Google Wifi Review: Mesh for the Right Price

Our Verdict

Google Wifi is easy to use, more affordable than competing mesh routers and delivers solid operation (if you get the iii-pack).

For

• Excellent user interface
• Stable, consistent signals
• Modest, unobtrusive design
• Works with Philips Hue smart lights, IFTTT
• Trusted Platform Module to verify firmware

Against

• Short range for single unit of measurement
• No parental controls
• Lacks USB ports

Tom'south Guide Verdict

Google Wifi is easy to employ, more affordable than competing mesh routers and delivers solid performance (if y'all become the iii-pack).

Pros

• +

  Excellent user interface

• +

  Stable, consistent signals

• +

  Small, unobtrusive design

• +

  Works with Philips Hue smart lights, IFTTT

• +

  Trusted Platform Module to verify firmware

Cons

• -

  Brusque range for single unit

• -

  No parental controls

• -

  Lacks USB ports

The days of getting a single router and then filling in Wi-Fi dead zones with an extender might be finally over. Google'southward Wifi (that'due south how Google spells the name) mesh-router kit is an easy, fast and, at less than $200 for a three-pack, relatively inexpensive mode to embrace a habitation with wireless data.

But you'll definitely need more than one unit to work finer, as individual Google Wifi units have shorter ranges than those of any other mesh-router system we've tested. You'll also need a phone or tablet, and a Google account, to set them upwardly.

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We can recommend Google Wifi over the Eero and Luma systems, which are like to Google Wifi but more than expensive. Simply if price were no objection, we'd spend the extra $100 and go for the much more powerful Netgear Orbi.

Editor's Annotation: A new version of Google Wifi was released in 2020, featuring nearly identical hardware and performance, but the power connector was changed from USB-C to a standard barrel connector and the whole system has a lower per-unit toll. Our overall recommendations for the Google Wifi utilize to both versions, and are unchanged since this review offset ran in Apr of 2017.

Google has besides released the more than powerful and capable Nest Wifi , which effectively replaces the Google Wifi equally i of the top mesh systems out there. Acquire more in our commodity Google Wifi vs. Nest Wifi: Which mesh router should y'all buy?

Each Google Wifi unit is small and can be hidden on a shelf or a window sill.

Google Wifi review: Pattern

With a diameter of 4.one inches and a summit of 2.seven inches, each Google Wifi unit is small and can be hidden on a shelf or a window sill. They're tiny compared with the Netgear Orbi's viii.9-inch-tall base of operations station, and are more on a par with Ubiquiti Network's AmpliFi Hard disk's 3.9-inch cube router.

Like the AmpliFi HD, each Google Wifi unit has an LED ring to show its status. The LED can be dimmed or turned off. It glows bluish-white when things are OK, simply changes to amber if your internet connexion is severed. Google Wifi, however, lacks the AmpliFi HD's one.6-inch touch screen or the ability to deed as a clock or a visual network monitor.

You can buy Google Wifi units for $129 each, or a gear up of three for $299. That'south inexpensive compared with other mesh-router systems such as the AmpliFi, Eero or Luma, which cost $350 and $400 for a three-pack, respectively, or the fifty-fifty pricier Linksys Velop and Orbi, which cost $350 or $400, respectively, for two powerful units.

• Google Wifi vs. Nest Wifi: Which mesh router should you buy?

Built around 2x2 MIMO technology (which means it can handle two streams of simultaneous data connections with 1 similarly equipped laptop), the Google Wifi organization has a theoretical maximum performance of one.2Gbps. There's an array of five antennas (four Wi-Fi and i Bluetooth) bundled effectually each device's circumference.

Each Google Wifi node is rated to cover i,500 square feet, more than than enough for most apartments and pocket-size houses. 3 Google Wifi devices tin can, in theory,  cover a 4,500-square-human foot dwelling. You tin connect upwardly to four satellites, making up to five broadcast points in total, to cover actress existent estate.

On the underside of each Google Wifi unit of measurement is a USB-C power port, along with a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports for linking the router to the home's broadband modem equally well as to a networked information-storage unit of measurement, printer or LAN switch (if yous need to connect more Ethernet devices).

On units acting every bit extenders rather than routers, both Ethernet ports can connect to local devices (or straight to the router unit of measurement, if you accept enough cable to hardwire the nodes). If yous accept a combination modem/router, you lot'll demand to disable its router functions to use Google Wifi.

However, at that place'south no USB 2.0 port to hook upwards a Google Wifi unit to a local printer or storage drive. If you use such a device, you lot'll have to merchandise upwardly to a networked 1. (To be off-white, most of the mesh-router systems that come up with USB ports oasis't turned them on.)

Because each Google Wifi unit is physically identical, whatever one of them tin exist gear up every bit the router in a mesh-router configuration. Google Wifi is as well backward-compatible with Google's earlier router, the OnHub, so one or more Wifi units can be added as a node to extend an OnHub'southward range. (Google has appear that the OnHub routers volition reach end-of-life in Dec 2022.)

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Specs

Wi-Fi Spec: 802.11ac/Dual Band Mesh
Number of Antennas/Removable: 4/No
Ports: Two 1Gbps LAN, USB-C (power)
Processor: ARM quad-core 710MHz
Memory/Storage: 512MB/4GB
WiFi Scrap: Qualcomm IPQ4019
Summit 802.11ac Performance: 464.4Mbps
Range: 105 feet (router but)
Size: 4.one x 4.1 10 two.7 inches

Google Wifi review: Performance

With the ability to handle only two lanes of information traffic, Google Wifi is a stride behind the Ubiquiti AmpliFi HD, Linksys Velop and Netgear Orbi 's three concurrent data streams, and our test results bore that out. Like the roughly similar Eero mesh-router system, the Wifi lacks the latest MU-MIMO engineering for satisfying several clients at once.

