Screenshot/Eero
Early last year, Eero used this dream to launch a crowdfunding campaign that sold over $1 million in preorders. The pitch was that Eero would use multiple devices to blanket your entire home with a smooth WiFi signal that anyone could set up.
And after pushing back the launch from last summer, Eero is finally here.
So does it deliver on that promise? The short answer is yes.
I tested the three-unit pack, which Eero CEO Nick Weaver says will cover an average home using mesh networking. It consistently covered my house with faster download speeds and better signal. The change was most noticeable upstairs, away from my modem.
With my old router, a standard Netgear offering, upstairs I would get about 15-25 mbps for download speeds (via Speedtest on both laptop and iPhone). The new Eero setup gave about 35-45 mbps. The differences in the living room, near my old router, were less noticeable. But the Eero setup still boosted my downloads from 35-45 mbps to 45-55 mbps.
The Eero setup also improved my network's signal strength (via Wifi Analyzer on Android). Upstairs, it went from around -65 to around -42 (the closer to zero you are, the better). In the living room, where the main unit is, it went from about -44 to about -36. Rounding it out, it went from -51 to -38 in my downstairs bedroom.
What accounts for the difference?
"You would never try to cover your home with one light bulb," Eero CEO Nick Weaver tells Business Insider. "And the farther away you get from your WiFi router, the more the signal degrades." This is inevitable, he says, unless you have a completely clear space, or employ multiple units (like Eero).
How easy was the setup?
Part of Eero's appeal is that it, like Apple, promises high-quality products that take only minutes for anyone to set up. In my experience, this is almost true. The setup of the initial unit took me less than 10 minutes, however I ran into a slight snag installing my second and third units.
Here is what my experience with Eero was like: