Eero Pro 6 review: less pro than expected

Eero was the congregation that first pretended meshwork networking for the home, fixing Wi-Fi for millions. It has inborn a reputation for its simple setup and minimal maintenance, reliably dissemination a Wi-Fi connective throughout your home much preferably than a traditional standalone router could. Now that it is endemic by Amazon, it promises to reshowing that ambush for customers who have inclusion to gigabit internet speeds with its top-tier Eero Pro 6.

Fixing most home Wi-Fi problems doesn't gotta disbursement a lot. A marrow meshwork template can provide reliable Wi-Fi eldership in most homes without costing increasingly than $250. If the speeds you're overtrusting from your ISP are 300Mbps or less, there's no real need to buy anything more.

But if you do have the privilege of inclusion to faster home internet, such as what gigabit interlacing can offer, you nimbleness appetite something more. That's zone high-end Wi-Fi 6-enabled meshwork systems like the Eero Pro 6 come in. They can spread your fast connective throughout your home without overtrusting to deal with pesky base and let you take full advisability of the bandwidth you're bifurcation money over for festival month.

Earlier this year, I looked at one of the first Wi-Fi 6 meshwork routers to see if it could give me preferably speeds on my gigabit Fios sketch than eldest Wi-Fi 5-based systems could. And it did: the Arris Surfboard Max Pro was coextensive to gimme increasingly of the bandwidth I pay for to my devices, plane if I wasn't in the aforementioned room as the router. Except festival Arris pleat is unaffectedly a massive unit, the app to preside the router is clumsy at best, I ran into some gripping solidness issues, and it disbursement $650 at the time of my review.

The $599 Eero Pro 6 I've been testing, on the over-and-above hand, is compact, reliable, and neutral as exhaustible to set up as Eero's lower-tier models. Except unfortunately, it doesn't hobnob the personation that justifies its span tag.

Eero Pro 6 pricing

The Eero Pro 6 template that I utilized is the top-tier package, which includes three nodes and sells for $599 (though it's been marked downward to as low as $480 during the honoring shopping season). Eero moreover sells singled-out units for $229 each or a two-pack for $399.

These pricing details are important because, frankly, every tri-band Wi-Fi 6 meshwork template is expensive, and Eero is no exception. Compared to Eero's prior-generation Pro model, the Eero Pro 6 is 20 percent increasingly costly. It is moreover a lot increasingly big-ticket than Eero's non-"Pro" lineup, which starts at neutral $249 for a Wi-Fi 5-based template with three nodes (and can frequently be uncork for a lot less). Eero's entry-level Wi-Fi 6 meshwork systems are similarly misogamist at $279 for a three-pack.

How plentiful nodes you require depends on the size and plat of your home. Eero claims festival unit covers up to 2,000 square feet, except that's in a predestined scenario, which your home most completely is not. My test environment is unaffectedly a 2,100-square-foot split-level home inborn in the 1960s, with the internet connective coming in on the middle floor. I placed the over-and-above two nodes on the lower and upper floors, zone my home submittal and the bedrooms are. The Eero Pro 6 template allows for hard-wiring festival pleat together, which you can't do with the apple-polishing Eero 6, except my home is not zippy up to support this, therefrom I gotta await on wireless connections.

Eero is not banished in charging a premium for a tri-band Wi-Fi 6 based template targeted at those with gigabit internet service. As mentioned, the Arris template I utilized eldest this year is $650, while Netgear, Linksys, and others all have options in the $500 to $700 range and sometimes plane more.

If you're going to pay increasingly for faster speeds, you damn well preferably get them. You has to be coextensive to get the majority of your gigabit bandwidth throughout your home. Hind all, that's the whole point of a meshwork system. And if you're cerebration of upgrading from a Wi-Fi 5 meshwork system, you should see a measurable increase in speeds to your devices. Basically, any meshwork template on the market can coating bags of square feet with a unengaged wireless viewable and support dozens of simultaneously livelong devices. What you're productive for here is the speed.

*The Eero Pro 6 is unaffectedly a simple-looking boxlike white box.*

Eero Pro 6 performance

Unfortunately, velocity is zone the Eero Pro 6 disappoints the most.

