Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Most Revolutionary Home Wi-Fi Distribution Product I Have Ever Seen!
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2016
eero has been the most revolutionary product that I have had the opportunity to review over the years.
Due to the amount of raves I am going to put forward for this eero product, I feel the need to say the following....
I have always approached my reviews with a complete unbiased opinion, whether said product was provided to me at no charge or I had to pay for it out of pocket. I feel my reputation for providing honest reviews is more important than writing something positive merely for the sake of receiving free product. In the case of eero, this was something I paid for out of pocket, though at a slight discount. It was a rather expensive purchase as I added additional modules, but done so with the feeling that if I didn't like this system, I could easily return it for a refund.
I have been eyeing this product for well over a year now when it was first introduced as part of a kickstarter campaign. eero was being promised as a system that would bring enterprise-grade WiFi to the home thanks to its ability to create a mesh network that covers the entire home, eliminating dead spots and maintaining top bandwidth speed.
Such claims certainly raised my eyebrows. I spend most of my day on the Internet connected to home WiFi. I prefer using my laptop over my desktop as it allows me to have freedom to work wherever I want within my home. This means I am entirely dependent upon a fast WiFi signal for browsing and downloading. I have to tell you, I live in a very large multi-level home where my WiFi signal is pretty lackluster. This is despite the fact that I have bridged two routers to repeat and extend WiFi throughout the house, and added several smart plugs that use the home's electrical system to distribute bandwidth. All this money and effort has improved Internet speed within my home, but nothing close to what eero has accomplished.
You see, if you live in a large home, a single router is not going to be able to distribute a strong signal to every room and level. Up until now, your only choice to fill your dwelling with more ample WiFi was to depend on multiple routers or repeaters. Trying to set these devices up are notoriously difficult, often forcing the buyer to connect to their computer and dealing with complicated software instructions to bridge everything together. Even then, you face inconsistent Internet connections and dead spots within your living space.
The idea behind eero is that it starts as a single Wi-Fi system within itself, that plugs into your existing router using an ethernet cable. With each additional eero unit you add, you are able to extend WiFi coverage throughout the home. All of this can effortlessly be set up through a smartphone or tablet app which allows you to secure your system and grant or deny access to users through that application.
Of course, that's just a very short overview of eero. As I go forward and really go into depth about what this product can do and how I think it will dramatically improve WiFi in your home, I think you are going to be very, very impressed.
eero comes as a 3-pack starter kit or single module units. The 3-pack is a great way to start a pretty powerful WiFi distribution within your home. Single module units can be bought separately to increase the coverage. They are also perfect, alone, for small apartments where dead spots exist.
For my purposes, I started with a 3-pack and bought two additional single units. Even with a slight discount that I received, this proved to be a very expensive purchase. However, as I go into more detail, I think you'll find that the price was justified for the results I received.
Each eero device looks like something that Apple would have made. It has a very sleek, refined cube design, with a curved top and no exterior antennas. In other words, it's beautiful enough to put out in the open.
All the eero units are identical whether you buy one or a hundred. The idea is that they placed approximately 40 feet from each other for proper WiFi distribution. Each unit gets plugged into a wall outlet and has two ethernet plugs in the rear so that you can have direct ethernet connection to devices in your home, if you wish. Up until now, there was no way I could plug my laptop, smart display or Tivo directly into an ethernet connection so far from the main router. Now, that problem is solved.
SETUP
If I told you that you can set up multiple eeros in your home in under 15 minutes, you would probably say I am crazy. However, thanks to an app that installs on your smartphone or tablet, the entire process including securing your own network can be done within just a few minutes. It is the most effortless procedure I have ever gone through in setting up a WiFi system in my home.
The first thing you do is plug your first eero unit into your router/modem. Each module comes with a power plug and quality ethernet cable to get you started. It may be a good idea to check the eero website to make certain you have a compatible system. I have Verizon Fios in my home and am using the Actiontec router.
Start the eero app on your smartphone or tablet. It will immediately find your eero device and prompt you to set up your own network -- even if one exists already. It is here that you will give your home network a personal name and a secure password. eero claims to be the "Fort Knox" of WiFi equipment so you should be confident the the network is secure. I'll talk more about that security as I move forward with this review.
From start to finish, installing your first eero unit should take mere minutes. There's no configuring of IP addresses. No technical jargon to deal with. The app simply senses your unit, allows you to give your network a name and password. Done!
Want to add additional eero modules to expand coverage? The app asks if you would like to do that. It suggests you place each additional module within 40 feet of each other. So, go downstairs or upstairs and plug in another eero. The app will automatically tell you if your modules are in range so they can talk to each other. In cases where they are not, the app will suggest you move the modules to a different location.
I have a multi-level home with 5 levels that include a basement. I placed 5 eero modules throughout my home and had it all set up within 15 minutes or less. I ran into a slight problem with my basement module seeing the eero module on the floor above it, but with some careful re-arrangements, the app finally confirmed that the units were talking to each other.
