Eero 7 Max mesh router review: The best kind of Wi-Fi overkill
The Eero Max 7 can easily blanket your home with extremely high-speed mesh Wi-Fi 7 and provide routing duties for a 10-gigabit wired network, but at this price, you should wait for sales before going nuts.
Eero Max 7 review: High spec Wi-Fi, possibly overkill
Home Wi-Fi is a lesser thought-about area of computing. People care more about whether their ISP-supplied router can cover enough of their home to do a good job than fixing it by buying more Wi-Fi access points.
Those who do go for the do-it-yourself approach also care more about coverage than capability. This is fine for small households with more modest bandwidth needs, but for larger families and power users, other factors become important and make the Wi-Fi upgrade more expensive.
The Eero Max 7 is a Wi-Fi router with mesh networking, which aims to provide extensive coverage and fast connection speeds at the same time. All while not forcing consumers into the realm of entry-level enterprise networking.
The Amazon subsidiary accomplishes this pretty well. It comes at a steep price, especially if you need two or more, but it is very, very good.
Amazon provided a pair of Eero Max 7 units for review. We'll be sad when they have to go back.
Eero Max 7 review: Physical design
The Eero Max 7 is, as the name implies, the most premium option in the Eero range, beyond the Pro 7. That Max name applies not only to its specifications but its physical size.
It's a countertop router, in that it is designed to be perched on a desk or shelf somewhere in the room. Ideally, its throne will be a high-up ledge to minimize interference with environmental obstacles.
As a thin router, you would expect it to be wall-mountable, but the rear is just a curved flat plate with no mounting holes. There are third-party mounting brackets, and I presume you could 3D print one, but both are additional costs and hassles.
Eero Max 7 review: Laid flat, stylus and dice for scale
While normally a router is designed to sit low and flat, the Eero Max 7 is quite a tall and thin router. At 7.24 inches by 8.73 inches and 3.54 inches thick, it is a big and fairly imposing networking device when left out on a desk in full view.
Not everyone will like to see a semi-anonymous and tall off-white blob in their surroundings. But to be fair, the design could've been far worse.
Eero Max 7 review: Physical connectivity
The front has the Eero logo, while the top has a cut-in section with vent holes. The physical connectivity for the Eero Max 7 is within an alcove in the base of the unit, around the back. It's a fairly neatly designed space, low down to help support it standing up by adding more weight.
The Max 7 has a total of four Ethernet ports in the rear. They can be used both to connect to an existing physical network and to connect wired devices to the wireless network when there's no physical network available.
There's also a USB-C port used solely for power, and a button to deal with power and restarts. That brick is just that -- a hardwired power brick, attached to a USB-C cable end.
A replacement 140W USB-C power adapter costs about $100 from Amazon, if you need one. Hard pass. We've discovered that anything that supplies 3A and 45W works fine, though, so if you need to get a replacement, keep that in mind.
Eero Max 7 review: The Ethernet ports have enterprise-grade speeds
Of the ports, two are 2.5-gigabit Ethernet, while the other two are 10-gig connections. For the average home user, this is overkill and a huge amount of future-proofing.
Most wired home network devices use gigabit Ethernet, which these two types of ports will support with ease. Most home users will probably be OK with the idea of just having a load of ports available, versus two on most Eero routers.
The slower 2.5-gigabit connection is a useful addition for home users, especially if they have a NAS that should be accessible to all users on the network. That is, assuming you have hardware that can connect to a network at such speeds.
Interestingly, hanging a 2.5-gigabit NAS off of the Max 7 directly, without going through a gigabit router may give better speeds wirelessly from the NAS to Wi-Fi 7 hardware. The Mac is not amongst this Wi-Fi 7 list yet, but it will get it soon enough.
As for the 10-gig connections, this again requires the infrastructure or hardware to really get the most out of the speed. Yes, file servers and NAS setups will be beneficial for the connection, but this tends to correlate with expense.
If you are a serious power user and have a considerable personal computing budget to even consider 10-gig networking, this is a handy specification point to consider. That, however, is going to be an extremely rare home user or a small business.
Eero Max 7 review: Wireless connectivity
Continuing the theme of overkill for home usage, the Eero Max 7 does something similar for its wireless networking.
The first thing is the 7 in that name, which refers to it supporting Wi-Fi 7 devices. The current-gen iPhone 16 range includes support, but it will also be backward-compatible with earlier Wi-Fi standards.
As a tri-band router, it has support for 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands. The 2.4GHz works in a 2x2 configuration with the antennas, rising to 4x4 for the 5GHz and 6GHz bands, or 10 spatial streams in total, one of which will be used for each satellite station you have.
The speed rating for the Max 7 is BE20800, with a theoretical maximum of 4.3Gbps over Wi-Fi. That's a lot of bandwidth available for wireless connections, and when accounting for the number of streams available, that gives a lot of potential bandwidth per user on the network.
The Eero allocates this dynamically. On our home network with about 100 devices including iPads, iPhones, Macs, PCs, and home automation, we routinely saw 2.2 gigabits per second "backhaul" between base stations -- but more on that in a bit.