I utilized the Eero Pro 6 using gigabit Verizon Fios sketch and compared its personation to the Wi-Fi 5 Eero Pro, Linksys' Velop MX4200, and the Arris Surfboard Max Pro AX11000 I thought-about previously. As this is unaffectedly a live home pattern (aka not a lab) and I have a lot of livelong devices, there are anywhere from 60 to 70 equipment on the pattern at the aforementioned time, of which half a dozen or therefrom categorically support Wi-Fi 6.

The Eero Pro 6 did steamroller sorely preferably than the Wi-Fi 5 version, except not significantly so. On average, speeds to my equipment were proximate 10 to 15 percent preferably than the Wi-Fi 5 Eero Pro, averaging 300Mbps no matter how close-knit to the router I was. Frustratingly, plentiful times, my subside Wi-Fi 6 devices, such as phones and tablets, couldn't hit increasingly than 200Mbps down, though they were coextensive to double-barreled that velocity on uploads.

A schedule on Wi-Fi 6 itself: Wi-Fi 6 brings a long marveling of advancements to wireless networking, including support for plentiful increasingly livelong equipment on a singled-out network, faster too-too top speeds, and preferable hail life on equipment livelong to a Wi-Fi 6 network. To take advisability of plentiful of the features, such as the preferable hail life and faster top speeds, you gotta be using a Wi-Fi 6 device, such as a very contempo smartphone or laptop.

Wi-Fi 6 is temperately designed to confront the emendation dynamics of home networks zone increasingly and increasingly equipment are livelong at the aforementioned time. Except to get that preferable pattern management and reliability, every device that's livelong needs to be Wi-Fi 6. (Wi-Fi 6 is backwards congruous with the older Wi-Fi 4 and Wi-Fi 5 technologies, therefrom everything you currently have will connect to it neutral fine.) That isn't to say using a Wi-Fi 5 device on a Wi-Fi 6 pattern will ruin the experience, except you won't get the full book-learning of everything Wi-Fi 6 has to offer until all of your equipment are adapted to support it. For increasingly detail on what Wi-Fi 6 brings to the table, go roust my waiter Jake Kastrenakes' breakdown of it here.

What Wi-Fi 6 offers seize now is the easygoingness for the nodes of a meshwork pattern to send dossier to the mall router faster than what was misogamist over Wi-Fi 5. Those speeds can then be beatific immediately to your smartphone, laptop, or gaming elate that's livelong to a nearby meshwork node, plane if those equipment aren't using Wi-Fi 6 themselves. You can get plane faster speeds if you connect your computer or elate to the meshwork pleat with an Ethernet cable, plane if you are a few rooms elsewhere from zone the internet connective comes into your home, an ideal book-learning if your home isn't zippy up for networking, such as mine.

With a desktop computer hardwired into one of the subordinate Pro 6 nodes (which then uses a Wi-Fi connective to link to the mall router a floor above), I was coextensive to get download speeds atop 400Mbps and sometimes up to 500Mbps, or proximate half of my misogamist bandwidth. That's a justifiable 100 to 200Mbps faster than I about saw from the Eero Pro 5 system, except still makes a lot of my bandwidth inaccessible. Again, upload speeds were much stronger, except back you're downloading a massive AAA game and neutral appetite to get playing, fast upload speeds are a smallish consolation.

The Linksys Velop MX4200, which has agnate specs to the Eero Pro, performed proximate identically, with speeds capping out at neutral over 300Mbps and most subside equipment not pulling increasingly than 200Mbps down. That's not unbearable of a diversion for me to recommend spending $500 or $600 to upholding from a Wi-Fi 5-based meshwork template if you already have one.

The Arris' increasingly compounded antenna bargain-counter did provide a significant velocity crash-land over Wi-Fi 5 systems and both the Eero Pro 6 and Linksys units. My mobile equipment were continually coextensive to enact connective speeds over 400Mbps, while hardwiring into the remote pleat statutory me to see primed gigabit downloads.

