Eero Pro 6 vs Orbi vs Asus Zen Wifi XT8
About six months ago I upgraded to gig internet and my old Eero’s couldn’t keep up. What followed was a six month journey that started with The Wirecutter and ended up… almost back to where I started.
The Asus Zen Wifi AX 6600 XT8
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3i3f9zY
Pros: Fast, Reasonably Priced, Massively Tweakable / Configurable
Cons: Constant Firmware Updates introducing instability and flakiness.
At the time I purchased them (and still today, 6 months later) there were The Wirecutter’s Upgrade pick. I wanted to love them, going as far as to work around some of it’s quirks by installing a secondary SSID with my old eeros for a problematic HomeKit device or two. But the flakiness caught up with them, and after recent firmware updates, the Eufy Indoor camera we were using as a Crib Cam became too unreliable. Which is a shame, as they were fairly awesome, and by far the cheapest of the bunch. The mobile app was incredibly powerful, and the web admin was far, far more in-depth than, well, anything I’ve seen in consumer-grade kit.
If you like tweaking stuff, and these work for you, awesome. But I needed my crib camera to dependable and these just weren't up to that task unfortunately.
The Netgear Orbi (RBK 852)
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/2UJrVLd
Pros: Fast, Stable
Cons: $LOL Expensive, Worthless Mobile App
These cost more than my computer (M1 MacMini FTW). For the price I paid (just over $750 delivered), I expect a compromise-free solution. The hardware itself was pretty great. Fast as hell, and the pair maintained a solid connection across the distance of my house, blanketing my property in really good, fast strong wifi. But the software sucked. The mobile app barely has any functionality, and the one thing is purports to do- labeling your devices- it resets to defaults every time you relaunch the app. The Web admin has more functionality (though nowhere near as much as the Asus) BUT it is set to an obnoxiously short authentication time out– and, the janky thing is built in such a way that it doesn’t work with 1password’s autofill, making serious administration an exercise in frustration. For this much money? No way. (Though, honestly, these would probably be great for affluent non nerds who have the geek squad setup their wifi once and never touch the admin tools; the hardware is pretty killer).
Amazon Eero Pro 6 (3 Pack)
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3eYVFur
Pros: It Just Works, Great Mobile App
Cons: Pricey, Mobile App Only, Only has 1GB Ethernet Ports.
I should have just bought these in the first place. The fact that there are three units- with shared antennas- instead of just two with a dedicated wireless backhaul may make them slightly slower than the others but it’s still pretty damn fast. The software experience is the same as the first gen Eero’s I was used to - it’s mobile only, but pleasant enough and it’s easy to manage your device names and icons and reserve IPs and do most of the stuff you need to do (with the exception of true DDNS support, which is a mild bummer). One drawback of the hardware- it only has gig speed ethernet jacks- the others both had 2.5gig wan ports. Xfinity has already upgraded '“gig” to 1.2g, and that extra .2 is lost on me. For the premium price and all the other tech jammed in there, a faster ethernet port seems like it should have been included. The 3 pack of units serves me well- 1 sits in my office with most of my networking gear (and my main computers hardwired into a connected switch), a second unit is in my entertainment center, which also houses a media server that prefers a hardwired connection due to the age of it’s wifi card, and finally the last unit sits in my kitchen window blasting a strong signal out into the furthest corners of our garden (yes, we need wifi in the garden- crib cam, remember?).
