Mesh Wi-Fi pioneer Eero is entering a new frontier: the outdoors. Today, the Amazon-owned company announced the Eero Outdoor 7. Starting at $349.99, the dual-band 2.4 and 5Ghz Wi-Fi 7 access point is IP66 rated and can provide up to 15,000 square feet of outdoor coverage at speeds of up to 2.1 Gbps. That should be enough to stream movies to your outdoor TV or projector, get good connectivity for your security cameras, and even run decent Wi-Fi to that shed at the end of the garden.
With connectivity being a necessity for so many things we do, from work to play, it feels increasingly important to extend your Wi-Fi network beyond your home and into your garden. Nick Weaver, CEO of Eero, explained The edge in an interview that a purpose-built device to extend an Eero mesh network outdoors is their most requested product. “What we’ve heard over and over from our customers since launch is, ‘I have all these devices outside. Do you have a product for that?’”
With the Eero Outdoor 7, Eero users can now use their Wi-Fi network outdoors, regardless of the weather. The device, which is backwards compatible with all Eero products, has an IP66 rating, meaning it can withstand water jets and extreme temperatures. “Our design goals were that we wanted the system to be able to operate in the desert in the summer and in Alaska in the winter,” says Weaver, explaining that it was tested “in the Arizona heat, in a commercial refrigerator, on beaches and in a tunnel with wind speeds of 160 km per hour.”
“It’s because of the proliferation of devices and people being used to being able to work from anywhere,” says Nick Weaver
The device is rated for temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit and up to 130F and comes with a new three-year warranty. (Indoor Eero units have a one-year warranty.) The Outdoor 7 is designed to be mounted on a wall and comes with mounting accessories for stucco, vinyl, wood, or fiber cement walls. Weaver says it can also be wrapped around a pole. “It’s really flexible,” says Weaver.
To maintain watertightness, there is only one port: a 2.5GbE port that supports Power over Ethernet and has a special seal. There’s also the option of a 30W Outdoor PoE Plus power adapter that allows you to plug the Outdoor 7 into an outdoor power socket and connect wirelessly to an Eero network. Weaver said this comes with an extra-long 18-foot cable. The Outdoor 7 comes with the cable for $399.99.
While Eero’s indoor Eero Max 7 line is a tri-band router that adds the 6GHz band, the outdoor model only offers 2.4 and 5GHz. Weaver said this is because there are “some pretty big limitations on outdoor use of 6GHz. It can seriously affect the product experience. We felt that, with a maximum of two performances per second and given the number of external customers, this was a great balance in terms of what the technology can support and the price.”
The Outdoor 7 also offers point-to-point connectivity, so two out-of-sight devices can extend a network to other buildings, such as a shed or garage. This ensures a faster connection, Weaver said. “Hundreds of megabits per second at almost half a kilometer away,” he said. “Say if you have a gig at your house, you can easily get 200 to 400 Mbps in a shed if it’s not too far away.” He said you can also wire devices from there using an Eero POE gateway or simply use Eero’s mesh networking technology.
In addition to extending Wi-Fi to an outdoor TV or entertainment system or working on your laptop in the yard, an outdoor access point can help with smart home issues like keeping your security cameras online.
Today, many more outdoor devices require Wi-Fi, from smart sprinklers and landscape lighting to connected pool pumps, gate and garage door controllers, and smart locks. Even cars now require Wi-Fi for software updates. It is clear that our connectivity needs are increasing. “It’s due to the proliferation of devices and people being used to being able to work from anywhere. Many customers are also building outdoor entertainment spaces,” Weaver says. The Eero Outdoor 7 also works as a smart home hub, with support for Thread, Zigbee, and Matter devices.
The Outdoor 7 is pricey at $350. A Wi-Fi 6 outdoor access point from TP-Link costs less than half that (a Wi-Fi 7 version is coming soon). Ubiquiti’s new Wi-Fi 7 option costs $250. However, the combination of Wi-Fi 7, IP66, and 15,000 square feet of coverage in the Eero appears to be a first for a consumer-level device.
The Eero Outdoor 7 will be available on November 13 for $349.99 from eero.com, Amazon and Best Buy, among others. If you need the outdoor power adapter, it comes in a bundle for $399.99. A Canadian version will be available soon.
