Eero 6 Plus vs. Eero Pro 6E: Amazon’s New Wi-Fi Mesh Routers Compared – CNET [CNET]

Eero’s lineup of mesh routers have been a top home networking option for several years — and now, the Amazon-owned company has two new systems on the market: the Eero 6 Plus ($299 for a three-pack) and the Eero Pro 6E ($699 for a three-pack).

With multiple devices spread throughout your house, each of the new Eero systems promises to create a faster, more reliable connection from room to room. Both systems feature full support for the latest Wi-Fi 6 speeds, as well as built-in Zigbee radios that let you connect lights, locks and other smart home gadgets to your network without the need for an extra hub. 

Look under the hood, however, and you’ll find lots separating these two models — particularly when it comes to performance. Like the “Pro” part of the branding suggests, the Eero Pro 6E kicks things up with an ultra-high-speed WAN port capable of supporting incoming Ethernet speeds as high as 2.5Gbps, and by supporting Wi-Fi 6E, which lets it connect compatible devices over the recently opened, ultrawide 6GHz band.

If you’re trying to decide which one would be a better fit for your home, you’ve come to the right place. I spent a few weeks testing the two systems out, and have plenty to share about their respective capabilities. Keep reading for a close look at how the two systems stack up against each other, compare to previous Eero systems, and match up to the competition, as well as my thoughts on which one might be the better buy for most peoples’ home networking needs.

Enlarge Image

“,”modalTemplate”:”

{{content}}

“,”setContentOnInit”:false}’>

Performance and speeds

Design choices aside, the Eero Pro 6E is the speedier of these two systems. In my home, where I have a fiber internet connection with upload and download speeds of up to 300Mbps and the fastest devices I test top out at around 375Mbps at close range, the Eero Pro 6E’s download speeds to a Wi-Fi 6 device came out to 342Mbps when averaged across the whole house. That rose to a very impressive 365Mbps when I repeated my tests with a Wi-Fi 6E device. 

Meanwhile, the Eero 6 Plus returned average Wi-Fi 6 download speeds of 304Mbps, and that number actually went down slightly when I reran my tests with a Wi-Fi 6E device. That isn’t surprising — without Wi-Fi 6E support, the Eero 6 Plus won’t treat Wi-Fi 6E client devices any differently than those that support Wi-Fi 6.

A download average of 304Mbps is still a very good result in that test (and it’s still top-10 among all of the mesh routers I’ve tested at home over the past few years) — but the Eero Pro 6E was even better. What’s more, you’re likely to see an even greater difference between the two on a network that supports higher speeds than my 300Mbps fiber plan, because the Pro 6E is better equipped to handle faster speeds like those. The system will also improve with age as more and more of the devices in our homes start offering support for Wi-Fi 6E. That means the Eero Pro 6E gets the clear edge here.

Winner: Eero Pro 6E

Enlarge Image

available for $227, the Asus ZenWifi AX Mini, which currently costs $230, and Amazon’s own Eero 6. That previous-gen system launched in 2020 for $279 ($20 less than the Eero 6 Plus), and Amazon just marked it down to $199. Then again, none of those systems performed nearly as well as the Eero 6 Plus did, which definitely gives it a strong claim to value in that $300-or-less category. There just aren’t a lot of three-piece systems in that price range with performance that’s as good as this.

That brings us to the Eero Pro 6E, which is much more of a pricing play than the 6 Plus. At $699, it’s expensive, but it’s a relative bargain compared to your other mesh options with support for Wi-Fi 6E. There aren’t many of those, but they come with eye-popping price tags — $1,200 for a Linksys Velop Atlas Max 6E three-pack, or $1,500 for a Netgear Orbi AXE11000 three-pack. The Eero Pro 6E might be expensive, but it’s a needle mover for Wi-Fi 6E’s cost of entry, and that’ll probably tempt a lot of shoppers who are itching to make the early jump to 6E support on their home network.

It is early, though, and by the time Wi-Fi 6E support is really starting to matter in our homes, there will likely be other systems on the market that can match or even beat the Pro 6E’s value proposition. If you’re buying right now, you can expect a noticeable uptick in system speeds, as well as slightly faster speeds to Wi-Fi 6E devices (assuming you have any). Is that worth an extra $400? 

For some forward-looking households, I think that it might be, particularly if you’re looking to get the most out of a gigabit internet plan (which is really the Pro 6E’s sweet spot). That Pro 6E value will likely look better and better as Wi-Fi 6E continues to mature and make it into our phones, laptops and other household devices. But outside of that, I think the best value today lies with the 6 Plus.

Winner: Eero 6 Plus (but it’s a lot closer than you’d think)

The verdict

The Eero 6 Plus and the Eero Pro 6E are both strong options in the mesh category, and I could easily see myself recommending either one of them to a friend or family member. Both offer fast, consistent speeds, strong ease of use, a good mix of features and decent value relative to the competition. I also appreciate Eero’s restraint beneath its new parent company — the routers support Frustration-Free Setup and Alexa voice controls for pausing the Wi-Fi, but that’s about as far as they go on the Amazon front. There are no Alexa speakers or long-distance Amazon Sidewalk radios built into either of them, and neither one requires you to link your Amazon account to your home network. 

The Eero Pro 6E is the better pick for power users looking to get the most out of a gigabit connection, but for most of us, I think the Eero 6 Plus is the better buy. With full-width channels and faster radios than before, it makes much, much better use of Wi-Fi 6 than the last-gen Eero 6 did, and while it doesn’t support Wi-Fi 6E or multigig speeds, I think we’re still a few years away from the time when those will be must-haves in most peoples’ homes. The Pro 6E is a little ahead of its time, which isn’t a bad thing, but the Eero 6 Plus is the better pick for the price if you’re buying today.

---

Spread the word!

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)