Eero 6 mesh Wi-Fi 6 system review (2022)

When it comes to treating yourself to a shiny new gadget, there are probably quite a number of gadgets around the house you’d look to upgrade before the humble Wi-Fi router. A new smartphone with a fancy new camera, perhaps? Maybe a Sony PS5? Or what about a new addition to your growing smart home?

We wouldn’t begrudge anyone for picking any of these options, but the truth is, your money is probably much better spent taking a look at the nondescript plastic box in your cupboard.

If you’re paying each month for a half-decent internet connection, you don’t want to be let down by the Wi-Fi router that was sent by your broadband supplier when you started your contract two-and-a-bit years ago. With more and more internet-connected devices in your home and new threats from bad actors emerging every day, it pays to have a good router that is updated with the latest software on a regular basis. Not only that, but if you have updated your phone, tablet, laptop or console recently …you likely already have a number of Wi-Fi 6 enabled gadgets that you’re not using to their full potential. For example, the Wi-Fi router bundled by BT still doesn’t support Wi-Fi 6.

That’s where the Eero 6 comes in.

While it started life as an independent company, Amazon bought Eero back in February 2019. However, from the outside, you wouldn’t know it. Unlike Google, which added a hands-free smart speaker into every Wi-Fi boosting node in its rival mesh system with its latest hardware refresh, Eero isn’t trying to sneak Echo Dot speakers into your home.

Eero isn’t even controlled by the Alexa app. Instead, it has its own software on Android and iOS.

For those who are deeply invested in Amazon Echo-compatible smart home gadgets — don’t worry, there are some integrations between Eero and Alexa available if you dig deep enough. But for those who aren’t as keen to have Amazon services in their home, without reading the small print on the box, you wouldn’t know Eero was owned by Bezos and co.

So, what is Eero? In a nutshell, rather than having a single Wi-Fi router squirrelled away in the back of a cupboard managing the internet connection of every device in your home, Eero is a mesh network. That means you’ll have multiple smaller nodes dotted around the house.

Although it’ll still look like a single Wi-Fi network in the settings app on your phone, behind the scenes, these nodes will be shuffling devices around as you move about your house so that you’re always connected to the node closest to you for the strongest Wi-Fi signal. It also means devices will be distributed evenly across the network, so you can have more devices connected to the Wi-Fi without sacrificing reliability or speed. Each Eero 6 node can support 128 separate devices, so with a three-pack at home you’ll have no issues connecting a jaw-dropping 384 gadgets to your home Wi-Fi network.

Unlike the single Wi-Fi router laying on its side behind your telly or crammed into your cupboard under the stairs, the Eero 6 system should eliminate all connectivity blackholes around your home …yes, even in the spare bedroom or at the bottom of the garden.

As the name suggests, Eero 6 is compatible with Wi-Fi 6, which is the latest industry standard for wireless internet. It’s designed to bring faster speeds over Wi-Fi, higher performance, and better support across simultaneous devices. To take advantage of this new technology, you’ll need Wi-Fi 6 compatible devices.

Fortunately, manufacturers have been slowly adding the technology to their gadgets in recent years. Since the iPhone 11 series, launched in late 2019, Apple has supported Wi-Fi 6 on its smartphones, while Samsung was an early-adopter to the standard — supporting Wi-Fi 6 in its handsets since the launch of the Galaxy S10 back in March 2019.

In other words, if you’ve purchased a new smartphone or tablet within the last couple of years, chances are, it’s compatible with Wi-Fi 6.

If that’s the case, the only thing stopping you from taking advantage of this newer Wi-Fi standard is the router in your cupboard.

If you haven’t upgraded your phone in a while, Eero 6 will still be able to boost the signal around your home and better juggle dozens of devices, but the improvements afforded by Wi-Fi 6 will be dormant until you start upgrading your technology.

Setting up and managing the Eero 6 is handled using the companion app, which is available on both iOS and Android devices. The app has handy step-by-step instructions to add each node and place it around the house. The Eero app asks how many floors you have at home to help guide you when placing the network extenders for maximum coverage.

Compared with signing up for a new broadband contract, where a router arrives almost without explanation in the post… you’ll feel in good hands with the Eero app.

