Amazon Eero 6 Plus review: More plus than nonplus

It feels odd to review Eero products in a kind of reverse order. First, I tested the Amazon Eero Pro 6E, which is futureproofed but pricey for a three-pack. Then I reviewed the Amazon Eero Max 7, which boasts impressive hardware but an eye-watering RRP. Now I’ve taken a look at the Amazon Eero 6 Plus, which is a couple of years old but is also a popular add-on with NBN providers.

But let’s see if the Amazon Eero 6 Plus is worth that popularity.

Outside of promotional pricing (which is how I bought mine), you’re looking at a $249.99 RRP for a single Amazon Eero 6 Plus or $599.99 RRP for a three-pack. Internationally, you can grab a two-pack configuration from retail stores. It’s disappointing that the two-pack configuration is trickier to find in Australia (especially at retail stores), particularly because two Eero 6 Plus units should be enough for most homes and three may be overkill.

Still, the three-pack Eero 6 Plus is cheaper than the $699 asking price for the Google Nest WiFi and the $649.95 RRP for the D-Link M60. A single Eero 6 Plus unit is understandably cheaper than the Eero Pro 6E ($$449.99) and the Eero Max 7 ($1,099.99), but pricier than the surprisingly performative TP-Link HX510 ($110). Comparatively, the Eero 6 Plus has the right price for standalone and three-pack variants.

If you don’t want to buy an Eero 6 Plus at retail, you can pair one or more with an internet plan add-on from participating NBN providers like AGL, Buddy Telco, More, Origin Broadband, Southern Phone, Superloop and Tangerine Telecom. Check out popular NBN plans from these providers.

I almost had a heart attack when my brand-new retail Amazon Eero 6 Plus failed to get an external IP address during initial setup. A connection box power cycle later, though, and I was connected. As is the trend with modern mesh WiFi systems, you’re encouraged to perform a firmware update, which I did with the Eero 6 Plus.

That’s after you’re incentivised to sign up for Eero Plus (formerly Eero Secure) for $16.99 per month or $159.99 per year. I’m not a fan of subscription services that cover features other manufacturers include for the price of the networking device, but if full parental controls and other advanced features are important to you, you may have to grab a subscription.

The firmware update estimates between 15 and 20 minutes; thankfully, it only took around five minutes for me, despite the lack of a progress bar. Following the mesh WiFi system trend, there’s no web portal accessible via a browser. Instead, everything is handled by the Eero companion app. The homepage is more useful for monitoring than tweaks, but there are some advanced options available under ‘Settings’.

I do internet speed tests right after initial configuration to gauge speed potential, not just overall but also relative to wired and wireless performance in different parts of my apartment. While the front part of my apartment typically never has WiFi issues, the back part has issues with any networking equipment that can’t penetrate thick walls. For multi-pack mesh WiFi systems like the Amazon Eero 6 Plus, I run separate speed tests for a single unit, then two, and finally three. This layered testing is a great way to spot initial speed issues with fewer units, and how the mesh WiFi system handles switching between its wireless bands (in this case, the 5GHz and 2.4GHZ).

All of my router internet speed tests are conducted with an Exetel NBN 100/20 FTTC apartment connection, using Ethernet for the first test then a Google Pixel 7 Pro for the WiFi tests (via WiFi 6). All of the tests below were done in the evening. Lower numbers are best for latency (measured in milliseconds), while larger numbers are better for download and upload speeds (both measured in megabits-per-second). Use the top line of results in the tables as an idea of best-case speeds at that time of day, then every line below as comparative. Signal strength according to Google is ranked from best to worst as excellent, good, fair and poor. For a baseline test, I started with my go-to Synology RT6600ax router.

Then I tested the Eero 6 Plus as a standalone router, a two-unit setup and, finally, a three-unit mesh WiFi configuration.

Unsurprisingly, the Eero 6 Plus works better in a two-unit or three-unit configuration than as a standalone router. That said, the single unit did record results in all of my test areas, including the garage, which my RT6600ax always fails at. Latency was consistently low throughout tests, but the 2.4GHz band struggled with interference, as evidenced by the slower speeds recorded in the back part of my apartment (study, bathroom and bedroom) as well as at the garage and the property fence.

Connecting a second Eero 6 Plus eliminated all speed issues inside the home, converting the standalone mix of 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands into whole home 5GHz WiFi coverage. It didn’t fix issues outside my apartment, though. Garage and fence speeds weren’t great, and there was a drop in speeds for my tests across the road. I suspect the roughly equidistant placement of the Eero 6 Plus units relative to the outside test locations may have caused issues with automatically choosing the best one to connect to.

I also observed short-lived hitches when my wireless test device shifted between Eero 6 Plus units. It’s not the kind of thing you’ll notice for most everyday use cases, but you may experience a network hitch if you’re moving around your home performing a latency-sensitive task (like a video or voice call).

Testing with a three-unit mesh WiFi system reaped even better results. For the most part. The garage and fence tests were still sluggish outliers, as was the 5GHz band suddenly being available 25.5 metres away from the nearest Eero 6 Plus unit for the across-road test. What I took away from those garage and fence tests, though, was how consistently diminished speeds are whenever the Eero 6 Plus switches to ‘Fair’ or ‘Poor’ signal strength on the 2.4GHz band.

One of the best unsung features of Eero products is auto-sensing Ethernet ports. While there are only two of them per device, you don’t have to mess around with separating the internet (WAN) port from your home network (LAN) port. Just plug and play. If you don’t mind running cables, you can take advantage of the latency and speed perks of wired backhaul between the Eero 6 Plus router and its satellites.

But the main bit of versatility for any mesh WiFi system is how easy it is to add extra identical units. And Eero is one of the easiest of all the devices I’ve tested. Tap the plus button in the top right of the Eero companion app, then follow the prompts. The app offers guided setup, and it even rates your placement. You’ll have to wait for the extra unit/s to perform a firmware update, which temporarily took out my wireless devices but not my wired (go figure) for every extra unit I added.

As for network tweaks, there’s at least one setting worth activating. I’m big on Quality of Service (QoS) because it removes the busywork otherwise required to manually throttle downloads on one device when other devices in the home are streaming, gaming or making a video call. The Eero 6 Plus uses smart queue management (SQM), which includes QoS as part of its features. Strangely, it’s toggled off by default, but you can (and should) enable it via ‘Settings’, ‘Network settings’ and ‘SQM’.

Client steering is automatically enabled, but you can switch it off if the little hitches mentioned in the previous section are an issue. I was interested to see that the WPA3 latest security standard was disabled by default, but that’s easy to change under ‘Network settings’. More frustrating is the persistent bug that requires multiple changes and network restarts to switch the local IP range from its default to a manual selection. If you, like me, need specific IP addresses for functionality in your smart home, this is a frustrating hurdle for an otherwise easy-to-use network tool.

If you’re gearing up for NBN 2000 plan and beyond, the Amazon Eero 6 Plus isn’t fit for purpose. But it can handle any currently available NBN plan up to and including NBN 1000. You’ll want at least two units unless you’re in a small interference-free home, and the Eero 6 Plus is easy to set up and a breeze to expand. If the Eero 6 Plus didn’t have some of its bigger quirks, it’d have a shot at being the best mesh WiFi system available today, given its reasonable price. Even with those issues, the Eero 6 Plus is still worth considering for most homes, more so if you’re already part of the Eero ecosystem.