Eero Pro 6 Review: High-End Performance, but Officially Discontinued

Editor’s note: You can no longer purchase a new Eero Pro 6, but used and refurbished models are available. Check out our Eero 6 Plus and Eero Pro 6E reviews for information on newer models.

At the time they were released, Amazon’s Eero 6 and Eero Pro 6 range of Wi-Fi routers pack a one-two punch in the affordable and premium space. The two routers brought support for Wi-Fi 6, plus support for Zigbee, which guarantees that Alexa-based smart home users will be able to pair devices like smart lights and locks with the router without requiring an additional hub.

Like all other mesh routers, the Eero uses multiple access points to blanket your home with connectivity and a strong Wi-Fi signal. You’ll connect the main router to your modem just like a normal router, then you’ll plug in the identical-looking satellite devices in other parts of your home where you want to boost the connection. Ideally, the result is a larger, more robust Wi-Fi network with fewer dead zones

Unlike the entry-level Eero 6 system that struggled in some of our tests, the Eero 6 Pro sports a higher-end triband design. The extra 5GHz band is what earns the router its “Pro” moniker and is instrumental in giving it a stronger wireless backhaul connection. Meanwhile, it also frees up an additional 5GHz band for normal traffic and gives you more bandwidth for improved network performance.

The Eero Pro 6 can be had for a reasonable $200 for a single unit or $400 for a three-pack. Amazon has also issued an upgraded model dubbed the Eero Pro 6E that can be had for $185 for a single unit, $300 for a two-pack or $410 for a three-pack to cover a large multifloor home.

That makes the Eero Pro 6 a surprising value pick relative to alternatives, and the strong performance keeps it from feeling like you’re compromising. If you live in a large home and you want fast coverage from room to room, then a robust mesh system with multiple extenders is what you need. The Eero Pro 6 gets you there for less than the competition.

Hands-on with the Eero Pro 6

Amazon says that the regular Eero 6 system is designed for homes with internet speeds of up to 500 megabits per second, while the faster Eero Pro 6 system is built to take advantage of gigabit speeds, complete with a tri-band design that features an extra 5GHz band to keep network transmissions between Eero devices separate from your regular internet traffic. That’s a big difference when it comes to mesh networking, especially when you’re connecting at range — and it’s also a feature that pairs particularly well with Wi-Fi 6. Even if none of your own devices support the new, faster Wi-Fi standard, they’ll still benefit from your Eero devices slinging data across the mesh faster and more efficiently.

The hardware checked out when we took the Eero Pro 6 to our lab to run some controlled top-speed tests. With the router wired to a server PC, we could use the Eero network to pull data wirelessly to a client PC at speeds of up to 1,008Mbps from 5 feet away, just over gigabit speeds. For comparison, most of the triband mesh routers we’ve tested over have topped out at around 900Mbps in our lab, including the AX6000 version of Netgear Orbi, the Asus ZenWiFi AX and the Amplifi Alien.

At a distance of 37.5 feet, the Eero Pro 6’s top transfer rate of 1,008Mbps fell slightly to 922Mbps, and at 75 feet, it had only dropped to 838Mbps. That means that the wireless speeds at 75 feet were about 83% as fast as the wireless speeds at 5 feet. That’s a great result, and the strongest “range ratio” we’ve ever seen from a mesh router in this test.

I also put the Eero Pro 6 to the test while working at home here in Louisville, Kentucky. My place is a smallish, shotgun-style house of about 1,300 square feet, and my AT&T fiber internet connection sits at 300Mbps. A system like the Eero Pro 6 is probably overkill for a space like this — especially the Eero Pro 6 three-pack that Amazon sent my way — but I still wanted to get a good look at how the system compared with some of the best mesh routers we’ve tested, including Nest Wifi, the AX6000 version of Netgear Orbi and the Asus ZenWiFi AX.

Setting the system up was a cinch, thanks to the Eero app, which walks you through the process with clear, simple instructions and helpful guidance on how to pick the best spots for your devices. Plug the Eero Pro 6 into your modem, press “go” in the app and you’ll be up and running within minutes.

From there, the app lets you see the devices on your network and can notify you if something new joins. Looking for higher-end features like ad blocking and content filtering? That’ll cost $10 a month or $100 a year. Amazon locks essentials like parental controls behind a premium subscription service which might miff users looking for a premium on-device experience.

