While working from home, all of last year and just getting fed up with
Wi-Fi dropouts and inconsistent speeds, I thought to myself, there had to be a better
Wi-Fi router router out there for me, and it turns out there was, and that's the eero Pro 6,
eero’s latest Wi-Fi 6, triband mesh router that with just one router can cover 2,000 square feet.
In this review I'll take you through what it's been like to use the eero Pro 6 over the past six
months, the top features, what I like and don't like about it, and if I recommend getting this
router system. First the setup process. Now, if you have any experience at all in setting
up a Wi-Fi router in the past, you've likely had at least one difficult router to set up.
And thankfully, the eero Pro 6 in my experience is not a difficult router to set up at all.
In fact, setup is one of the best features of this router system because it is dead simple.
You unbox the devices, download the app on iPhone or Android and plug in the routers.
And you're pretty much good to go. This was the fastest setup I've experienced on a Wi-Fi router
and I had no issues whatsoever and I’d feel confident giving this router system
to somebody who isn't as tech savvy and know that they'd be able to set it up without issue.
I have a main router and an additional one I use as a satellite to pump enough Wi-Fi signal
across the street to my garage. And one of the benefits of this router is you can mesh multiple
ones together and importantly, the eero pro 6 routers use triband technology, which reserves
a dedicated band just for communication between the mesh routers, which will improve the speeds
you get from the satellite routers, as well as the overall reliability of the system.
The routers themselves are pretty small as far as routers go, and they aren't nearly as tall
as something like a Netgear Orbi. And unlike the Orbi, unfortunately, the eero Pro 6 routers
only come with one additional wired ethernet port. Meaning, if you want to plug in a bunch
of stuff into it, through a wired connection, you're going to need to get an internet switch.
There's only one LED on the router that you can turn on or off and settings that will
tell you the status of your network, like, if it's down, or if everything is looking good,
When you first open the app, you'll notice that it's very bare bones and simple. You're
not bombarded with too much information, which in my opinion, is how it should be.
At the top, you'll see if you're connected to the internet or not
how many routers are in your system as well as their location. From there, you have
profiles. These allow you to assign specific devices on your network to a specific person
like your kids. For example, From there, it's very easy to pause the devices or schedule a pause.
For example, if you want to limit when you're kids are on Wi-Fi. Now if you want to block ads,
place a content filter or just block certain websites for a specific profile,
you actually can't do any of that unless you subscribe to eero subscriptions service,
which is called secure and that's really the first and only downside of encountered
with using this router system. Given how much the eero Pro 6 retails for,
eero should have included this feature, considering the Nest and Google Wi-Fi routers,
which are two of the top selling routers on the market, include some of these features for free.
Eero’s Secure subscription isn’t actually that much at 29.99 per year or $2.99 per month and
includes parental controls, active security measure that block malicious websites that have
malware, keeps devices on your network safe from phishing attacks, viruses,
and deceptive sites. Blocks malware attempts to access your network via smart home devices,
has ad blockers, content filtering, activity insights, and VIP support
Now if you want to pay more to Eero per month they also have a service called Secure
Plus, because...everything has to be a plus. With this subscription you get a bundle of
services related to internet usage like 1Password a password management service, encrypt.me which is
a VPN for when you’re home and away from home, and malwarebytes which is a service designed
to help keep your devices safe and clean from viruses and works on Mac, Windows, and Android.
Secure Plus includes everything in Eero Secure and costs $99 a year or $9.99 a month.
So that’s the subscription service offerings from Eero which to be fair
are similar to what you’ll see on Netgear’s Orbi Wifi 6 routers but eh I'm just not a
fan of limiting functionality to try to get people to sign up for a subscription service.
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All right, now, back to the app, the last part of the main home tab is the device list which
will automatically populate when you first set up your routers. One thing I really like about
this is you can click into a specific device, like my Tesla Model 3, as an extreme example of a Wi-Fi
connected device, I can see what router it's connected to, what gigahertz network it's using
to connect to my router, who makes the device, the security used, when it was last active on
my network, and the ability to block the device if I wanted to and best of all, you can change
the type of device. So you can categorize different devices into different categories,
which I really like and it makes it way easier to see and organize all of the devices on my network.
Plus it makes it easy to see if far away Wi-Fi devices like my car in the garage
are getting enough signal from the Wi-Fi mesh point. The next tab over is the activity tab
and this is useful for those who have data caps on their internet service,
which really should be outlawed, but anyways, this feature will give you an idea of how much
data you’re consuming per week. Unfortunately, eero has hid your history beyond just one week
behind their eero secure subscription paywall, which isn't really necessary.
Moving on, the discover tab lets you learn more about their subscription,
link to your Amazon account, add the routers to your Apple HomeKit app and access Eero labs which
let you try out beta features, and thankfully those don’t require the Eero subscription.
The settings tab in the Eero app is pretty simple, it holds your account information, wifi name and
password, ability to create a guest network, access basic network settings, including IPv6,
DNS, DDNS, UPnP, and DHCP & NAT settings, thread which is used for smart home devices,
and band steering which will help improve your wifi performance by encouraging devices
to connect to the best band available, plus the ability to reset and restart your network.
And that's the eero app and the eero subscription service paywall. Now,
let's talk about Wi-Fi performance. Now obviously Wi-Fi 6 is the main draw of this system besides
the triband mesh network functionality. Now why is Wi-Fi 6 important? Two reasons: you get
increased Wi-Fi speeds on Wi-Fi 6 compatible devices, which most modern computers tablets
and smartphones release this year now support, and even more importantly Wi-Fi, 6 networks can handle
many more devices on the network simultaneously. The Eero 6 Pro can handel 75+ devices connected
to the network simultaneously, which is very important if you have a lot of devices on your
network like smart home devices. All right now let's talk pricing,
long-term performance, and recommendations. The eero Pro 6 retails for $599 for a 3 pack
and $229 for a single router. This is by no means an inexpensive router,
but does compete closely in pricing to other routers in this class like the Netgear Orbi. Now
in terms of performance over the past six months, this Wi-Fi router system has worked flawlessly.
I've had no network performance issues or Wi-Fi dropouts and download speeds have been very fast
over Wi-Fi, especially to my Wi-Fi 6 devices. Now, do I recommend getting the eero Pro 6? Yes,
but with some reservations. If you're the type of person who doesn't need the latest Wi-Fi standard
router, you don't have that many Wi-Fi devices in your home, and all you're looking for is to cover
your entire home with good Wi-Fi signal. You don't need to spend this much to get an eero pro 6 to
get that level of functionality and features. You can get a system that costs much less and going
with something like the Google Wi-Fi routers, which we've reviewed and are much cheaper and
include features you'd have to pay for through a subscription on a router like the eero Pro 6.
However, if you want the latest mainstream Wi-Fi standard in a mesh router system that has stellar
performance, dead simple setup, and one you can pretty much just set and forget,
then I think that eero Pro 6 is a really great option for that scenario
and why when I was looking at routers six months ago, I purchased this system.
So that's the eero Pro 6. Now, if you have any questions at all about the router or want to
share your experience with eero products, make sure to leave a comment below. If you
like this video and found it helpful, make sure you hit that thumbs up button
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so make sure to check that out. For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching.