We crafted our testing pool based on current Wi-Fi standards, top-rated mesh routers and our own expertise with products on the market. Priced at $129.99 for one or $279 for a three-pack, it’s an investment but one that will last for several years, thanks to the latest standards being supported inside. Opting for Secure+ gives you a 1Password Family license, an Encrypt.Me VPN subscription and a MalwareBytes account.Īll in all, the Eero 6, with its foolproof setup process, nearly unrivaled speeds and coverage areas, is your best bet when opting for a mesh router. Notably, this unlocks parental controls, allowing you to block specific sites or a category of content on the web while also protecting against network threats and ad blockers. Through the Eero app, you can opt for Secure or Secure+ (monthly plans priced at $2.99 and $9.99, respectively). When you want to add a Zigbee wall plug to your home, for instance, you don’t need to buy a hub or open up another app.
With a Zigbee antenna inside - a connection standard for smart home devices like smart plugs, cams and sensors - the Eero 6 can also act as your home’s smart home hub, with easy integration with Alexa and Echo devices.
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Since Eero is owned by Amazon, you can turn on Amazon Connected Home features, which allow for easy setup of devices like Echo smart speakers or displays, Fire TV streamers and Kindles. With this standard appearing on more and more devices, you’re future-proofed by opting for the Eero 6. Upload speeds also averaged about 200 Mbps to 250 Mbps, which meant no slowdowns when sending emails, uploading files or posting on Instagram.ĭevices with a Wi-Fi 6 antenna inside - iPhone 12 and Galaxy S21 phones - consistently clocked in higher in terms of speed.
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Our download speeds averaged to around 200 Mbps, which you’ll notice when streaming content as buffering becomes a thing of the past even for 4K resolution videos. In our testing, the Eero 6’s speeds were topped only by much more expensive models, and even so, those differences were negligible.
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It’s not by any means a slouch, but if you’re paying for faster speeds from your service provider, it makes sense to jump to the Eero Pro 6, which can handle a full gigabit even with multiple nodes. The main Eero 6 router supports speeds up to 900 Mbps (megabits per second the higher the number, the faster the speeds), but when used with the extenders, the maximum speed is about 500 Mbps. If you opt to turn on “Band Steering” in the Eero app, the mesh system can perform a bit of traffic control, monitoring your connected devices and intelligently switching them between the bands. Essentially, dual-band coverage can be considered in terms of a highway: Instead of all your devices sitting in traffic on a single-lane highway leading to slowdowns, dual-band expands the highway to two lanes, allowing for devices to switch between the two depending on which lane is moving faster. It was the only setup, for instance, that expanded coverage in the home past the walls in which we placed it, giving us Wi-Fi in the garage, backyard and front yard. Whether it was in a 1,050-square-foot apartment or a three-story, 2,000-square-foot home, the Eero outperformed the other mesh routers in our pool. While the main router alone has enough juice to cover 1,500 square feet, pairing it with the two extenders covers a radius of 5,000 square feet. With more than 100 devices on the network (from smart bulbs to TVs, laptops to connected appliances), the Eero 6 never once so much as sputtered during our testing, nor did we notice the smallest of dead spots. We caught up on our favorite content, including “ WandaVision,” reruns of “The Office,” “ The Mandalorian” and “Below Deck.” We gamed until our hands strained. We sent messages and took calls (both audio and video) from a variety of devices. Once we had the Eero set up (we tested the three-pack Eero, which includes the main router and two nodes, also called extenders), we went about our daily lives. After you find a spot and plug in a node, the Eero app will score your placement, giving you data and helping you decide if you need to find another spot, truly making it simple for anyone to expand their Wi-Fi coverage. Once that’s done, the app is along for the ride while placing the individual nodes (you can opt for two extenders or two routers). Throughout the process, the app (available for Apple and Android) provides helpful prompts to ensure you have all needed materials, and a support page even features photos to guide you through setting up the main router. No sludging your way through obscure acronyms here.
Of all the mesh routers we tested, the Eero 6 was the simplest to set up, as the Eero app’s guidance is unfettered by tech jargon. It blankets wide spaces with unfaltering coverage and pairs with a helpful companion app, and its straightforward setup make it a great choice even for a tech-challenged user.
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