Eero Home WiFi System 2 review: Super easy to install, but expensive

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The second-generation Eero Home WiFi System is even simpler to arrange than the primary, thanks to wi-fi entry factors known as Beacons that plug straight into AC retailers. It’s additionally extra highly effective, thanks to a brand new Qualcomm mesh Wi-Fi router chipset and a tri-band Wi-Fi radio. Eero says the $399 package reviewed right here is appropriate for a three- to four-bedroom dwelling, and I agree. The router delivered triple-digit throughput in each room of my 2800-square-foot dwelling—greater than sufficient bandwidth to assist a number of HD video streams concurrently.

A mid-range performer

But while you take a look at the benchmark charts beneath, you’ll see that whereas the brand new Eero (I’ll name it Eero 2 from right here) is far sooner than the first-generation product, it was the quickest mesh router within the area of eight that I’ve examined to date in solely one location in my dwelling, and that was with a MacEbook Pro because the shopper. Interestingly, that location was my dwelling theater, a spot that the majority wi-fi units have problem penetrating due to the thickness of its partitions and ceiling and the presence of acoustic caulk sandwiched between its a number of layers of drywall.

When the shopper was an HP Envy working Windows 10, the Eero 2 took second place within the dwelling theater. Most in all places else, the Eero 2 completed in the course of the pack. The Eero 2 was sooner than the unique product in each location—with each a Windows and a Mac laptop computer shopper—besides one: the bed room, the place the shoppers are in the identical room because the router and separated by 9 toes of air.

Michael Brown/IDG

Path lighting? In an entry level?

Eero’s Beacon—which, by the way, is backward-compatible with the first-generation Eero router—isn’t a brand new idea. We first noticed it with Ubiquiti Labs’ Amplifi HD, and Netgear has a brand new Orbi mannequin with a plug-in satellite tv for pc, too (I’ve one in my evaluation queue now). Eero’s is by far the smallest and probably the most engaging, and it has a novel and really considerate function: an built-in LED nightlight.

An ambient mild sensor on the Beacon will robotically flip the nightlight on when it’s darkish, and the sunshine’s depth will scale with the room’s mild. You can use the Eero app to program it to flip and off at designated instances. You can dial the time in exactly sufficient, but the schedule would be the identical for day by day of the week, there’s no lodging for daylight financial savings time, and you’ll’t set it to come on at nightfall and off at daybreak. It’s a cool and considerate function, and it’ll encourage you to place the Beacons…