Eero Pro 6E mesh Wi-Fi evaluation: More household sedan than cars

At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Stable Wi-Fi
• Fastest Eero yet
• Very easy to use
• Small size and inoffensive style
• Eero Secure and Secure+ are a fantastic worth
• 2.5 GbE ethernet suggests much faster wired web
• Surprisingly great video gaming efficiency

Cons

• Somewhat restricted setup choices
• Only one 2.5 GbE ethernet port per gadget and sub-gigabit Wi-Fi speed
• Somewhat costly
• HomeKit Secure Router assistance might have lastly gotten the ax

Our Verdict

The Eero Pro 6E three-pack is an outstanding mesh system that continues to be reputable and simple to utilize. It might not stay up to date with the huge pets in throughput, however it’s still capable and provides much better worth in general than the status mesh systems provided by other business.

Best Prices Today: Eero Pro 6E

This year’s Computer Electronic Show (CES) reoccured, leaving a flurry of amazing statements about the most recent Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6 network equipment. Fit together systems like Netgear’s powerful-yet-too-expensive Orbi 6E system and TP-Link’s XE200 were revealed as a throughput arms race continues to bloom, yet there was no statement from Eero. This makes good sense– after all, didn’t the business simply launch the Eero Pro 6 and Eero 6 routers? Here we are, with Eero having actually revealed its next upgrade to its mesh routers all at when on March23 This consisted of the Eero Pro 6E and the Eero 6+.

Although seemingly the huge news here was that Eero lastly has hardware supporting the 6GHz band, I would argue that the more crucial upgrade to these systems is 160 MHz assistance. This is the ways by which cordless speeds can approach or exceed gigabit. I got an opportunity to invest a long time with the Eero Pro 6E three-pack, and have actually been running it as my main mesh system for the last 2 weeks. From where I sit, this package continues to offer the type of typically problem-free network experience Eero is understood for, however purchasers ought to temper their expectations concerning efficiency, while likewise keeping in mind one really essential omission: HomeKit Secure Router assistance (more on that later).

Eero Pro 6E: What you get

Wes Davis/ Foundry

My experience with Eero’s previous Wi-Fi 6 effort is indirect– I examined the Ring Alarm Pro for sis publication TechHive, which includes an Eero 6, however I have not in fact seen an Eero Pro 6 face to face. I was amazed, then, when I opened package for the Eero Pro 6E, which utilizes the exact same physical style as the Pro 6, to discover that the hardware is a reasonable quantity beefier than the low-profile Eero Pro that I’ve been utilizing for many years now in my network. Still, compared to the leviathans that other business have actually been launching, the Eero Pro 6E is a compact, simple router.

Wes Davis/ Foundry

Visually, as a tribute to its name Eero Saarinen’s architectural design, it’s a little more controlled, and stays among the more inoffensive-looking, friendly routers on the marketplace today. Separating an otherwise smooth, featureless exterior is a single toggle-able status LED, an Eero logo design, and 2 ethernet ports on the back flanking a USB-C power input. There is one tricky, significant upgrade here though: One of the 2 ethernet ports– either of which can function as the WAN port, by the method– is a 2.5 Gbps port, which is a very first for Eero’s hardware. You ‘d be forgiven for missing it, as it’s identified with the smallest letters. If you didn’t check out anything about it entering, you ‘d never ever understand it existed, not least since Eero resembles the 1995 Toyota Camry I utilized to drive– it will dependably get you where you’re going, however it’s not going to break any records doing it.

The Eero Pro 6E is once again a tri-band router, however where the previous Eero Pro designs included a 2nd, higher-bandwidth 4 × 4 MU-MIMO 5GHz band, the 6E includes a 2.5 GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz band, all of which are 2 × 2 MU-MIMO. It’s powered by a leaner 1GHz CPU, too, instead of the 1.4 GHz CPU of the Eero Pro 6 prior to it. The Pro 6E still works as a Zigbee center and, naturally, deals with Alexa.

