Originally known under the code name Freebox V9, the Freebox Ultra was unveiled a little late by the operator at the end of January 2024. This launch was particularly anticipated, and helps define the vision of Free for years to come. According to the operator, this new Freebox has been designed for the next ten years. Such a promise inevitably made us want to test it.
Freebox Ultra Technical sheet
Unlike previous generations, Free has simply developed a new “Server” box, that is to say the box connected to the Internet and which includes the NAS function. To discover a new Player box, you will still have to be patient. In the meantime, Free offers the TV Player from Freebox Pop and the former Freebox Delta, with this box.
Freebox Ultra Server Internet
- Qualcomm Networking Pro 820 SoC (Quad-core A73 – 2.2 GHz)
- NAS Storage Server (NVMe SSD slot)
- Oled control screen
- USB-C Power Delivery (20V/60W)
- Wi-Fi 7 (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz)
- Ports:
- SFP Fiber Optic Port
- SFP 10G Lan port (LAN)
- 4 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports
- USB 3.0 port (USB Type-A)
- RJ11 (landline telephone connector)
- On/Off button
- 11.9 x 23 x 6.5 cm
Note that this new Freebox is exclusively compatible with the operator’s FTTH fiber optic network. This is the first time that the operator has abandoned compatibility with the ADSL copper network.
The Freebox Ultra (the Server Ultra) was loaned by the operator as part of this test
Freebox Ultra The two offers
The Freebox Ultra is offered through two packages at Free: Freebox Ultra Essential and Freebox Ultra. In both cases, the equipment is the same. You therefore receive the Freebox Ultra Server that we are testing here, a Free 4K TV Player and, on request, you can have a Wi-Fi 7 Repeater and a Pocket Wi-Fi.
Still among the points in common, the two packages give access to reduced prices at Free Mobile, the Free 5G subscription increases to 15.99 euros per month for 4 lines (9.99 euros per month during the first year).
The Freebox Ultra Essentiel is offered at 39.99 euros per month for 12 months, then 49.99 euros per month. For its part, the Freebox Ultra in its more premium offer is placed at 10 euros more per month, or 49.99 euros per month for the first year and 59.99 euros per month thereafter. This very high-end offer includes a subscription to Netflix (Standard with advertising), Disney+ (Standard with advertising), Amazon Prime Video, Cafeyn and 50 TV channels including Canal+ live and the Universal+ bouquet.
Where to buy
Freebox Ultra at the best price?
Freebox Ultra The Server box
Let’s get to the heart of the matter with the new Server. Free has returned to a very simple design and has not partnered with a big name in the field like Jasper Morisson for the Freebox Delta or Philippe Starck for the Freebox Revolution. Beyond the very compact appearance of the device, even its functions have been reduced.
There is no longer any question of becoming a home automation hub, at least for the moment, or of integrating hard drives to create a large NAS. This last function has been replaced by the small NVMe SSD slot under the box, but it is hard to imagine at the price of flash storage actually being able to replace one with the other.
With this Freebox Ultra, Free does not bother with frills of all kinds, we concentrate on the essentials for an ISP. Very high throughput for the wired LAN network thanks to 2.5 Gbit/s RJ45 ports or the 10 Gb/s SFP+ port, and a latest generation three-band Wi-Fi 7 network.
The setup is very simple. The fiber cable connects to the indicated port, plugs in the USB-C power supply and the Freebox connects to the network. A small screen allows you to follow the initialization. It also allows access to some essential functions of the Freebox, in particular displaying a QR Code to connect very easily to the Wi-Fi network.
A super fast connection
With the Freebox Ultra, Free markets a fiber offer with a symmetrical speed of 8 Gbit/s for downloading and 8 Gbit/s for sending. This is unheard of, and it far exceeds the average speed of a subscriber in France.
The immediate benefit of such throughput is to enable bandwidth to be shared efficiently between a multitude of devices. We will thus be able to simultaneously watch a 4K film on the living room TV, download video games on PC or console, stream, send a video, etc.
However, this raises the question of compatibility with home equipment. To really benefit from 8 Gbit/s on a single machine, you will have to rework the installation. Indeed, on most PCs, when present, the RJ45 port will be limited to 1 or 2.5 Gbit/s. Beyond the question of the wired network, this even questions the ability of the PC hardware to keep up. If you download a file at 8 Gbit/s, that is to say 1 GB per second, you need a processor, RAM and above all a storage medium capable of keeping up with such a rate.
