It is this Wednesday, April 6 in the early morning that Orange will unveil its new Livebox, the sixth. If the 5th seems recent to you, it’s because time flies quickly, the current generation had been unveiled in fall 2019.
On this occasion Orange had surprised by leaving aside Wi-Fi 6. This capacity had been offered in a second time by means of a wifi repeater 6 to be taken as an option.
This wireless connection standard has since spread a little more and the new box should offer WiFi 6E among its main new features. The Spanish and Polish subsidiaries of Orange have already tested this function since this feature is included in the Livebox 6 and Funbox 6 of these two countries.
A lot of details had also already leaked at the end of last year on the future French box thanks to the indiscretions of beta testers: RJ45 port at 2.5 Gb / s (LAN, for the local network), four others 1 Gb/s ports, return of a (touch) screen on the front, etc.
Orange: first Livebox 6 in test and first features unveiled ????
A Livebox 6 whose design would also take a step aside from the style adopted until then and which can be summarized by “a black plastic box”. It had been mentioned a format suitable for a flat and vertical installation as well as sides covered with a fabric-like material.
This is confirmed by this visual transmitted by Orange which reveals only part of the box. We guess in passing, in the lower part of the image, a button with a moon icon, perhaps to manually cut the Wi-Fi or switch to standby mode.
Orange will announce its new Livebox on April 6 at 9 a.m. The first photo published by the operator shows a device that looks like a speaker. Hurry to find out! #Livebox6 pic.twitter.com/mWOpui9ipk
— Nicolas Lellouche (@LelloucheNico) March 30, 2022
Update 6:30 p.m. — Without waiting for April 6, the first details – and a first visual – of the Livebox 6 appeared at Next Inpact. It would be a box, code name “Safran” intended for fiber customers, no xDSL module being present. The device would integrate 4 ports 1 Gb/s and 1 RJ45 port at 2.5 Gb/s. No repeater here, Wi-Fi 6 is available on the 2.5 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands, however everything would be set to also use the 6 Ghz band, therefore for Wi-Fi 6E.
It seems that it’s coming soon and that the visual needs to be teased. So good… #Livebox6 #Safran For more details ▶️ https://t.co/eVFLe1CVcM pic.twitter.com/Ai6bg3IEQb
— David Legrand ☁️ ⌛ (@davlgd) March 30, 2022
An E-Ink touch screen is appearing to simplify the use of the box and facilitate access to functions. On the design side, the Livebox 6 looks “small but thick”, with fabric on the sides.