, no drops while streaming video or even Wi-Fi video calling when moving between upstairs bedroom XT8 to the office XT8 and then downstairs AX88U.
2, 3 & 5: drop outs were rare for me while on the stable firmware and stability was good, however with the new RC's and Beta's I've had my fair share of quirks. This is however beta firmware, so yeah... However I really like the new features like node binding so now I'm running a Frankenstein hybrid of 1 node on the newest RC and the 1 least used on the last stable FW.
4: depends on the hardware used. If you use a router as a node you can get the ones which are supported, but the XT8 for example are not supported by Merlin.

 

[digital10]

• Does it smoothly make the switch one node to the other.
• are there dropouts
• stability of the firmware
• can I run Merlin firmware, or is the Merlin firmware less stable?
• reliability

No experience with Orbi, but this is my experience with the XT8's
1: node switching has been very good for me, no drops while streaming video or even Wi-Fi video calling when moving between upstairs bedroom XT8 to the office XT8 and then downstairs AX88U.
2, 3 & 5: drop outs were rare for me while on the stable firmware and stability was good, however with the new RC's and Beta's I've had my fair share of quirks. This is however beta firmware, so yeah... However I really like the new features like node binding so now I'm running a Frankenstein hybrid of 1 node on the newest RC and the 1 least used on the last stable FW.
4: depends on the hardware used. If you use a router as a node you can get the ones which are supported, but the XT8 for example are not supported by Merlin.

so you are you happy with the ZenWIFI with stock firmware?any negatives?