Eero’s new product takes Wi-Fi beyond your walls

Mesh Wi-Fi pioneer Eero is tackling 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 boasts an IP66 rating and can provide up to 15,000 square feet of outdoor coverage with speeds of up to 2.1Gbps. That should be enough to stream movies to your outdoor TV or projector, get good connectivity for your security cameras, and even funnel some decent Wi-Fi to that shed at the end of the garden.

With connectivity now a necessity for so many things we do, from work to play, extending your Wi-Fi network beyond your home into your yard feels increasingly more important. Nick Weaver, CEO of Eero, told The Verge in an interview that a purpose-built device to extend an Eero mesh network outdoors is their most requested product. “The thing we’ve heard time and time again from our customers since we launched is, ‘I’ve got 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 backward-compatible with all Eero products, has an IP66 rating, meaning it can withstand jets of water and extreme temperatures. “Our design goals were we wanted it to be able to work in the desert in the summer and Alaska in the winter,” said Weaver, explaining it was tested “in the heat of Arizona, a commercial refrigerator, on beaches, and in a tunnel with 100 MPH winds.”

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 devices have a one-year warranty.) The Outdoor 7 is designed to be mounted to a wall and comes with mounting accessories for stucco, vinyl, wood, or fiber cement walls. Weaver says it can also be wrapped on a pole. “It’s really flexible,” said Weaver.

To maintain its waterproofing, there is only one port — a 2.5GbE port that supports Power over Ethernet and has a special sealing gasket. There’s also the option of a 30W Outdoor PoE Plus power adapter that lets you plug the Outdoor 7 into an outdoor AC outlet and connect wirelessly back to an Eero network. Weaver said this comes with an extra-long 18-foot cable. The Outdoor 7 comes bundled with the cable for $399.99.

While Eero’s indoor Eero Max 7 line is a tri-band router adding 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 usage of 6GHz. It can really impair the product experience. We felt that with up to 2 gigs a second and given the number of clients outside, this was a great balance in terms of what the technology can support and price point.”

The Outdoor 7 also offers point-to-point connectivity, so two placed in line of sight can extend a network to other buildings, like a shed or garage. This provides a faster connection, said Weaver. “Hundreds of megabits per second at almost half a mile away,” he said. “Say, if you have a gig in your house, you could easily get 200 to 400 Mbps out in a shed if it’s not too far away.” He said you could also hardwire devices from there using an Eero POE gateway or just use Eero’s mesh networking technology.

Beyond extending Wi-Fi to an outdoor TV or entertainment system or working on your laptop in the garden, an outdoor access point can help with smart home struggles like keeping your security cameras online.

Today, many more outdoor devices need Wi-Fi, from smart sprinklers and landscape lighting to connected pool pumps, gate and garage door controllers, and smart locks. Even cars need Wi-Fi now for software updates. Clearly our connectivity needs are increasing. “It’s the proliferation of devices and that people are just accustomed to being able to work everywhere and a lot of customers are also building outdoor entertainment areas,” said Weaver. 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 is $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 starting on November 13th for $349.99 at 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 is coming soon.