Amazon’s new Eero 7 is its cheapest Wi-Fi 7 router but it won’t make Wi-Fi 7 mainstream yet

It’s been a while since the first Wi-Fi 7 wireless routers appeared in late 2023, but back then the technology was prohibitively expensive. It’s only recently that prices have begun to drop to affordable levels and Amazon is adding to the ranks of cheaper Wi-Fi 7 options with the Amazon Eero 7 and Amazon Eero Pro 7.

You can buy either as a standalone router or build them out into a multi-node mesh system, much like the Eero Max 7 system we reviewed in November 2023. The difference here is that these newer Eero systems are much much cheaper.

Where the Max 7 costs £600 for one unit, the Eero 7 is only £170 and the Eero Pro 7 is £300. As a single unit, both provide a quoted 190m² of coverage, although the Eero 7 is “only” rated for wireless speeds up to 1.8Gbits/sec, while the Eero Pro 7 is rated at up to 3.9Gbits/sec.

If you want to expand into mesh system territory, the Eero 7 will set you back £280 for a two-pack (380m² coverage) and £350 for a three-pack (560m²), while the Eero Pro 7 will cost £700 for a three-pack. 

Those are seriously tempting prices for a technology that has, until recently, been very costly, especially the Eero 7, which undercuts the Netgear Nighthawk RS200 – the cheapest Wi-Fi 7 router we’ve reviewed so far.

As with all the more affordable Wi-Fi 7 hardware we’ve seen to date, though, the cheapest Eero does have severe limitations: it’s only a dual-band router (just like most Wi-Fi 6 routers), operating on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. It’s only when you move up to the pricier Eero Pro 7 that the 6GHz band becomes available.

Unlike the Netgear, however, the Eero 7 does have an ace up its sleeve: it supports MLO (multilink operation) out of the box, a new Wi-Fi 7 technology that allows devices to connect over multiple frequencies. You’ll need the connecting device to support Wi-Fi 7 to take advantage of new technologies like MLO, however.

The new Eero systems are also crammed with smart home technology, as you’d expect from an Amazon-manufactured device. Both can act as Thread Border Routers, support Thread over Matter and support the direct connection of Zigbee devices such as smart bulbs and switches as well. We were impressed with the ease with which the accompanying Eero app allows you to manage such devices when we tested the Eero Max 7, and these new systems should be no different.

So, Wi-Fi 7 is getting cheaper, but should you rush out and buy one of these systems? As it stands, we’d advise against it. With the speed that Wi-Fi technology is flooding onto the market, it surely can’t be long before tri-band routers drop below the £200 mark. At that point, why not? Until then though, most people will still be perfectly well served with a competent Wi-Fi 6 router or mesh system.