Eero Pro 6E: Performance

If you’re entering into the Eero Pro 6E anticipating to have actually the doors blown off, you’ll be sorely dissatisfied. That’s not to state it’s canine sluggish– vice versa– however when you compare it to the incredible throughput provided by the Orbi 6E system, it looks sort of shoddy by contrast. That’s just if you’re looking at criteria best next to the router. Like a sleeper vehicle, what it does finest isn’t right away obvious till you look much deeper.

I evaluated the Eero Pro 6E with 3 main tools: a MacBook Air that was hardwired to the Eero Pro 6E through a Plugable 2.5 GbE USB-C ethernet adapter, a 2019 Lenovo Yoga with an AX201 card efficient in 160 MHz channel bandwidth Wi-Fi 6 connections, and a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra that can manage Wi-Fi 6E with 160 MHz channel bandwidth. Instead of carry out internet speed tests, I benchmark with TCP transfer tests utilizing the network screening software application iPerf 3, which imitates file transfers and reports throughput, and informs far more about the efficiency of the network than a basic download test. Since of that, I merely do not trouble with web speed tests at all. I carry out a transfer test 6 times, then I balance the throughput for each evaluated place.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Wi-Fi 6E efficiency was fine up close, with the Eero doing a little even worse than the Linksys Atlas Max 6E at less than 5 feet away, with a direct line of vision. That number dropped off rapidly when I moved away, handling “just” 639 Mbps average, compared to 889 Mbps on the Linksys and 1.22 Gbps on the Netgear Orbi 6E. The story does not enhance for Eero on the 6GHz band, with the signal not rather reaching in a minimum of one area where there was considerable physical disturbance– this should not be a surprise to anybody, as Wi-Fi 6E is by its nature more range-limited and can’t press through significant barriers in addition to even a 5GHz signal. The Netgear and Linksys routers had the ability to strike this location, albeit with enormously lowered throughput.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Things improve with Wi-Fi 6 on the 5GHz band– the Eero Pro 6E system isn’t as quick as the other 2 systems I utilize for contrast here, however it nonetheless stayed constant, with speed keeping within an approximately 100 Mbps vary all over it was checked.

Brad Chacos/IDG

On the Wi-Fi 5 procedure, where many people’ gadgets still live, throughput on the Eero Pro 6E remained in the exact same ballpark as the more pricey systems from Linksys and Netgear– and while it tended to be more than 50 Mbps slower, the $699 mesh system costs hundreds less than those routers.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

It specifically shined on the 2.4 GHz band, where it was neck-and-neck with the Linksys Atlas Max 6E when utilizing both Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 4 (2.4 GHz gadgets do not normally support the Wi-Fi 5 procedure) requirements, and conveniently outshined the Netgear Orbi 6E system.

In cordless video gaming sessions, where I played Counter Strike: Global Offensive and watched on latency, taking a number of screenshots at random periods and balancing the ping– the greatest typical ping I saw was 38 ms, while playing wirelessly in my basement (the peak measurement was 58 ms, with a low of 25 ms). That’s not to state the experience was perfect, however it was as close as it gets without wires on a non-gaming router– or truly, even for a lot of video gaming routers.

What does this mean in useful terms? It suggests in the daily, the Eero Pro 6E mesh system is a steady mesh system that costs a bit over half what the Linksys system charges for efficiency that, for the majority of people, will equal, or maybe even much better, than what Linksys’s system uses. Exceptional 2.4 GHz efficiency and low intra-network latency indicates that when your wise house equipment reveals bad reaction times, it’s less most likely to be the network’s fault (however far more enters into this than simply low latency). In my own experience, with a mostly-HomeKit-based clever house system, I saw exceptional efficiency, even with the most problematic tools in my network.

Eero Pro 6E: So long, HomeKit?

The Eero Pro 6E function set is the same from previous Eero systems, however for one essential omission: There is no existing strategy to support Apple HomeKit. When the Eero 6 upgrade taken place in early 2021, those routers were similarly launched without HomeKit assistance, with the business informing customers and consumers alike they were merely waiting for Apple’s accreditation to continue with assistance. That might be the case once again here, however tellingly, Eero’s site clearly specifies not just that there are no strategies to support the function, however that the business feels it finest to focus engineering efforts on speed and efficiency. Eero hesitated to elaborate on this when asked, which does not bode well for fans of Apple’s HomeKit Secure Router function.

