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Millions of people making the transition to working from home this year have resulted in more than a few problems. Products like webcams and laptops are scarce, and home Wi-Fi networks are being pushed to their breaking point with dozens of connected devices, Zoom calls, Netflix sessions, and chat threads. In most cases, a mesh router is the best way to create a home network that meets these new demands.
Amazon has just released its latest mesh Wi-Fi routers: Dual Band Eero 6 and Tri-Band Eero Pro 6. Both systems support Wi-Fi 6, WPA-3, and other recent innovations. network, with a simple management application. I received the Pro 6 for review, and it’s an amazing system if you can afford it.
Design, material, what’s in the box
The Eero Pro 6 (and the classic Eero 6) is primarily designed to operate as a mesh network, increasing your total home Wi-Fi coverage with each station. I received the 3-pack for review which costs $ 599 and is rated for homes up to 6,000 sq. Ft. If you don’t need a lot of range there is also a 2-pack for 399 $ that covers 3,500 square feet. ft, and a 1-pack for $ 299 that covers 2,000 square feet.
Each Eero node is a white square with a slanted top, presumably not to put anything on it – Nintendo used the same design trick with the NES-101 to prevent people from placing food and drink on the console. Stations have two Ethernet sockets, but you lose one on any node connected to your modem (since a port connects the modem to the Eero).
It is standard for mesh systems to have only 1 to 2 LAN ports on each node, but I would have preferred to see at least one additional connector. I have a few devices in my home media cabinet that I prefer to use with wired connections (like my Nintendo Switch and home server), and with only one usable port on the base station, I had to use a network switch to connect other devices. There are also no standard USB ports for adding storage and network-connected printers, which are present on many cheaper Wi-Fi systems, like the $ 70 Asus RT-ACRH13.
It’s still rare for non-portable electronic devices to use USB Type-C, so I was surprised to see the Eero Pro 6 using Type-C for power input. It might not seem important, but if something happens to the original power / adapter cable, you might already have a spare. I was even able to power an Eero node using one of my portable USB batteries.
In the box you get 1-3 Eero nodes, a wall outlet for each node, an Ethernet cable to connect your modem, and various instruction manuals.
Software and configuration
The process of setting up the Eero Pro 6 is similar to any other mesh Wi-Fi system. I unplugged my existing Wi-Fi router, plugged in one of the Eero nodes (you can use any of them in a pack as a base station, they all work the same), and I connected to my Comcast modem using the included Ethernet cable. If you are not already using a separate router with your modem, you will need to put your modem in bridge mode first. The exact process for this varies depending on your modem and your ISP.
With everything plugged in and powered on, I installed the Eero app and followed the instructions for creating an online account, which is used to check your network when you are away from home. Once the Base Station is up and running, you will be prompted to place the remaining Eero nodes around your house and connect them to the Base Station. The whole installation process only took me 10 minutes.
The Eero app is a breath of fresh air compared to my experiences with the apps for Xfinity and Linksys. It opens quickly, performs well, and is organized into easy-to-understand sections. The first is the Home tab, which lists the status of your network, Eero nodes, and all connected devices. Each device is listed with a name and icon, so it’s generally easy to find what you’re looking for, although there doesn’t seem to be an option to change icons (just names). You can tap a device to check its network activity, which node it is connected to, IP address, and other information.
The next tab is Activity, which shows detailed analyzes of your network’s data usage. You can see graphs for data usage, ranging from month-to-month statistics up to hour-by-hour. This is also where the ability to assign devices to profiles comes in handy, as it can give you insight into which people in your household are using the most data.
There’s a catch here: Detailed scans are only available as part of an Eero Secure subscription, which costs $ 2.99 / month or $ 29.99 / year. I’m not a fan of Eero charging an additional subscription on top of the already expensive hardware, but the subscription also allows for content filtering, network-level ad blocking, and a weekly activity report.
There are a handful of other features lurking in other sections of the app, such as guest network support, notifications for new devices, static IP addresses, and port forwarding. You can also connect your Eero to an Amazon account to use the stations as Zigbee smart home hubs, but I didn’t have any compatible devices to try. The app even supports dark mode!
It’s worth noting that the Eero 6 doesn’t have a web-based control panel to change settings, so everything has to be done through the mobile app. It’s not a critical issue for me personally, and it’s hardly unusual for mesh systems (Google Wi-Fi doesn’t have a web panel either), but it might annoy some people.
Performance
The Eero Pro 6 has just about all the modern Wi-Fi features you can think of, including Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), tri-band mesh, WPA3-Personal, 2.4 networks and 5 GHz simultaneous and beamforming. All of this means that your home network can handle many devices, at the highest possible speeds and with the latest supported security standards.
Of all the supported features, two are the most important for network performance: Wi-Fi 6 and tri-band mesh. Wi-Fi 6 improves battery life and network speed, and even reduces congestion by dividing wireless channels into many sub-channels. The catch is that your devices have to support Wi-Fi 6 to see some of these benefits, but products designed for Wi-Fi 6 only started appearing this year (older devices are starting to appear. will connect fine via Wi-Fi 4 or 5). The tri-band mesh design means that each Eero station has a dedicated path to the base station, so speeds need to stay relatively consistent across your network – cheaper dual-band systems cut costs in half. maximum speeds on secondary nodes.
With the Eero Pro 6, my home network is extremely fast, no matter where I am in the house. My internet speed from Comcast is around 250 Mbps, and even on devices without Wi-Fi 6 support (like my desktop computer), I can usually reach around 200 Mbps when connected to one of the my Eero stations. It’s amazing to have a Wi-Fi that offers similar speeds and latency compared to plugging an Ethernet cable directly into my modem, and thanks to the tri-band design, there is no loss speed when connected to secondary nodes.
Speed tests over Wi-Fi 6 on a Galaxy S20. The screenshot on the left is next to the base station, the screenshot on the right is next to a secondary station about 200 meters away.
I occasionally noticed connectivity issues, where one of the stations was dropping network packets, but they rarely lasted longer than 10-40 seconds. Amazon has also pushed several updates to my Eero system since I set it up, so occasional drops could be something that will be fixed in the future.
Should you buy it?
Yes. Assuming you can justify the hefty price tag, the Eero Pro 6 is an incredible mesh Wi-Fi system that I have almost no reservations about recommending. The setup process is incredibly simple, the mobile app works well, and the tri-band connectivity means every corner of my house is covered by super-fast internet. The Wi-Fi 6 support is also great, but unless you upgrade your devices regularly, you probably won’t get much benefit from it for a few years.
If you don’t mind losing speeds on secondary stations, the non-Pro Eero 6 is a compelling option as well. The rest of the hardware and software is the same, but the 3-pack costs just $ 279, compared to $ 599 for the Pro. You still get the great management app, Wi-Fi 6 support, and Zigbee smart hub features.
Buy it if:
- You’ve experienced issues with other mesh Wi-Fi systems.
- You can blow $ 600 (or $ 230 for the 1-pack) on a router, or you find it on sale.
Don’t buy it if:
- You don’t like to use a mobile app to manage your network.
- You are already happy with your home Wi-Fi.
Or buy:
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