A quick caveat<\/span> up top. This isn\u2019t a review. does reviews. This isn\u2019t one. There are several reasons for this. First, last week was Disrupt \u2014 I was busy on the other side of the country. Second, this week is my COVID week (third round, otherwise self-explanatory w\/r\/t a limited output). Third, we very rarely review routers here, for a lot of reasons, including resources.<\/p>\n Even so, the Nest Wifi Pro is available now, so I\u2019m committing some of my initial impressions to the page, after setting it up and using it for a few days. I hope this is helpful if you\u2019ve been eyeing one since its unveiling earlier month. If you need something a bit more substantial than my doughy brain can offer up at the moment, I completely get it. We\u2019ve got plenty of big reviews planned over the horizon.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with what the Nest Wifi Pro is an isn\u2019t. It\u2019s \u201cPro\u201d in the sense of where it fits in the broader Google Wifi line. It\u2019s a home router, one that looks nice and is easy to set up. There are faster and more powerful routers out there. There are routers that are more customizable and flexible. If, however, you\u2019re looking for a router with Wi-Fi 6E that works right out of the box, it\u2019s hard to beat.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Brian Heater<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That\u2019s an important thing to note with products like this. At $199, this is a solid entry into Wi-Fi 6E territory. If you\u2019re looking for a quick boost to your home internet, and the current dusty old router is starting to give up the ghost, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find a better \u201cjust works\u201d system out of the box. I say this with the authority of someone who spent his own hours on the phone with terrible ISP customer support, because of some phantom ghost in the machine of the company routers. Amazing how often the fix is someone flipping a switch on their end.<\/p>\n I was long overdue for a wireless upgrade myself, as someone who hosts a lot of podcasts and video livestreams. There are more embarrassing things that can happen to one on a live broadcast, but we won\u2019t get into them here. Suffice it say that a strong and steady internet connection is an important part of doing my job.<\/p>\n Another caveat I should mention before we go further is the one I often give while testing smart home-related tech: I live in New York City. That means, among other, better things, that I have a relatively small dwelling area. Specifically, I\u2019m in a one-bedroom. Google clocks the Nest Wifi Pro\u2019s coverage area as 2,200 square feet (4,400 for a two-pack, 6,600 for the three, etc.). One-bedrooms in NYC tend to range from around 600-800 square feet.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Brian Heater<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With that in mind, a single device was plenty. Speeds can fluctuate during the day, but I found mine to be fairly consistent, regardless of how close I was to the router. If you\u2019re on the fence about whether a single device is enough, it should be more than enough for anything below 1,000 square feet. As you push closer to 2,000 square feet, the bundle starts to make more sense. And the upshot to the UX is that it\u2019s easy to add Google mesh routers down the road (though you won\u2019t get those bundle savings).<\/p>\n The setup process will prove familiar if you\u2019ve ever set up most smart home products \u2014 Google\/Nest stuff in particular, for obvious reasons. There\u2019s not much to the device from the user\u2019s perspective (again, this is intentional). The design is arguably even more minimal than its predecessor. It\u2019s taller and slimmer, the matte color replaced with a shiny, plain job. Your mileage on that last bit will vary, but as with other Nest products, this one is designed \u2014 above all \u2014 to blend in with its surroundings.<\/p>\n There are three ports: power and a pair of Ethernet \u2014 one for the modem, the other to hardwire a single device. That last bit is a potential limiter, of course, as is the 1Gbps upper limit on the built-in Ethernet (to help keep the system under $200, one imagines). That may or may not be an issue, depending on your specific plan. If you have fiber, for example, you\u2019re going to get bottlenecked. Me, I\u2019m stuck with Spectrum at the moment (I know, I know), so, um, no issue there.<\/p>\n But obviously you don\u2019t want a device that sits between you and the wall slowing down your internet speeds. Either way, the service you\u2019re on will determine your ultimate speeds.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Brian Heater<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Download the Google Home app to get started, and you\u2019ll be walked through a straightforward setup process, sped up if you can snap a shot of the QR code on the product\u2019s underside. The paper startup guide included in the box is three basic steps (plug in router, download app, follow on-screen instructions) and two images spread across two small pages. I\u2019m not going to say that\u2019s definitely all you need, but if you don\u2019t run into any hiccups (always a consideration with networking devices), it should be plenty.<\/p>\n Nest Wifi was a fine system, and honestly, if you bought one, you likely don\u2019t need to rush out and upgrade. Its combined speed for Wi-Fi 5 topped out at a stated speed of 2.2Gbps versus the Wifi Pro\u2019s 5.4Gbps. Keep in mind, those are both figured combined across the three bands. Let\u2019s just say they are very<\/i> optimistic figures.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa from 2020 about the upgrade from Wi-Fi 5:<\/p>\n 6 GHz will help address the growing need for Wi-Fi spectrum capacity to ensure Wi-Fi users continue to receive the same great user experience with their devices. Wi-Fi Alliance is introducing Wi-Fi 6E now to ensure the industry aligns on common terminology, allowing Wi-Fi users to identify devices that support 6 GHz operation as the spectrum becomes available.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Brian Heater<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another important note here: The Pro is not backward compatible with the standard Nest Wifi. That means you can\u2019t mix and match. That\u2019s a shame, because you can find some really good deals on those old, standard Nest Wifi devices right now. The other small bit to note here is that, unlike their predecessor, there\u2019s no built-in smart speaker here. But as I type this, you can currently buy a Nest Mini directly from Google for $20, so have at it.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s Nest devices bring some other nice elements to the table, like devoted networks for guests, parent controls and over the air security updates. For a quick and easy way to get your home Wi-Fi network up and running at high speed (including access to the \u00a06GHz band), coupled with some family-friendly features, this is a tough package to beat. The Pro runs $200 for one, $300 for two and $400 for three.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A quick caveat up top. This isn\u2019t a review. does reviews. This isn\u2019t one. There are several reasons for this. First, last week was Disrupt \u2014 I was busy on the other side of the country. Second, this week is my COVID week (third round, otherwise self-explanatory w\/r\/t a limited output). Third, we very rarely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1237667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1237665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrity-gossip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1237665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1237665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1237665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1237665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/CMC_3968.jpg\")
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