Unlike the Eero 6, where the router and range-extending satellites are two separate pieces of hardware, the Eero Pro 6 devices are all interchangeable, so any one of them can serve as the main router. The system is also backwards compatible with earlier-gen Eero routers and range extenders, though I haven’t yet had a chance to see how the system performs when you add legacy hardware into the mix. I just wish the Eero Pro 6 devices featured more than two Ethernet jacks on the back. If you’re like me, you’ll need at least a few more than that to handle wired connections to your various smart home hubs, media streamers and the like.

Features aside, I was eager to start running speed tests. I use the same methodology with every router I test, running several speed tests at a time in various spots in my home, starting in the same room as the router and ending in my back bathroom, the farthest spot from the router. Then, I repeat all of that, but backward — I start with a fresh connection in that back bathroom and work my way back toward the router. I run that entire process multiple times across multiple days — in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, you name it.

The end result is a big, scary spreadsheet filled with more than a hundred-speed test results and average download speeds for each room I test in. With one Eero Pro 6 device plugged into the modem in my living room and a second device situated in my master bedroom — the same two-piece approach I use with all of the mesh routers I test — the speeds were indeed swift, averaging out to about 251Mbps across the entire home. That’s better than Nest Wifi, which averaged out to about 222Mbps, but it’s a bit short of the Asus ZenWiFi AX and the Netgear Orbi AX6000, which registered whole-home averages of 272 and 289Mbps, respectively. That aligns with how these systems are priced, with the Eero Pro 6 sitting as a high-end value pick for large homes since it’s one of the most affordable ways to get a tri-band Wi-Fi 6 mesh router with two satellites under your roof.

Digging a little deeper into the data, I was pleased to see that the Eero Pro 6 system didn’t drop my connection at any point during my tests — it offers a satisfying level of reliability and predictability. My speeds dipped a bit as I moved through the back of my house, where the system needed to route my connection through the satellite, but those dips were consistent and barely noticeable. 

When I got rid of the satellites and reran my tests with just one Eero Pro 6 router and no mesh at all, my average speeds dipped more noticeably in that back bathroom, but still stayed up above 80Mbps, which is a pretty good result. Speeds everywhere else remained close to my home’s speed limit of 300Mbps, and the overall average rang in at 259Mbps — slightly faster than the average when I used two Eero Pro 6 devices. 

That might seem counterintuitive, but it’s because the two-piece setup was cautious. It routed my connection through the satellite in places like my hallway bathroom and master bedroom where it could have gotten away with just connecting directly to the main router.

The key is that back bathroom — with a single Eero Pro 6, the average speed in there was 88Mbps. With two Eero Pro 6 devices, that average jumped to 200Mbps. That tells you the system is working as intended, and boosting speeds in places where it’d be challenging to connect with a single standalone router. A slight speed reduction in rooms adjacent to dead zones like that is a fair tradeoff for whole-home coverage.

Meanwhile, Eero’s lag performance was excellent, with only one spike of more than 25ms across all of my tests. That’s noticeably less lag than I’ve seen from any of our top mesh router picks, and a great result to see from a brand-new system.

One last note: I run these tests on a Dell XPS laptop that doesn’t support Wi-Fi 6 in order to get a good, real-world sense of speeds, and also to serve as a contrast to our lab-based top speed tests, where we use Wi-Fi 6 devices to get a complete look at each router’s capabilities in an ideal setting. If you’re using Wi-Fi 6 devices like those in your home, then your speeds will likely be a bit faster than mine.

How much faster? To find out, I repeated my laps around the house yet again — but this time, I ran my speed tests on an iPhone 12 Pro, one of a growing number of devices that boast full support for Wi-Fi 6. My results were, indeed, faster — specifically, about 20% faster than I saw on the laptop when I was near the main router, and up to 35% faster when I was connecting at range, through the satellite.

The verdict: It’s worth it to go Pro

With strong performance and no unpleasant surprises during my tests, the Eero Pro 6 fits the bill as an upgrade pick, thanks to the triband design and its full support for Wi-Fi 6. It’s a splurge at $199 for a single router or $399 for a three-pack — but those prices are lower than you’ll pay for comparable systems like the Netgear Orbi AX6000 and the Asus ZenWiFi AX. The Eero Pro 6 held its own with routers like those throughout our tests, and it doesn’t feel like much of a compromise compared with any of them, all of which combined give ample justification to its high praise.

Also of note: While the Eero Pro 6 performed well when we tested it out, the same can’t be said of the regular Eero 6 system, which saw its speeds suffer from poor band-steering. The Eero Pro 6 seemed to handle band-steering much better, perhaps because of the triband design. For my money, that makes the Eero Pro 6 the much better buy of the two, and a strong choice for home networking overall, especially if you live in a large home that would benefit from a three-piece setup with faster Wi-Fi 6 speeds.