Eero Pro 6E: Other functions

Otherwise, like previous Eero systems, users will discover in the Eero app what is most likely the most properly designed and instinctive router user interface on the marketplace today, with some innovative setup possible for port forward guidelines, UPnP toggling, and the choice to utilize a custom-made main and secondary DNS, ought to you choose to point your network at Google or Cloudflare, instead of Eero’s favored DNS– although this comes at the expenditure of Eero Secure and Secure+ functions. It’s robust for a router mobile phone app, hauling a good middle line in between being so technical it may repel more beginner users and being so fundamental that it uses no genuine control. Eero still uses no web user interface for routine consumers, and anybody searching for fine-grained control of things like transmission power or toggles for innovative functions like OFDMA will require to look in other places. Previous Eero routers provided no capability to divide SSIDs in between the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands, which stays as real as ever with the brand-new 6GHz variation– you’ll need to depend on the settlement in between your gadget and the Eero router selecting the appropriate connection type. As previously, Eero uses WPA3 security– the brand-new security procedure that, in a nutshell, guarantees to repair bad passwords by basically never ever in fact exchanging those passwords throughout authentication handshakes.

Wes Davis/ Foundry

Eero’s security and adult controls suite– the previously mentioned Eero Secure– is, obviously, readily available here. For $30 a year, Eero supplies network advertisement- and malware-blocking, together with the capability to see which gadgets utilized just how much information over the previous day, week, and month. Eero likewise offers adult controls in the kind of fundamental profile-based material filters. Users can select pre-made web and app filters for numerous age and leave it at that, or they can enhance these settings by going to the Block & & Allow Sites area to personalize filtering to their preference. Anybody who wishes to go even more might register for the $100/ year Secure+, which uses all of that, along with malware security from Malwarebytes for approximately 3 gadgets, Encrypt.me VPN service for 5 gadgets, and access to the 1password household strategy. In general, the strategies feel worth it, if you like these sort of services– users must keep in mind, nevertheless, that Encrypt.me takes part in logging users’ info, and the business is open about not using personal privacy to users who intend to utilize its service to circumnavigate copyright violation laws. It does not appear like any of what the business is doing is especially disconcerting, however prospective users will wish to know Encrypt.me’s policies prior to diving in.

Wes Davis/ Foundry

Eero Pro 6E: Final ideas

Eero’s most recent mesh routers are every bit the reputable network equipment they ever were. The addition of just one 2.5 Gbps port is an exhausted mistake that numerous router business make, considered that users will not likely see that speed, either wirelessly or wired, at their customer gadgets. For anybody currently utilizing an Eero Pro 6 system, the advantage gave by a 160 MHz connection might not deserve the additional expense, especially if any of their customer gadgets support 4 × 4 MIMO, which is used by the Eero Pro 6, however not the Eero Pro 6E.

At the end of the day, nevertheless, the Eero Pro 6E’s strengths remain in its capability to seem like it does not exist. Frequently, when I’m examining a router, I discover myself continuously futzing with it for a minimum of a couple of days while I settle kinks, however this system worked without concern for the whole time I had it. To be reasonable, I did change my existing Eero network with these gadgets– a really uncomplicated procedure, for the record– so my system setup was maintained. However, video and music streaming, online video games, and my wise house gadgets worked completely, or a minimum of, as completely as they ever do. It was a clear enhancement over my aging Wi-Fi 5-based Eero system in regards to responsiveness over the regional network, however I sense it’s not an enormous leap over the Eero Pro 6, if at all (once again, I have actually not evaluated the Eero Pro 6).

The Eero Pro 6E three-pack is an outstanding mesh system that continues to be reputable and simple to utilize. It might not stay up to date with the huge pets in throughput, however it’s a lot more affordable, which integrated with hassle-free everyday usage makes it a much better worth than the eminence mesh systems provided by other business. At $699, would I run out and purchase one right now? Obviously not. I wager if I did, I would not regret it.