Once completely set up, the app allowed me to create a GUEST NETWORK in my home so that visitors could have their own access (via password) without my own personal password ever being revealed. This was something I was never able to figure out how to do with my router network that has been in place within my home all these years. The eero app made it so simple to do.
The app also is useful in giving you statistics on your system's current stats, the measured bandwidth coming into your home, and how many devices (and which devices) are currently connected to your home network. There is a lot of useful information, at a glance, that was never previously made available to me. All of that information is kept in my pocket whenever I have my phone on me. I can also access that information from work or while on vacation. I can grant and deny access to anyone who attempts to access my home network. It's simply amazing all the things I can now do that I simply couldn't figure out how to do previously.
PERFORMANCE
This is my favorite part of the review. This is where I can put real numbers to my claims that this is the most revolutionary product of its kind.
Before I installed eero, I took measurements of my WiFi signal on multiple floors within my home. Even with a bridged repeater installed, the numbers weren't that great. I think you will be amazed at how dramatically those numbers went up after I installed eero.
Before I get into the actual before and after numbers, I want to point out that I have Verizon Fios in my home. I subscribe to a 75/75 Mbps download/upload plan. eero is actually showing a faster speed coming into my home, and some of the measured results using speedtest.net proved those measurements.
So, here's the fun part of this review. Let's go through a before and after of WiFi measurements throughout my home:
The first measurements are for my upstairs hallway, a mere 12 feet from the original Verizon wireless router. I went from 12.90/12.23Mbps to 70.90/61.41Mbps. I should note that I didn't even connect to the closest hub to measure these tests. I configured speedtest.net to connect to a NYC hub which is 55 miles north of my location. A closer hub would probably have yielded higher results on both tests.
Next measurement was on my main, living room floor where I usually sit with my laptop. This is a huge amount of space, and for that reason I opted to place 2 eero units at either end of the floor. Again, dramatic improved measurements as I went from 12.61/13.62Mbps to 62.12/40.65Mbps. I have taken additional measurements at this location (which I will show later in the review) which exceed 80Mbps with a WiFi connection. Holy Cow!
On to the den level. Again, dramatic measured results as I went from 14.12/13.17Mbps to 68.85/63.66Mbps
To the basement -- the lowest level in my home and the most difficult to get eero to communicate. Yet, it gave me the most impressively dramatic improvement I could ever expect. Mind you, the basement door is always closed. It is where my home theater is located so there are many pieces of powered equipment. I initially had difficulty placing my module in communication distance with the floor above it. However, I went from 14.06/14.45Mbps to a whopping 75.66/89.63Mbps connection --- which exceeds the levels that I am subscribing from Verizon for wired service.
If you look at the results in the above paragraph, I am essentially getting the same bandwidth strength via WiFi in a basement as I would a wired connection to my home router. That's friggin' incredible.
Here's another test I ran: I went back to my favorite sitting chair in the living room to see what the difference would be between the household WiFi and being plugged directly into the ethernet connection of one of the remote eero units. I went from a WiFi signal of 82.61/74.78Mbps to a connected signal of 82.85/84.46Mbps. That again supports my claims that the WiFi signal that eero distributes throughout the home can be just as strong as your computer connected directly to the router.
PRICE AND CONCLUSION
This is in a category all by itself. There's a reason for that.
Up until this point I am sincerely hoping that you have been "oohing" and "aahing" over the benchmark results that I have provided you. There is no doubt that eero does exactly what it sets out to do -- providing a mesh home WiFi network that delivers professional industry results in your own home.
This comes at a huge cost to the average consumer. And this is where I know a lot of negative feedback is going to come from.
The price of a singe eero module is $199. $499 for a three pack starter kit. My 5 module system to cover my entire home (and honestly, I could have probably done it with 4 modules) cost nearly $900.
Could this have been done cheaper with some newer routers and extenders? Absolutely! However, I believe that the entire setup and maintenance process from start to finish is done better with eero. For someone who doesn't have the technical knowledge to set up a large home network like this, I don't think anything comes close to the painless experience of setting up an eero system. Additionally, since owning eero, updates are being pushed to my system automatically, during the night, to improve speed and performance. I have no doubt that additional features will also be pushed to the eero over the coming year.
The fact that eero is so very expensive right now, is right in line with any new product of this sort. There is already competition coming from another company called Luma, who is also offering surround WiFi. Their system, as of the writing of this review, has not yet shipped. In time, the price of these home mesh networks will drop. It's just a matter of when you want to jump into the game. Me? I always pay the most to get into this kind of technology as soon as possible.
I just want to end this review by saying I have never been as amazed and proud of a product as I am of eero. It is one of the very few times I have gambled with a boatload of money on a gadget only to consider it a drop in the bucket for the benefits I received. For my WiFi to be as fast as connected ethernet is just amazing to me.
