The Google Nest WiFI Pro released in the US quite some time ago, and it’s now released in Australia making it one of the first Wi-Fi 6e mesh routers available in the country. I feel like this is one that a lot of people will gravitate towards because of how nice it looks. My partner who traditionally isn’t a big techy person even liked the look of it.
When you start talking about Wi-Fi 6E, that’s where things start to get confusing, as it’s totally different to Wi-Fi 6 which is what a lot of recent routers use. Whilst Wi-Fi 6 is an improvement, 6E takes things even further as it’s its own spectrum that sits outside of 2.4ghz and 5ghz that allows for faster speeds, lower latency and more network security. There’s a benefit in having that third seperate channels to devices that can connect as well as they’re staying clear of those two networks that so many devices in and around your house will be using.
To take advantage of 6E you’ll need compatible hardware to take advantage which is found in high-end or super recent releases such as the iPhone 15 Pro, Google Pixel 8 as well as the MacBook Pro but not in consoles such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X. It is backwards compatible with older devices over 5ghz and 2.5ghz but you just won’t be able to take advantage of the faster 6ghz network.
6ghz has some advantages including speed and latency, and it also allows compatible devices but the one downside is that does seem to struggle a little bit more making its way through walls or other interference, which is why I highly recommend the 3-pack of mesh routers, which also make talk to each-other over the 6ghz bandwidth which has the same positives and negatives as mentioned.
THE CHEAPEST PRICE: $597 FROM AMAZON
Each mesh unit has two gigabit ethernet ports so that you can connect each over wire which is going to give the most reliable performance, and is great for any smart home hubs or other items that you need to connect in different rooms of your house.
I live in a three bedroom house, and I’ve got the mesh routers split across an office, my living room and the laundry at the back, and my network was definitely at its fastest in my office, where I was able to get anywhere between 750-950 MBPS on both my MacBook Pro and iPhone 15 Pro whilst in the same room. Whilst connected over wire from a secondary unit, I was able to get about 400-500 MBPS which was what I experienced from a wireless point of view as well.
I did have a few issues where my wireless speeds would totally drop, but I was able to fix it by resetting the mesh unit that i thought was causing issues, and it’d go back to near 1gbps instantly, and similarly I did have a few very minor disconnects moving between rooms in the house, but for the most part it’s totally fool proof runs as expected.
Similarly, the app is super easy to use, but I did find it a little bit underwhelming in terms of actually being able to track which device is connected to each mesh unit as well as data usage information being a bit limited. It’s almost a little bit too basic for its own good, and whilst I understand that Google is in the business of making devices as accessible as possible, I’d love a little bit more control over my Wi-Fi 6E network.
All-in-all, if you’re looking for an easy to use mesh unit and also want the best available in Wi-Fi 6E, there aren’t a lot of options in Australia and the Google WiFi Pro is a great value for money solution, especially if you’ve just upgraded to a gigabit connection.