There's also the processing hardware to consider, with its quad-core Cortex A73 chip accompanied by 2GB of memory and 4GB of storage. This is more than enough to handle the network traffic here.
We've compared the Max 7 against the Eero 6 Pro, and Eero 6 base stations. While every network is different, we can safely say that the Max 7 is a giant upgrade over the 6 Pro and an enormous one over the Eero 6.
When you look at the Eero Pro 7, the gap is not so large -- but still notable.
And, the routing advantages of Wi-Fi 7 routers extend to devices with lesser radios. We saw faster speeds on older iPhones too.
Data transfer to a Mac mini connected to the television when we swapped one-for-one without a satellite improved by about 25%, because of a combination of a better antenna array, and routing improvements.
This is hard to quantify and guarantee for everybody. Wireless conditions are so variable even house-to-house, that we recommend trying one and taking advantage of Amazon's generous return policy if it doesn't help you as much as helped me.
Eero Max 7 review: Meshing and coverage
The Max 7 is certainly high-performance when it comes to network hardware, and that also translates into how it can cover your home.
On a per-unit basis, a single Max 7 is said by Eero to cover up to 2,500 square feet with Wi-Fi. While this is theoretical and doesn't take into account things like walls, doors, furnishings, or human bodies, this is still a very sizable amount of area for one router to cover.
We didn't quite get this, but this has more to do with the ODN location on our Google Fiber install than anything else.
In a normal mesh network, you can expect the units to be within radio range of each other, and that some of the massive bandwidth would be used for the backhaul.
While mesh networks usually restrict the backhaul to specific bands when you set it up, Eero uses its own system. TrueMesh can detect the ideal path between multiple points, so it can automatically pick the best backhaul bands.
That means it's using unused bands to handle the backhaul, rather than a dedicated band that could be better suited for use by connected user hardware.
With this much bandwidth in use, and with such high coverage areas of each unit, having multiple access points would blanket a typical home in Wi-Fi with minimal blackspots. You're going to get a signal practically anywhere, short of accidentally building a Faraday cage with bathroom piping.
Eero Max 7 review: The base vents
If you want a stronger signal and better coverage for your house, and you may, depending on where your Internet comes in your house, you can do that by taking advantage of mesh networking. This refers to the use of two or more access points working together to create one unified network, increasing the strength of the network and minimizing black spots.
You can get the Max 7 in a triple pack, which means a maximum theoretical area of 7,500 square feet that could be covered. However, for best performance, that would require using a physical network for the backhaul, and for the access points to communicate, as the units would be at the edges of effective range.
For instance, in our wireless setup where the base stations are 40 feet away, we got 2.4 gigabits per second. We set the base stations 70 feet away, 50 feet as the crow flies, and the fastest they'd move data in this house is at about 250 megabits per second.
Eero Max 7 review: Network Management and home automation
As a router from Amazon, it has app and remote control functions. In this case, there is an iOS app that can be used to manage the network.
In the simplest of setups, you install the Eero app and plug in your router to power. The app walks you through the rest of the way.
Adding a second unit is about as simple as the first. And, as a bonus, once connected to the network and put in the place you want, the Eero app will tell you if it likes the position or not, or if it expects slower speeds because of orientation.
In short, follow the app's advice, and you're good to go. If you need to poke holes in the firewall or forward ports beyond what UPnP will do, the app has you covered.
For those upgrading from older units, it's not much harder to get a network upgraded with new gear. The add hardware option in the Eero app will ask if you want to replace an existing unit.
Eero Max 7 review: Replacing the hardware via the app
And when you do, it migrates all of your devices over, if you've got a whitelist. Given that the network name and credentials are the same, all of your home automation devices migrate over (mostly) seamlessly.
We did have to power cycle a few things, notably Echo devices. Everything else just worked perfectly.
If you want to hang on to your older Eero gear, you can. We had an issue where the Wi-Fi 6 Eero units communicated very poorly with the base station, and power cycling didn't fix the issue.
What did, was a removal of the Wi-Fi 6 unit from the network, then a re-add. Then, everything worked fine. Easy enough, but an extra step that we'd rather you not have to do.
That said, this is networking. At some point, there's troubleshooting.
From an Apple-specific home automation standpoint, Amazon has stricken HomeKit Secure routing from the Eero line. That's fine, though, because we think that Apple is about to also.
Fortunately, because of the Amazon connection, there's considerable support for smart home devices built in.
It can work as a Zigbee Smart Home Hub, as well as a Matter controller. There's even support for Thread and Bluetooth LE 5.0 too.
For smart home frameworks, there's support for Works with Alexa and Amazon Connected Home, which is to be expected. As there's HomeKit support for Matter, that also means it plays nice with Apple's platform too.
Eero Max 7 review: Pricing
It's safe to say that, with the specifications at play, the Max 7 also has a fairly hefty price. For a single unit, the base price for the Eero Max 7 is $599.99. This hurts the wallet, but then again, remember that it can act as a mesh-compatible product.
A two-pack can be bought for $1,149.99 at full price or a trio for $1,699.
