The quest for the perfect internet router is never-ending. In built-up areas, Wi-Fi is an arms race against your neighbours, making sure your signal is stronger than theirs so you can enjoy steady coverage. In regional areas, the challenge becomes covering enough area without too much speed drop-off. Wi-Fi routers are best when you never have to think about them after you set them up.
For the most part, the Eero Max 7 has unquestionably the best coverage in my apartment out of any mesh router I’ve tried previously. One node is more capable than three of my previous top-of-the-line TP-Link nodes, and the speed drop-off is negligible.
However, it doesn’t always play well with smart home devices, the app has limited scope for customisation, the subscription-based ad blocker is hit-and-miss, and the first-line tech support can be frustrating to deal with.
Table of contents
- THE SPEED OF EERO MAX 7: with two 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, you can enjoy wired speeds of up to 9.4 Gbps, wireless speeds of up to 4.3 Gbps and multi-gigabit backhaul speeds, making your network seriously fast.
- THE POWER OF WI-FI 7 TECHNOLOGY: provides more than twice the speed of Wi-Fi 6, so you can enjoy greater capacity, less latency and more efficiency on your network.
- TRUEMESH RELIABILITY: our patented TrueMesh network intelligence dynamically finds the ideal path for data transfer, limiting interference and helping ensure fast, reliable internet.
- LEVEL UP YOUR GAME: eero Max 7 helps deliver high-performance gaming experiences, ideal for AR, VR and cloud applications that require high throughput and low latency.
- ADVANCED DIGITAL SECURITY: an optional subscription to eero Plus protects your data, helping to keep your family’s personal information, connected devices and network protected from online threats.
First impressions
Setting up the Eero Max 7 was a breeze. Once I logged into the app with my Amazon account, it found the unit and took me through the process step by step. It’s a process that even people who aren’t super tech-confident would be able to pull off pretty easily.
Then, suddenly, the devices in my apartment that hadn’t been able to consistently get signal just worked.
Eero Max 7 specs and price in Australia
| Dimensions | H: 221.9mm x W: 183.9mm |
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) |
| Number of radios | 3; tri-band |
| Wi-Fi coverage | Up to 232 m² |
| Supported speeds | Wired: Up to 9.4 Gbps Wireless: Up to 4.3 Gbps |
| Smart Home connectivity | Zigbee Smart Home Hub Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 Works with Alexa Thread |
| Radio Frequency | 2.4 GHz: 2×2 5 GHz: 4×4 6 GHz: 4×4 |
| Physical Interface | Two auto-sensing 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports Two auto-sensing 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports |
| Price | $1,099 |
| Warranty | One year |
| Official website | Amazon Australia |
The significant stuff here is the Wi-Fi 7 standard, 232 square metres of coverage (which is a lot), and four ethernet ports, including two 2.5 Gigabit and 10 Gigabit (which is more speed than the vast, vast majority of Australians are likely to experience any time soon). The lack of USB is disappointing, but not a deal breaker in my eyes.
Speed and coverage
I was really blown away by how much of a difference having the Eero Max 7 made to my internet at home. I previously had a TP-Link Deco device that I absolutely loved at first. But as more of my neighbours set up their Wi-Fi, its inability to auto-change channels caused issues.
I had to manually open the app and move to a less congested channel at least twice a day. Even then, my Sonos speakers on the far side of the bed couldn’t get a reliable signal, and I found myself switching from Wi-Fi to mobile data at night. My apartment is only about 100 sqm, but those three nodes couldn’t give it reliable coverage because of the interference from around 70 other networks.
So, I was nervous to see how just one Eero Max 7 node would go when three from another brand hadn’t produced even coverage. I needn’t have worried. The software’s clever channel auto-switching meant that as soon as it detected congestion on one band, it would just change by itself, with no one noticing. On the TP-Link Deco system, the drop in speed from the study nook to the TV four metres away was around 80% on a good day (but closer to 90%). Now, I get barely any drop-off.
At the time of writing, plugged from the Eero Max 7 directly into my computer my symmetrical 1000 Mbps connection tests at 935 up and 907 down. My iPhone 16 Pro Max (with Wi-Fi 7) over Wi-Fi next to the Eero Max 7 is 876/850, while a Wi-Fi 6 iPhone SE gets 764/744. Next to the TV, where I used to get 200Mbps if I was lucky, but sometimes as low as 50, it only drops to 866/698 on Wi-Fi 7 and 503/429 on Wi-Fi 6. In the spot that has the most congestion, which was previously unusable, it’s 793/297 on Wi-Fi 7 and 222/276 on Wi-Fi 6.
This is partially, of course, because Wi-Fi 7 is a more robust technology with faster speeds, lower latency, and backwards compatibility. The Wi-Fi 7 bands also have significantly less congestion because it’s still too new for most of my neighbours to have it. It’s also because of how the Eero automatically switches to less congested channels when it senses problems. It’s not ideal that you can’t choose the channel yourself, but at least it chooses when to change and it’s something most people will never have to think about again.
Eero Max 7 design
In terms of design, it’s stepped away from the large white tablet design of the previous Eero 6 and the black quad-copter design of other routers to take on a rounded gravestone look. It’s not the prettiest design ever, but it’s also not bad. It will fit in fairly well with a minimalist home, but there’s also no disguising that there’s a giant white router somewhere.
If I were a betting person, I’d say this change was at least partially done so unsuspecting people wouldn’t place objects on top of their router, as some people did with the Eero 6. But that’s just speculation on my part.
What’s not great?
There are a few things that could be better here. For starters, there needs to be a way to have a guest network that only uses the 2.4GHz band. It’s essential for a lot of smart home products. I had a nightmare of a time trying to get things like my light switches to keep a consistent connection. It’s a weird option to omit.
Eero’s locked-down software is also annoying. It’s likely to stop people who don’t know what they’re doing from ruining everything, but there should be an advanced mode for people who do know what they’re doing to tinker. This is a $1,100 device after all. If an electrician or someone similar needs to make a change to suit a smart home setup, they should be able to do that.
I hate that the Wi-Fi radio analytics, ad blocker, and parental controls are locked behind a paid subscription ($15.99 monthly, or $159.99 annually). Paywalled features aren’t unique to Eero, but if someone has spent $1,100 on a router, they should be able to use all the features of that router without shelling out an additional $160 a year.
While we’re talking about the ad blocker, it does not actually block all ads. It does nix some of the more intrusive ones, and it makes it so that you can’t click on the sponsored results at the top of a Google Search result. But ads, particularly ads for Amazon products, remain unblocked. I did wonder how Amazon, a company that advertises a lot and also sells web advertising, would handle offering an ad blocker at a router level. It’s better than I expected, but not what you would expect from an ad blocker.
Finally, I had some mixed experiences with frontline Eero tech support. Not terrible, just a bit unhelpful and unimpressive.
Who is the Eero Max 7 for?
The Eero Max 7 is primarily for early adopters who already have Wi-Fi 7-compatible devices. There are more out there now, with the iPhone 16 Pro Max and a lot of the mid-level and expensive laptops from last year utilising the tech.
But it’s also for people who live in places where there is a lot of wireless congestion. It cuts through like nothing else has.
However, I wouldn’t recommend it to people who want to use parental controls (unless they’re fine paying more money), nor for folks with a lot of smart home devices that require a 2.4GHz-only secondary network. Most will get by on the mixed network once you’re able to get it connected (if you can), but there are more dropouts.
That said, I could write love letters about how much the Eero Max 7 has improved my internet at home. You know a router is working best when you don’t have to think about it at all, and I very rarely have to think about the Eero Max 7. My internet just works now.
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