Eero says a bundle of three extenders will comfortably blanket a 5,000 square feet (420m²) home with Wi-Fi, with smaller homes needing fewer units than that. A single Eero 6 will blanket 1,500 square feet (140m²) with Wi-Fi, so apartment owners might be able to make do with one.

Although, if that’s the case, you won’t be taking advantage of the mesh part of this mesh system — you might still want to shell out on an Eero 6 to benefit from some of the smart features that you won’t get with your bog-standard router from your ISP.

And if you move to a new place in a few years time, you’ll have the flexibility to buy an extra node or two to begin expanding your Wi-Fi coverage.

Juggling your gadgets within the Eero app is a complete joy. The Eero app allows you to assign any of the gadgets connected to your Wi-Fi network to a profile – for a particular family member, for example. Then, Eero lets you schedule any downtime when they won’t be able to connect to the internet, so you can make sure dinner is always phone-free, or stop your children from being able to login to Instagram in the wee small hours without you knowing.

Renaming devices, adding them to new profiles, and connecting new Eero 6 nodes is a cinch. But if you can’t be bothered, don’t worry — the Eero app will automatically sort new devices into categories – so any connected doorbells, lightbulbs will be separate from your iPad and Pixel 4. A small icon will illustrate each connected gadget too. So, even if you haven’t spent an evening sorting devices between family members’ profiles, you should easily be able to find what you’re looking for in a few seconds.

A separate Activity tab within the app lets you track your network speeds over time. That’s particularly useful if you’ve been having trouble with your service and you need to send a screenshot to your Internet Service Provider to prove how patchy your speeds have been over the last few months. In our time with Eero, we didn’t run into any hiccups with the app, which was reassuring given that making any changes to your network relies on the software.

Eero updates in the background all of the time. Since installing Eero in our home, we’d often wake-up to a notification telling us that Eero had been updated during the small hours to improve stability across the Wi-Fi network, better juggling between Eero nodes so you’re always connected to the strongest signal, and protection against the latest threats and hacks.

Multiple updates have been installed in the last dozen weeks. In the years that we’ve had the free Wi-Fi router from our broadband provider, we haven’t heard about a single update to protect against the latest threats and malware.

Eero will also send a weekly report, with the latest statistics about your network speed, including fastest download and upload speeds recorded in the last seven days, the total amount of data downloaded over your network, and more. If you’re not on an unlimited plan — this could save you from a nasty surprise bill at the end of the month.

The optional Eero Secure subscription will protect all of the devices on your network from malware, phishing attacks, and more. Since it works on a network level, it will stop the threat before it reaches your smartphone, tablet or laptop. That makes it much more useful than anti-virus software, which needs to be installed on every single gadget in your household (if the anti-virus provider even has an app for most of your devices!) 

There are also options to block advertisements, filter searches — handy if you have younger family members at home, and the ability to block individual sites for certain users or devices. Content filtering is divvied into three categories: Illegal or Criminal, Violence, or Adult Content. Eero offers presets based on age groups – from Pre-School to Teenagers. Of course, all of these predefined categories can be customised. So, for example, if you’re comfortable with younger users accessing online gaming, you can remove that limitation while keeping the rest of the Pre-School restrictions.

Eero Secure+ is a more expensive subscription service that bundles other services, like the superb 1Password password manager, for a £9.99 per month or £99 per year plan. If you already pay for any of the third-party subscriptions bundled with Eero Secure+ then this is staggeringly good value.

That’s in contrast with Eero Secure, which feels quite expensive for the features bundled. Not only that, but some of Eero’s biggest rivals include many of the features locked behind the subscription plan – like historical download speed data, content filters for younger users – for free with a hardware purchase. 

A shiny new Wi-Fi router might not be the sexiest new gadget you could buy, but it’s probably the device you should buy next. Whether you’re working from home, making video calls with family members, or starting to buy smart home gadgets like video doorbells, Wi-Fi lightbulbs and smart speakers …Eero 6 will blanket your home with strong Wi-Fi signal. Eero can juggle hundreds of devices without a problem and prioritise important use-cases like video calls and online gaming, so you never lose connection at critical moments.