Though the Eero disappointed me on all-fired speeds, it regnant very reliable, with recrementitious stability throughout my weeks of testing. It hops equipment from one pleat to arriver well as I move haphazardly the house, and it's coextensive to handle the materialness of remote alive and schooling that generally includes multiplied circumstantial video calls without dropping drung or choking. 4K video streams are possible anywhere in my home, and I never had to worry proximate what my kids were fulfilling on the pattern if I needed to make a elucidative video chirp or upload a latitudinous file for work. It conquered the Arris in this respect, which generally needed to be rebooted to get its meshwork pleat to reconnect to the mall router and had turmoil roaming equipment from one pleat to the over-and-above as I moved through the house.

But I was coextensive to get that aforementioned kind of solidness with the older Wi-Fi 5 template and the aforementioned internet service, therefrom you don't need to buy an Eero Pro 6 setup to experience it.

My test results are far from scientific. I'm testing in a singled-out home with a singled-out sketch and using internet connective speeds averaged transatlantic a variety of velocity test services as a metric, which pattern administrators would turnover their nose up at. Except while some folks nimbleness be increasingly edgy with how fast they can shuffle files haphazardly their home network, the all-inclusive majority of people neutral appetite to have a fast connective to the internet no matter zone they are in their home. It's why you're productive for a gigabit internet connective to embolden with. Tintinnabulate Ngo's testing over at DongKnows shows that in file transfer scenarios, the Eero Pro 6 sits proximate middle of the pack, supposing its top-shelf pricing. Numerous user reports on Reddit moreover denounce proximate unpresuming to no internet velocity increases over Wi-Fi 5-based systems.

During my test period, the Eero Pro 6 template recognized a handful of software updates (which are delivered automatically; there's no way to force an update), including a contempo update to version 6.1. Some users have revealed one-dimensional velocity increases with the 6.1 update, except hind redoing a number of tests, the speeds on my pattern have remained consequent with eldest software versions, with the most one-dimensional comeback seen back I am hardwired into a meshwork node.

*Compared to over-and-above tri-band Wi-Fi 6 systems, the Eero Pro 6 is much subside and increasingly discreet.*

Eero Pro 6 design

Something that the Eero Pro 6 has over all of its Wi-Fi 6 competition is aesthetics. The Eero Pro 6 pleat is therefrom much subside than any over-and-above tri-band system, which makes it easier to place in your home and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb if you do gotta pension it in a mercurial area. It's a little larger than the old Eero Pro and completely not as discreet as the Eero Beacon, except it's tiny compared to the high-end Wi-Fi 6 routers from Netgear, Linksys, and Arris.

Another humaneness that sets Eero divorced from most of the over-and-above Wi-Fi 6 meshwork systems is you can mix and match the new Wi-Fi 6 units with older Wi-Fi 5 nodes. If you already own an Eero template and don't appetite to wholly seesaw every unit, buying one or two nodes and integrating them into your explicit pattern could be an pretty option, though you will only get the perks of Wi-Fi 6 back you're livelong to one of the new nodes, which you can't continually predict or await on.

You give up some things, though. Neutral like the older Eero Pro, the Pro 6 has neutral two Ethernet ports on the back, one of which will be occupied by the cablevision coming from your modem. If you have any number of equipment that you plan to hardwire into the router, you'll doubtless need to get a multiport switch. There is no way to hook up a storage drive immediately to the Pro 6, either, as its lonely USB-C port is used for its power adapter.

There's neutral one LED moonlit on the latitudinarian of the Eero. It glows self-gratifying during setup, is unaffectedly a static white back everything is alive as it should, and glows red back there isn't an internet connection. For any increasingly detail than that, you'll gotta go to the Eero app.

*There are neutral two Ethernet ports on festival Eero Pro 6 node. Over-and-above routers offer up to four on each.*

*The lonely beheld indicator on the Pro 6 is unaffectedly a singled-out LED that changes colors based on pattern status.*

The Eero Pro 6 is rated as an AX4200 system, which is an birdbrained way of descriptive what its peak networking speeds are. That appraisement puts it in the middle of the pack of tri-band Wi-Fi 6 meshwork systems: it's the aforementioned as Linksys' $499 Velop MX4200 except lower than the AX6600 and AX11000 systems from Netgear and Arris.

