So here at Amor I.T. Solutions we have been asked several times by our clients if having a wireless mesh system like the Orbi Tri Band WiFi Mesh System is better then wiring in direct Cat6 cable. The quick answer is no. Although Mesh units like this can be convenient they will never be as good as a direct ethernet connection.
The reason why most people choose to go with a mesh system is the convenience of being able to spread their wireless connection throughout their house or business. And although convenient it does have major draw backs.
One of these draw backs is that mesh systems relies on hopping the signal from one mesh device to the next in order to expand your wireless connectivity. But by doing this you actually will lose internet speed/bandwidth. For every Hop (Connection from one mesh device to the next) you will sacrifice internet and bandwidth speed. How much depends on several factors one being the quality of mesh devices that you are using. In some instances the hopping from one mesh device to another can decrease your speed by half.
It is always better to use wired ethernet cable. In doing so you will not have the loss of internet/bandwidth speed but rather will have full line speed. For example if you have a download speed from your internet service provider of 100 mbps having a wired connection you will see most to all of the speed. If you are using a mesh system and have several devices you could see the speed cut in half (50 mbps) or more!
If you are not able to run cable throughout your home or business a better solution would be to run dedicated wireless access points, and station them throughout your home or business. Setting up wireless access points will give you much better speeds than using mesh.
As we like to say when it doubt wire it out!