We are necessarily talking here about a rather modern NVMe SSD. And on the other side of the tunnel, we must succeed in finding services capable of offering such a speed. It is the server of the data provider (Netflix, Steam, etc.) which can become the limiting factor here. It is the entire chain from the source to the machine that requires
Freebox Ultra Our facility
We have published an article concerning the equipment necessary to take advantage of this very high speed on a PC. For this test, we tried several solutions.
We first tested the QSFPTEK 10G network card (51 euros on Amazon). Like most cards in this market segment, it uses an Intel 82599EN chip. First pitfall: it does not have natively supported drivers under Windows. You must therefore plan to download and install the drivers from the Intel site. It is then necessary from the Windows device manager to manually install the drivers, indicating the downloaded files.
We connected the network card via an SFP+ DAC fiber cable directly to the port provided for this purpose on the Freebox Ultra. This connection never worked. Difficult to know if the cable was received defective. Another comment on Amazon regarding the cable used indicates incompatibility with the Freebox Ultra. The Windows and Freebox interface do not really help to identify the problem. In both cases, the machines do not detect any connection.
Second solution. We go through a 10G RJ45 network card. More precisely the TP-Link PCIe TX401 card (85 euros on Amazon). This solution also requires the addition of an SFP to RJ45 adapter (53 euros on Amazon) on the Freebox side. Here, you must use a simple copper RJ45 Ethernet cable (Cat 6 minimum) to connect the box and the network card. In our installation, this is the solution that worked the first time. It must be said that an RJ45 cable is much less fragile than a fiber optic cable.
As you can see, in both cases, and just to connect a machine to the Freebox, it takes a little less than 150 euros of investment.
Freebox Ultra Flow tests
The 8 Gbit/s are here
We were able to verify the promise of a symmetrical speed of 8 Gbit/s on our PC connected directly by wire to the 10 Gbit/s SFP port of the Freebox. We installed the Speedtest application for Windows to carry out this test, as the service site does not allow such speed to be achieved from the browser.
Beyond this benchmark which allows us to display a nice figure, we have not really been able to reproduce this flow in real use. Whether on services like Steam or others, the speed reached generally saturated around 100 MB/s, or 800 Mbit/s. We noticed RAM and CPU saturation during these tasks. The problem therefore perhaps comes from our PC used during the test. It is still a relatively recent and high-end PC (AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and 16 GB of DDR4 RAM).
In other words, unless you equip yourself exclusively with very high-end equipment, our report here is consistent with what the average and majority of users will encounter.
With the Freebox Ultra, your box and your Internet line take a leap into the future, but the rest of the French infrastructure and your equipment remains stuck in 2024.
Wi-Fi 7
The Freebox Ultra is therefore the first box on the market to integrate Wi-Fi 7 – which is starting to appear on mobile devices. Thanks to the integration of three different frequency bands, it allows it to offer record speeds. In fact, we have not succeeded with our equipment in recovering a signal capable of reaching the promised speeds. Worse, we noticed a drop in range compared to the Freebox Delta and some disconnections with home automation devices (connected vacuum cleaner).
In terms of speeds, with an iPhone 15 Pro set to Wi-Fi 6E, we measured 1.3 Gbit/s for both downstream and upstream speeds. Moving a little away from the box, we go down to speeds around 800 Mbit/s. This remains perfectly sufficient for use on a smartphone or laptop.
Furthermore, management of the Wi-Fi network is mainly done through Freebox OS, which does not offer a smartphone interface, and not through the Freebox Connect mobile application. As a result, it is difficult to manage your network from a smartphone. The application mainly offers to modify the security key of the Wi-Fi network, display the QR Code, activate or deactivate Wi-Fi and some additional options (DHCP, port forwarding).
NAS and Freebox OS
Since the Freebox Revolution, Free has offered a box management interface from the local network on mafreebox.freebox.fr. With the Freebox Ultra, we start on Freebox OS 4.8.
From this interface, you will be able to manage the Freebox and the local network, but also access a download service and manage the NAS and virtual machines.
On the Freebox Ultra, it is necessary to install an NVMe SSD under the hood or connect an external hard drive via the USB port.
Once the hard drive is installed and detected, you can create a virtual machine from the interface. This machine will use the Qualcomm chip and part of the Freebox resources.
We ran tests on Speedtest from this virtual machine and found that the throughput was limited to 2.5 Gbit/s. The internal connection of the NAS and VM system of the Freebox is probably done on a connection other than the 10 Gbit/s port.
The functions of Freebox OS stop there. With the Freebox Ultra, there is no longer any question of being able to manage your home automation system. The new Freebox marks a return to basics for Free: it is network equipment.
Freebox Ultra Price and availability
The Freebox Ultra has been available since January 30, 2024, from 49.99 euros per month.
Where to buy
Freebox Ultra at the best price?
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39.99€
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