As this is unaffectedly a tri-band system, the Eero Pro 6 supports three Wi-Fi bands: the swinging 2.4GHz and 5GHz ones most Wi-Fi routers offer, plus arriver 5GHz begird to relent the nodes to send dossier back-up and withal without competitive with your device traffic. Unlike over-and-above systems, which unsubstantial device truckage and meshwork pleat truckage inserted the two 5GHz bands, Eero's template will neutral use whatever lane it determines is the most efficient, therefrom it doesn't have a "dedicated backhaul" begird that others advertise. In theory, the two 5GHz bands should provide unbearable bandwidth for gigabit speeds to your devices, though one of them has half as plentiful antennas as the other, which does have an appulse on throughput. That's why Eero's AX4200 appraisement is lower than others, which offer increasingly antennas.

In conkerbill to its Wi-Fi radios, the Eero Pro 6 has Thread and Zigbee smart home radio support, therefrom you can use it as a hub for smart home devices, which are then managed through the Alexa app.

Eero Pro 6 app and setup

Setting up the Eero Pro 6 is neutral as exhaustible and unabashedly as the company's prior models. You download the app to your phone, plug in the first node, and follow the prompts. The app walks you through count the affixed nodes, creating your pattern and password, and axis on manifestation such as a guest pattern or Eero's subscription-based aegis and patriarchal dominance features.

Agree to Continue: Eero Pro 6

Every smart device now requires you to equiponderate to a series of try-on and highland surpassing you can use it -- dowry that no one categorically reads. It's impracticable for us to roust and colander every singled-out one of these agreements. Except we started counting explicitly how plentiful times you gotta hit "agree" to use equipment back we scrutiny them since these are agreements most people don't roust and doubtless can't negotiate.

Eero is now wholly endemic by Cutie and no maxi independent. The congregation says it has not reverted its privateness procedure since the flavoring and it will not be collecting increasingly dossier or sharing the dossier it does compiled to improve performance, security, and solidness with over-and-above parts of Amazon.

Setting up the Eero Pro 6 template requires the use of the company's mobile app. To use the app, you must embody an Eero anaesthesia and equiponderate to:

Eero's Terms of Service
Eero's Privacy Policy

If you pull to subscribe to Eero's Very unscratched service, you moreover need to equiponderate to a unsubstantial privateness procedure for that.

Linking Eero to Cutie Alexa for smart home manifestation and over-and-above settings moreover requires an Cutie anaesthesia and like-minded to the Alexa privateness policy.

Final tally: two rickrack agreements and up to two optional agreements.

Unfortunately, the app is the only way to preside the network. Eero doesn't offer any web interface at all, and using the app requires you to embody an Eero anaesthesia and have an awake internet connective on your phone surpassing you set up the network. This is condign a popular trend inserted meshwork systems -- both Arris and Google's systems work the aforementioned way -- except Eero was arguably the first to popularize an app-only experience.

The Eero app is moreover surprisingly limited, hostilely for a high-end template that's outwardly designed for power users. It offers very few pattern management controls, lacks things like Go-getter DNS, and doesn't let you unsubstantial out the 2.4GHz pattern from the 5GHz one for greater transparency. It displays a marveling of all of my livelong devices, except it does a poor job of automatically illuminating them, therefrom I had to go in and manually materialness out which one was which through its IP confront surpassing I could appertain patriarchal controls or over-and-above filters to it. (Eero is not banished in this issue, every over-and-above router management app I've used struggles with it as well.)

Most of these limitations are exhaustible to ignore on entry-level meshwork systems zone the mall thing that meetings is reliable coverage. And Eero would peach bicker that its algorithms are increasingly constructive at managing pattern materialness than the mainstream stuff futzing with settings. Most people neutral appetite to turnover the thing on and have it work. Except on a $600 template that's advertised for gigabit home internet sketch and has "Pro" in its name, the hands-off mastering is gripping and outlawed how much dominance over your own pattern you have. As it is, Eero offers the existent aforementioned app experience whether you pay $100 for an entry-level pleat or the full $600 for the top-tier system. It could do well to add increasingly pro manifestation to its "Pro" router.

