Nest Wi-Fi Pro review: An excellent mesh Wi-Fi system for Google users

Google’s Nest Wi-Fi Pro is the company’s latest mesh Wi-Fi system, designed to improve the speed and overall coverage of your home internet. It boasts speeds of up to 5.4 Gbps, at least in the lab, and can handle over 100 devices.

I’ve been testing the Nest Wi-Fi Pro for a few weeks now, and it’s clear to me that it’s one of the better Wi-Fi 6E systems on the market, but not the best.

Setting up the Nest Wi-Fi Pro took me about 10 minutes, from unboxing the access point to getting the full mesh system up and running. The process involves installing the Google Home app, plugging in one of the access points that will connect to your router, and then adding the access point to your Home app.

Then you give your Wi-Fi network a name, choose a name for the room it’s installed in, and you’re done. If you bought a two- or three-pack of access points, the Home app will know and ask you if you’re ready to set up the rest of the nodes in the box.

If you choose yes, you’ll plug in the access point, wait until the app finds it, scan the QR code at the bottom of it, and you’re done.

I recommend setting up all the access points in the same room and then moving them after everything is connected and up and running.

Once your network is up and running, you can go through and set up Family Tools to restrict internet access on your kids’ devices while enabling guest networking.

Good coverage and overall performance

I live in a 3,300 sq ft ranch home with a basement and work in a separate building about 70 feet from the house. Depending on the day or week, I have between 55 and 80 devices connected to my home Wi-Fi network.

My home Wi-Fi setup is a challenge even with the best systems, but I was able to replace the Eero Pro 6E system I’ve been using with the Nest Wi-Fi Pro and didn’t notice a difference when it came to performance or When covering insufficient areas.

Each Nest Wi-Fi Pro access point is powerful enough to handle up to 100 devices and cover 2,200 square feet of Wi-Fi 6E.

I’ve tested a lot of mesh Wi-Fi systems over the past few years, and I’ve learned that there are usually a few places in my home where the mesh system often fails to provide adequate Wi-Fi coverage. one such area? My kids have a play corner in the basement and if there’s any lag or underperformance I’m definitely going to hear this area.

Any of Eero’s Wi-Fi 6 systems, and now the Nest Wi-Fi Pro, are the only ones I’ve never heard from my kids about their gaming experiences. In fact, I didn’t even tell them I changed our reticulation just to make sure there wasn’t some kind of placebo effect at play.

My personal experience is the same. I can roam around the house, stream a video or play a game on my Steam Deck, and I don’t see any lag or slow performance when the access point is moved away from my device.

related: Everything You Need to Boost Your Home Wi-Fi Signal

Perhaps my favorite part of the Nest Wi-Fi Pro is that the access point doesn’t look like a Wi-Fi access point at all. They look more like smart speakers, and maybe even smart clocks. The plastic housing has a glossy finish and comes in four different colours.

In total, each Nest Wi-Fi Pro access point measures 5.12 by 4.61 by 3.35 inches and weighs 1.31 pounds. There are two Ethernet ports on the back of the device near the bottom, and a USB-C cable in the middle of the ports, powered using the included wall adapter.

Seriously, these access points would look great on any shelf or TV stand. And that’s not a bad thing — hiding your Wi-Fi access point in a cabinet or on the chassis of a TV stand will only hurt your network performance.

I first received the Nest Wi-Fi Pro a few weeks before it was released. I had plenty of time to test the system and write a review to coincide with widespread availability, but I had to wait for some bugs and issues to be fixed before writing this post.

The first problem I found was that any speed test I ran in the Google Home app showed much slower speeds than the system was actually getting. I pay for a 1.2 Gbps downstream and 35 Mbps upstream connection to Comcast. However, when I first set up the Wi-Fi Pro system, I saw speed drops of about 100 Mbps in the app and when using third-party speed test sites.

Eventually, Google discovered an issue with the Nest Wi-Fi Pro and released an update that improves the throughput speeds to the devices in your home. However, the bug persists, showing slow speeds in the Google Home app. Google says a future update will fix the speed test bug.

That said, I still couldn’t get the same type of wireless speed test results as I did with the Eero Pro 6E system. The Nest Wi-Fi Pro caps at around 400 Mbps, which is honestly fast enough (which is why I didn’t see any performance issues). However, I can usually get between 600 and 700 Mbps when using the Eero Pro 6E mesh system.

Again, the speeds I get from the Nest system are fast enough that I haven’t seen any performance issues so far. The concern, however, is that Wi-Fi 6E systems are not reaching their full potential in terms of overall speed.

Google added an Ethernet port to every Nest Wi-Fi Pro access point, reversing course after the company removed the port from the Nest Wi-Fi access point and left only the router with the Ethernet port. This is great news, as it now allows you to connect hardware to an access point in your home (assuming your entire house is running ethernet), or connect nearby devices directly to the access point, improving their wireless connection . For example, an old Xbox game stuck on Wi-Fi 5 will instantly upgrade to a Wi-Fi 6E connection if you connect it to a Nest Wi-Fi Pro access point via one of the two Ethernet ports.

However, the comeback of Ethernet has not been all smooth sailing. Both ports on the Nest Wi-Fi Pro are limited to 1 Gbps speed. That means your internet speed is limited to 1 Gbps, even if you, like me, pay for faster service.

Remember, I pay for 1.2 Gbps service, but my service automatically downgrades to 1 Gbps whenever the Nest Wi-Fi Pro is plugged in. In addition to improving coverage, speed, and network capacity, another selling point of a Wi-Fi 6E system is that it can future-proof your home network. While you probably won’t be paying for speeds over 1 Gbps right now, you might be on the road, but your network will be limited due to the Ethernet port. frustration.

Google’s Nest Wi-Fi Pro system is easy to set up and use, and offers solid network performance. Most importantly, its coverage is really good. Starting at $200 for a single router ($300 for a two-pack, $400 for a three-pack), it’s price-competitive for Wi-Fi 6E systems, and the Eero Pro 6E three-pack normally sells for $669 (but is currently on sale $489).

My complaints about speed and 1 Gbps Ethernet are valid, but also probably something most people don’t need or even notice, at least in the short term. While Google can’t do anything about the Ethernet port through a software update, Google says it’s working hard to fix any bugs related to overall speed.

Google’s Nest Wi-Fi Pro is a worthwhile option for those who’ve already invested heavily in Google’s smart home ecosystem, or are looking to upgrade their home Wi-Fi network but don’t want to overspend.