Amazon's new eero routers add Wi-Fi 6, built-in Zigbee hub

Amazon held a hardware and services event today, and with it came a ton of announcements on both of those fronts. Some of those announcements came from eero, the mesh Wi-Fi company that Amazon acquired last year, which introduced the new eero 6 and eero Pro 6 routers today.

The new routers come with a couple of notable improvements over the previous generation, the most evident one being support for Wi-Fi 6. With this, the routers not only offer higher speeds, but also support for more connected devices at the same time, with Amazon claiming you can connect more than 75 devices simultaneously. Another big addition is that both routers have a Zigbee smart home hub built in, which can help smart home devices connect to Alexa for smart home control.

The eero 6 is the cheaper of the two, and Amazon says it"s designed for homes with internet speeds of up to 500Mbps. It"s a dual-band Wi-Fi router and, naturally, it supports TrueMesh technology, so you can couple it with two extenders to cover up to 5,000 feet. A single router can cover up to 1,500 feet. Interestingly, its product page says it"s recommended for speeds up to 900Mbps, and it doesn"t completely replace the previous eero router, which is a cheaper alternative.

Meanwhile, the eero Pro 6 is a bigger and more advanced tri-band router, also with support for TrueMesh technology. Amazon recommends this option for homes that have gigabit internet connections so you can get more of the benefits of those speeds. You can combine up to three of these to cover up to 6,000 feet, with a single one covering 2,000 feet.

Both the eero 6 and eero Pro 6 are available to pre-order today, with shipping dates for November 2. While Amazon"s announcement suggests you can buy a three-pack of either one, not all the bundling options seem to be available on Amazon yet. The eero 6 can be found here, and it costs $129 for a single router, or $199 for a pack of two. Meanwhile, the eero Pro 6 is listed here and costs $229 for one unit. In both cases, you"re also given the option to include an Amazon Echo Dot, which is required to make full use of the built-in Zigbee hub.

If you"re looking for the three-packs, you can find them on eero"s own website, with an eero 6 three-pack costing $279, while the eero Pro 6 adds up to $599 for a pack of three.

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