I’m an unashamed fan of many issues Google, however the first offering within the Nest Wi-Fi vary was useful however unremarkable. This time round, properly now it’s accessible in Australia, they’ve stepped it up with some extra options and even higher protection to your residence.
At $349.00 for a single unit, or (on the time of publishing this review) $535.00 for a 3 pack of models, it’s a fairly budget friendly mesh offering. If you’re struggling for Wi-Fi by means of your private home, the plain reply is mesh and it doesn’t should fully substitute your current router.
Design and Hardware
While there’s solely a single shade accessible in Australia, abroad there are extras… however that’s okay, as a result of it’s the extra “commercial” choice in a snow white shade method. It could be good to have a selection of color, however it will slot in most houses or is sufficiently small to cover away in a rack or comms cupboard in case you have one. A level of word right here, is that the facility brick is a bit too huge to go facet-by-facet in a energy strip, so ensure you’ve bought loads of energy factors accessible.
The unit itself is pretty unobtrusive, with a gloss end and the cabling (energy and twin 1Gbps ethernet jacks – one for WAN and one for LAN) all hidden within the rear. This is without doubt one of the potential ache factors for top finish, or “Pro” customers, as a result of it’s extremely seemingly that they might use 2 or extra nodes and wish to join recreation consoles, or different {hardware} like a NAS to the router for improved (wired) efficiency. Only having the 2 ports means you’ll have to make use of Wi-Fi or plug in a swap, which provides — albeit a tiny quantity — latency to your connection. Perhaps even when the subsequent mannequin with Wi-Fi 7 lands, a 10Gbps port could be nice for houses and places of work with a first rate wired community in place.
As an attention-grabbing change from the norm, there’s a single LED on the entrance that flashes totally different speeds and hues to point standing like: Solid white is on-line, quick pulsing white is the gadget booting up, gradual blue pulse is the gadget in setup mode, gradual yellow blinking is a community error. The full record of standing indicators for the lighting will be discovered right here.
Another small, however vital change is that each one Nest Wi-Fi Pro models will be a router, or a mesh node. The earlier technology had a delineation between the 2 the place you’ll should have the precise router unit at your connection level. For this technology, for those who’ve bought a connection (FTTN, FTTC, HFC) that requires a particular modem inside your premises, you possibly can’t have this as a standalone unit, it is going to should be behind your modem. Technically that is the case for FTTP too, however that’s a part of your set up and also you’re delivered the candy fiber goodness direct over an Ethernet cable.
Setup: As straightforward as organising any Google gadget
Like any Google gadget, you’ll must have the Google Home app put in on your gadget to arrange the Nest Wi-Fi Pro. Then you merely observe the bouncing ball to setup a new gadget, set the SSID and password (make it a sturdy one…) for the community, and make sure you’re selecting the best mode (router or Access Point) to your gadget.
The remaining settings configuration is automagically performed within the background for you and takes a couple of minutes for the unit to return on-line. Once it’s on-line, the gadget will present up as a new “Wi-Fi” in your Google Home app and be accessible to your wi-fi linked gadgets.
If you’ve bought a must setup extra superior settings, you’ve bought entry to choices like WAN, LAN, DHCP and port ahead settings. This can also be a helpful place to be, in case you have a few of these small carbon primarily based life kinds in your house that not often search for from screens as a result of you possibly can pause their Wi-Fi entry.
Performance: Power to burn
Wi-Fi 6e isn’t the quickest offering relating to Wi-Fi, nevertheless it’s going to be a vital step up from what most houses (notably those that are utilizing the ISP offered choice) have in place. Where the Nest Wi-Fi Pro will present it’s hand is the Matter and Thread compatibility for Smart Home setups, it will not be a driver for you now… however ensure that any linked {hardware} you purchase is appropriate transferring ahead as a result of it is going to matter quickly!
According to Google’s documentation, a single node will cowl a two bed room residence however there’s a couple of variables to contemplate. The form, flooring space and supplies used within the development of your private home have a huge affect on this. A very lengthy, double brick residence with the router situated at one finish of the home goes to wrestle to get Wi-Fi to the again finish of the home, however a very sq. residence with the router centrally situated will doubtlessly handle with one.
In actuality, even a modest 3 bed room residence will profit from the higher protection you’ll get by including an additional node or two. Providing they’re successfully speaking with one another, the protection round your private home will enhance. The simplest and easy strategy on the place to put nodes is to maximise peak and to, ideally, place the nodes in a triangle.
For our review, there was simply a single unit and it carried out admirably in a massive three bed room residence; growing the protection and sign energy over the ISP offered router considerably. The unit was put in at my mom-in-regulation’s home and, whereas she doesn’t have or need larger velocity Internet, the Nest Wi-Fi Pro was greater than able to maxing out her 25Mbps/10Mbps connection and offering nice protection to all linked gadgets; in principle, as much as 100 of them.
Daily use: It simply works, and that’s what you need to anticipate
Once you’ve bought the Nest Wi-Fi Pro setup as your most popular entry level, the whole lot simply works. The knowledge switch is fast and dependable, and speedy even when a number of gadgets are linked and streaming. Within the app, you possibly can simply see what number of gadgets are linked and even change settings for the community as you would like.
The draw back of the Nest Wi-Fi Pro
The solely actual draw back I can provide you with after having this put in at my mom-in-regulation’s home for a month or so now, is that it’s not backwards appropriate with the earlier technology. So I’d query if that’s actually a downside to the vast majority of patrons. The purpose for the dearth of backwards compatibility is that the Pro makes use of the 6Ghz band to attach between nodes, the place the final technology makes use of 5Ghz.
Conclusion: It’s a nice worth offering
One of the nice issues in regards to the Google {hardware} is simply how easy it’s to put in and the Nest Wi-Fi Pro suits that description completely. The Nest Wi-Fi Pro can also be moderately cheap to improve your Wi-Fi, or outright substitute your current router as talked about within the introduction. The ease of setup is definitely engaging, and having some extra superior options accessible will go well with a enormous majority of residence primarily based customers.
There’s a couple of fairly minor quibbles with design selections like lack of backward compatibility, the dearth of a 10 gig port, and every node solely having a pair of Ethernet on them; however these are options that many customers aren’t going to utilise.
If you’re joyful to maneuver previous these and take a look, then the same old channels (on-line and retail shops) are the very best go-to to select up a number of models to wash your private home in candy, candy Wi-Fi.