Eero Max 7 Mesh WiFi Router Review

Amazon Eero Max 7 Mesh WiFi Router

design and setup

While Amazon’s Eero Max 7 makes a few fundamental design changes from the likes of the Pro 6E, there’s still a familiarity about the gentle curves and gloss white finish of this mesh router. It’s clear that the Eero design team hates a sharp edge because once again the Eero Max 7 draws inspiration from a block of butter that’s melted slightly in the heat. It’s not unpleasant to look at though and besides the flashy silver Eero logo and a small LED pill at the top, this white mesh router does a good job of blending into the background.

Up until this point, all of Eero’s routers had been largely the same size and shape but the Eero Max 7 takes a new approach. Gone is the short, square look in favour of a much larger device that stands tall with a comparatively small footprint. It may be around three times larger overall than the Pro 6E but the Eero Max 7 is far from massive and still sits noticeably smaller than my ISP supplied router. It’s not a case of form over function though as the Eero Max 7’s extra space allows for not only a better antenna layout but four ethernet ports too, a much more useful number for active households.

The Eero ecosystem is pleasantly flexible and I had no problems adding the Max 7 into my existing network of Pro 6E pods. Even when swapping out my primary Eero pod it was just a couple of taps in the app and I was pleased to see it retained all of my existing settings, including specific IP reservations and each of my connected devices acted like nothing had changed. If you’re setting up a network for the first time, the Eero app does a nice job of holding your hand through the process and you’re able to go from box to browsing in just a few minutes.

For the most part, your new Eero network should be pretty set and forget and if you don’t want to get lost in settings it’ll set up everything for you just as a basic ISP supplied router would. The network will also decide on the best wireless backhaul connection between pods, though you are able to sacrifice one of your four ethernet ports for a wired backhaul connection if you’d rather. 

performance

Now admittedly I’m not actually in a position to be able to fully test the capabilities of the Eero Max 7 Mesh WiFi Router so there’ll be no stress testing and full beans benchmarking here. I don’t own any of the relatively small handful of devices capable of using the new WiFi 7 standard and the maximum speed I can pull through my modem is around 600mbps down and 85mbps up. But the thing is, chances are you’ll be in a very similar situation. Eero continues to outpace the real world when it comes to networking technology and while being ahead of the curve is generally a good thing – for most people it’s possibly the Eero Max 7 is more than a couple of steps ahead of where it needs to be.

The good news however, is even without pushing the Eero Max 7 to its limit it was still able to show just how powerful it is and for the most part it did provide a better experience than the next step down Eero Pro 6E. Working with just a one pod setup initially, while both the Pro 6E and Max 7 were able to offer the full speed of my internet connection when in the same room as the router, the Eero Max 7 did a noticeably better job at maintaining that speed as I moved further away and introduced more obstacles.

I was impressed at how fast my connection remained as I moved between rooms and even when my iPhone 15 Pro’s little WiFi icon started to suggest the connection was weakening, both stability and overall speeds still remained strong. Every house is going to be different but I can’t see many standing in the way of the Max 7. Putting the mesh aspect to the side for a minute, even as a standalone router the Eero Max 7 delivers enough speed across enough range to be a viable option for most homes.

First and foremost however the Eero Max 7 is designed to be or be part of a mesh WiFi system and unsurprisingly given the strong single-node performance, adding a second unit to my home only solidified things at range. Eero claims coverage of 232m2 from a single Max 7 and 464m2 from the two pod version I’ve been testing, so given the average UK home is around 90-100m2 there’s plenty of room to play with.

I found the Eero Max 7 did well at quickly switching my devices between nodes as I walked around my property and I didn’t find my devices felt sticky and stubborn about moving between pods. Sometimes it was possibly even a little too keen as I did notice a few occasions where I’d fail to load a webpage at the first attempt as my phone jumped between Eero Max 7 units. This is likely a case of bad timing and some overzealous testing, but it did happen enough times for me to notice and raise an eyebrow. Any time this did occur however it only needed a single refresh to resolve and the page would always load immediately on the second attempt.

The Amazon Eero Max 7 was equally strong when it came to local network performance between devices around my home. The Meta Quest 3 for example is known for not loving mesh networks when it comes to Air Link or screencasting performance, but I was particularly impressed by how the Eero Max 7 stood up to that challenge. Even with my PC connected to one pod and the Quest 3 to another I found the connection more than speedy and stable enough for comfortable wireless gaming.

While I have no quibbles about the setup and overall performance of the Eero Max 7 Mesh WiFi System, it’s certainly an impressive beast, the need for an ongoing subscription to unlock pretty standard in-app features remains a major disappointment. This is a drawback of the cheaper but still top-end Eero Pro 6E too and for me it’s even more unforgivable on a unit starting at £599 for a single pod. While the Eero app is neatly laid out and easy to navigate, far too much of it is paywalled behind a £99 a year subscription. It’s a tactic that cheapens and rather spoils the experience of using a premium level router because it’s not just niche features that are locked away, even basic functionality like whole-network VPN protection or parental controls are off limits unless you fork out and keep forking out. This kind of strategy may have a place on ISP supplied or base-level routers, but you shouldn’t be looking to rinse your top-level customers for all they’re worth.

summed up

There’s no arguing the Eero Max 7 Mesh WiFi System delivers the goods when it comes to speed and network coverage, but truth be told there are few homes that need a router this good and this expensive right now. If you do jump for this £599 pod you’ll be delivered a router that covers your whole home in as much speed as your ISP can give it, but be warned, if you want to get the most out of your hardware you’ll need to keep paying for it year on year.

The bottom line is that I have no real complaints about what the Eero Max 7 can do, but with paywalled app features and such a steep starting price it feels hard to recommend right now. This is the pioneering edge of networking and a device that’s almost certainly ahead of everything else in your home, so it’s less of a case of “don’t get the Eero Max 7”, it’s a case of “don’t get the Eero Max 7 just yet”. Give it time, let Eero hopefully come to its senses about add-on subscriptions and let the overall price drop down first.