Eero Max 7 review: Undergoing testing, hidden behind a display
These are nosebleed prices, certainly. You can find a lot cheaper mesh network options out there, albeit not at this specification.
Eero Max 7 review: The right kind of overkill
The Eero Max 7 is a router that fits into a curiously small product category. At least, if you think about it for a while.
At face value, it's a Wi-Fi router that has a massive coverage area and works at blistering speeds that most of your hardware won't be able to fully utilize.
The real target market for this is power users with a budget. Home users with more than enough spare cash to spend on this, and probably have enough high-data needs to justify adding this to their existing high-value tech arsenal.
It's also something that could be justifiable for small businesses, as it certainly has enough performance to handle a small office environment. At least without heading into the realm of enterprise hardware -- which we will be doing in the fall.
Then there's the price, which puts it out of reach of the casual home user. Again, if you need this sort of thing and have hardware that can fully stretch its capabilities, you're probably going to have deep enough pockets to get one or two units.
Really, this is the sort of thing that, if you need it, you really should wait until it goes on sale. You can easily cut off a few hundred from the cost of a serious Wi-Fi network upgrade if you get this during a sale.
Eero Max 7 review: Pros
- Very high routing performance
- Very fast wired and wireless connections
- Smart Home support
Eero Max 7 review: Cons
- Price is extremely prohibitive outside of sales
- No HomeKit Secure router functionality -- but this won't matter to many
- Hard to wall-mount without additional cost
Rating: 4 out of 5
I really, really like the Eero Max 7. It has a bafflingly fast faux-backbone, faster than a gigabit line we ran previously. In this house of many, many wireless connected devices, we get better coverage with one base station than we did before.
It's far, far better with two, as it is with most things. Two of them are just about Wi-Fi perfection.
It's too bad it costs almost $1000 at retail price for a pair.
That said, a lifetime ago, a federal contractor said that 80% of the job can get done for 20% of the cost, it's just that last 20% that takes 80% of the money.
That's the same here. Sure, you can get Wi-Fi 7 for a lot cheaper. But the Eero Max 7 embraces the "max" in the name, not just wirelessly, but wired too, for that last 20% of the job costing 80% of the total cost.
During the course of this review which began when we published the versus containing this product, the Eero Max 7 has been on sale three times. Do not buy it at full retail. Wait for a sale.
Where to buy the Eero Max 7
The Eero Max 7 is available from Amazon, with a retail price of $599.99 for one unit. Under Prime Day sales, for Prime subscribers, it's down to $419.99 for one, $799.99 for a two-pack, and $1,189.99 for a three-pack.
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Comments
2) While these look solid I will no longer buy Eero since they were bought out by Amazon. I have since moved onto Ubiquiti UniFi for my network needs.
I’m not discounting the value of future proofing your network infrastructure, I’m simply saying that by the time you have a reasonable number of clients capable of utilizing the full capabilities of these routers there will be a lot more competition to drive the prices down. I don’t mean waiting for WiFi 8, it may only a matter of waiting until the next round of Apple product updates hit the market, especially if your current setup is reliable.
Real life network speed is typically lower than the lab speed because the building walls/floors are constructed different in different places for wifi signal's ability to penetrate. In USA/Canada, most houses have wood/drywall construction vs i Europe, Asia and Middle east are bricks and concrete. When I select my home router, I like to see the ability of router(antenna, power, channel aggregation) to go signal far, strong and speed.
Also, the Netgear is almost never on sale. The Eero 7 Pro almost is always on sale, as the text discusses.
Back when Apple was making networking gear a lot of the tuning and adaptation parameters were preset by Apple and they did a good enough job for the majority of their customer base to have good performance and reliability. But if you wanted to go much deeper the software didn’t expose a whole lot more.
I don’t know what the current state of consumer networking gear is so I can’t comment on how much control is available to people who really want to fine tune their networks, for example setting up VLANS and fine tuning wireless power, channels, bandwidth, DHCP reservations, QoS, frequency specific SSIDs, etc. I imagine the higher end all-in-one and mesh systems give you a lot more than say the Apple Airport app and Netgear app.
This thing is so honking huge, as AP was beginning to get, due to upright antennas. It’s ugly and conspicuous. Can’t say I want to replace my older gen Eero with these things.
The Apple Airports were very well done.
We have fiber gigabit service and the house is full of devices and quite often guests/family with many devices.
I set up a second network for IoT devices and everything from the Ecobee to Blink Cameras, Simply Safe security system, Eufy Robot Vac/Mop, LG appliances , Midea dehumidifier , Dometic Refrigerator Freezer (portable but with WiFi) and Tempest Weather station all get along happily.
The house has 3 Apple TVs, a set of Home Pods and a set of Home Pod Minis, a couple of smart TVs, a network aware BluRay Player.
There are 4 iPads, 3 iPhones, 3 Apple Watches, a Mac Desktop also in the mix. When the kids come over you can add a phone and a tablet for each of them and often a laptop, iPhone and Watch for the adults.
Away from WiFi we have multiple Thread devices from shades to bulbs, etc.
Not sure which generation of Orbi you have but mine works well. I switched from Eero to Orbi when Amazon bought the company.