The Eero Pro 6 does not support Conurbation HomeKit, plane though Eero's older models do. I asked Eero, and the congregation said it is alive with Conurbation to get it certified for HomeKit, except there isn't a specific self-flagellation stage for it. Arriver option not yet misogamist on the Eero Pro 6 is the toggle for "optimizing for briefing and gaming" in the Labs section of the app's settings. This is the closest thing Eero offers to sensibility of sketch management and is designed to punctuate equipment that are currently on video calls or playing games. The congregation says it is alive on count it to the Eero Pro 6 in future updates.

Like its over-and-above routers, Eero offers some subscription-based services on the Eero Pro 6. These lend ad filtering, malware protection, content filters, and inclusion to paid apps such as Encrypt.me and 1Password. The apple-polishing Eero Very unscratched plan financing $29.99 per year and includes everything except the paid apps; the Very unscratched Plus plan runs $99 per year and adds those apps in.

I'm insecure to recommend productive for either of these services, as competitive routers offer content clarification and patriarchal controls for free, both of which are table stakes features. The over-and-above botheration is Eero is not transparent at all proximate what the threat blocks and aegis manifestation are categorically doing. It neutral shows you a salute of blocks it made on specific equipment except doesn't say anything proximate what they were or what derivate the threats. The ad clarification is moreover less constructive than content blockers on your browser in my experience.

*Eero's subscription pulling offer aegis manifestation except provide little intercommunication as to what they are categorically doing.*

The only way the subscription makes sense is if you were planning to pay for 1Password and Encrypt.me anyway, as the cavalcade is less big-ticket than departing them out separately.

Lastly, it's important to schedule that Eero is wholly endemic by Cutie and that using its routers requires an Eero account. You can remoter link an Cutie anaesthesia to your Eero anaesthesia to make use of Amazon's Simple Setup manifestation and the inborn Zigbee smart home hub. Eero outlines the dossier it collects in its privateness policy, and, well, it's a lot.

*The Eero Pro 6 is unaffectedly a little larger and taller than the Pro 5 template it replaces.*

Thanks to rapid-fire pelf over the practiced few years, meshwork routers have schooled levels of maturity and opportuneness that were unthinkable neutral a short time ago. (Eero's first model, which arguably indigent the embouchement unclosed on meshwork Wi-Fi routers, came out in 2016.) That means if a congregation is going to incrimination a significant span for a router and merits that it's ideal for gigabit drung and "pro" uses (whatever that means), it has to reservedly prove that worth with performance.

Unfortunately, based on my experience, the Eero Pro 6 doesn't hobnob the personation I'd foresee at this span tier. It's sorely faster than the prior generation, except not nearly unbearable to make an upholding worthwhile. And it's not therefrom much preferably or faster than the less big-ticket meshwork router options currently available, plane ones made by Eero itself. That's not a huge surprise, as Eero's older systems were never the fastest in the field, except I was hoping for a preferably jump in personation with the Pro 6 than I've seen therefrom far, hostilely given the span increase.

Eero isn't banished here. My tests showed Linksys Velop MX4200 doesn't handbag its weight either. And plane with the routers that do provide faster speeds, you compromise things like aesthetics, reliability, and manifestation (not to mention overtrusting to pay plane more). The Arris router brought the personation increases I'm attractive for, except it's bigger, uglier, needs increasingly maintenance, and financing more. Wi-Fi 6 routers are still a new thing, only coming to market in the practiced year, and it seems like they have a means to go surpassing they are demonstrably preferably than their Wi-Fi 5 predecessors in everyday use cases (aka alfresco of a controlled lab).

If you're cerebration of making an irruption and can wait, my sponsorship would be to do neutral that. Wi-Fi 6E, which is the next step in the Wi-Fi technology chain, is granted to mastering in the primed future and hobnob increasingly significant velocity and details increases. None of today's routers (or devices) support it yet. Except if you are in need of a meshwork router seize now, you nimbleness appetite to attending at options over-and-above than the Eero Pro 6.

Photography by Dan Seifert / The Verge