Eero first popularized the approach in 2016, and Amazon bought the company earlier this year.
A few months later, it released a new version of its three-part Wi-Fi system for $249, half the price of the old Eero Pro system.
The Eero also performed well in our battery of tests. It doesn’t support next-generation Wi-Fi 6 speeds (and doesn’t offer the fastest top rates by today’s Wi-Fi 5 standards), but it’s certainly fast enough to get the most out of it.
More importantly, Eero’s algorithm for directing users from satellite to satellite as they move around the house has been one of the most stable we have tested.
The Eero works like any other wireless network system but uses a 3-band network that transmits the signal from the beacon’s router.
This allows the device to use the full 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bandwidth, thus improving connected devices’ performance.
Price and Availability
The Eero Home wifi device remains one of the more expensive wireless networking options priced at $399 (approx. 300 GBP, 534 AUD) for the Eero router and two beacons in one package. This configuration will cover up to 3000 square meters of space in the house.
The Eero system seems to fit very well between these two options, offering a three-band network with the same number of units as Google wifi, a broader bandwidth of 2.4 GHz, and 5 GHz to a lesser extent. 1,500 square meters.
Netgear Orbi, on the other hand, has fewer connection points at the base price but would cover more areas with a similar network with three bands.
Design and Installation
If you’re familiar with Wi-Fi networking systems, the Eero design will not be new to you. The router base unit resembles a shiny white plastic disc with two Ethernet ports on the back.
The two satellite units, or “Beacons,” plug directly into their outlets, like giant Glade accessories.
These white stickers have nightlight options that can be used in the Eero app settings, which is a welcome touch from some competitors where applicable.
This design reduces the system’s versatility because only one unit can be a router, and no beacon can share wired internet with nearby devices like Google wifi.
However, the trade-off is the hardware that disappears more easily around the house than anything we’ve tried.
Setup is as easy as any other wifi network system, using the free Eero app for Android and iOS phones.
You can install the device, update its firmware, give it a name and password, and be good to go.
Adding a beacon is very easy, and you can add more than the frame includes in case you need to expand the network later.
The app offers exact control over the network and its devices, including a built-in speed test and guest user commands.
You can also create Family Profiles to install parental controls and subscribe to the Eero Plus Extended Security Service for $9.99 (approx. 7.54 GBP, 13.38 AUD) monthly.
This service provides enterprise-level network security, using artificial intelligence to detect threats based on current browsing habits and traffic sources.
Subscriptions to Encrypt.me VPN, 1Password, and Malwarebytes are also included in the service.
Part of the Eero Labs app allows users to activate features still being tested, such as the control band, which attracts devices that can enter the 5 GHz band more often, depending on their history.
Overall, Eero is the most flexible and adaptable Wi-Fi system we’ve seen so far. It is highly recommended if you want complete control over your network without any issues.
Performance
The Eero system performed very well in our testing, showing very little signal strength attenuated by standard plastered walls.
These numbers also show that the system is slightly more powerful than the Google Wi-Fi socket, which cannot support walls.
Like the Netgear Orbi, the Eero device further alleviates these failures with two Beacon units connected through a third band that transmits data at 5.8 GHz.
This is done separately from the usual 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands that other devices are connected to, freeing up bandwidth for various devices or data-related tasks.
Any network-compatible Wi-Fi system is easy to set up, and Eero is no different. You download the mobile app, open an account, and click start.
Select the appropriate Eero model from the list, click start, follow the app’s instructions to disconnect the modem, connect the Eero node to the included LAN cable, and turn on the modem and node.
At a distance of 9 meters, the Eero speed of 199 Mbps could not keep up with Nokia or TP-Link systems. This time, Google’s router took top honors with 291 Mbps.
As for the Eero satellite node, the last proximity test resulted in 210 Mbps.
The Google Nest node processed 251 Mbps, the Nokia Beacon node processed 1240 Mbps, and the TP-Link Deco M9 Plus node surprised everyone with a result of 410 Mbps.
The products were similar in the 30-foot test: the Eero node recorded a speed of 167 Mbps, behind the Google node at 23 Mbps, and the Nokia node at 28 Mbps. The TP-Link node was twice as fast as 330 Mbps.