Each Google Wifi unit is powered past a 710 MHz ARM-based quad-core processor, and has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of solid-state storage space. It uses Qualcomm'southward IPQ4019 Wi-Fi radio and control bit.

Google says the internal network created among three or more nodes is a true mesh network, in that each node is equal and you can send signals betwixt satellite nodes without going through the router node. In our own testing, nosotros were not able to ostend or disprove this, merely whereas some mesh systems' signals jumped all over the place, the Wifi was stable and consequent.

Using IxChariot software, Purch Labs' real-world testing showed that a single Google Wifi device could deliver a combined throughput of 464.four  megabits per 2nd at 5 feet, which drops to 440.one Mbps (at 15 feet), 389.7 Mbps (50 feet) and 227.2Mbps (100 anxiety). Compared with other single mesh-router units, those numbers are respectable but non spectacular.

Router Performance Compared (in Mbps)

	AmpliFi HD	Eero	Google Wifi	Linksys Velop	Netgear Orbi RBK50	Netgear Orbi RBK40
five anxiety	368.17	573.65	464.36	412.34	552.xi	549.93
fifteen feet	377.73 +2.6%	450.96 -21%	440.90 -five.ane%	527.ten +30%	510.90 -seven.5%	543.50 -one.2%
50 feet	350.83 -iv.vii%	449.87 -22%	389.74 -16%	459.35 +11%	447.13 -19%	478.29 -thirteen%
100 feet	293.82 -20%	250.27 -56%	227.22 -51%	330.06 -20%	371.42 -33%	315.45 -43%
150 feet	230.86 -37%	229.85 -60%	33.79 -93%	288.42 -30%	229.07 -58%	187.54 -66%

* Line-of-sight testing with a single router point. Percentages indicate change from 5-foot measurement on same device.

However, at 150 anxiety, a unmarried Google Wifi device could deliver only 33.eight Mbps, a 93 percent decrease from the five-foot rate. No other mesh system we've tested showed such a steep drib-off past 100 feet.

By comparison, the Amplifi Hd, Eero, Orbi and Velop were all pushing between 229 and 288 Mbps at 150 anxiety – more than the Google Wifi could manage at 100 feet. Once again, if you get Google Wifi, you'll demand to become more than i.

The Google Wifi'south signal showed lilliputian deterioration when penetrating walls with metallic shelving, thick soundboard and ceilings, although the Eero showed even less. In the Purch Labs' single-hop and double-hop tests involving extra nodes placed every 50 feet, the Wifi vanquish the Eero, only mayhap merely considering the Eero'south stronger overall signal strength caused more interference betwixt nodes.

Data Penetration Compared (in Mbps)

	AmpliFi Hd	Eero	Google Wifi	Linksys Velop	Netgear Orbi RBK50	Netgear Orbi RBK40
Metal	343.45 -ix.1%	448.58 -0.5%	396.39 -10%	559.95 +six.ii%	455.lxx -11%	536.72 -one.2%
Soundboard	369.51 -2.ii%	457.17 +1.4%	402.55 -8.7%	381.66 -28%	549.99 +7.7%	540.96 -0.v%
Ceiling	390.21 +3.iii%	471.79 +4.6%	425.2 -iii.6%	67.80 -87%	424.12 -17%	384.83 -29%

*Throughput from a unmarried router point passing through ceiling and walls of different compositions. Percentages indicate change from 15-pes line-of-sight measurement.

The Wifi perked up when its units were placed in complicated configurations scattered amongst multiple rooms on two floors. With the router prepare xxx feet and one wall away from a satellite node, and the Purch Labs exam laptop located one floor up, directly to a higher place the satellite, we read 189.9 Mbps, a more than fourfold boost above the throughput without the intervening node. That's a lot more than than the Eero.

Single-Line Extension Hop Test (in Mbps)

	AmpliFi HD	Eero	Google Wifi	Linksys Velop	Netgear Orbi RBK50	Netgear Orbi RBK40
Single Hop (100 feet)	219.93 -25%	128.99 -48%	175.57 -23%	331.62 +0.5%	475.87 +28%	394.49 +25%
Double Hop (150 feet)	n/a	103.52 -55%	128.90 +282%	223.22 -23%	n/a	n/a

*Extensions placed every 50 feet between router and endpoint. Percentages indicate modify from line-of-sight tests at same distances without extensions.

However, the Velop and Orbi blew the Wifi (and the Eero) out of the water in these 3D tests, Those systems have much stronger signals, MU-MIMO capabilities and a 3rd band, inaccessible to client devices, to handle the communications betwixt nodes. They're in a dissimilar league.

3D Extension Hop Tests (in Mbps)*

	AmpliFi Hard disk	Eero	Google Wifi	Linksys Velop	Netgear Orbi RBK50	Netgear Orbi RBK40
30 ft thru 2 walls (A to B)	393.32	445.33	251.09	371.03	333.64	392.13
33 ft thru wall, ceiling (A to C)	192.47	136.46	36.75	121.81	119.99	95.92
48 ft thru 2 walls, ceiling (A to D)	99.72	ten.62	4.42	40.29	47.35	nineteen.63
One hop, 45 ft thru ceiling, two walls (A to B to C)	202.08 +five.0%	117.63 -13.8%	189.92 +417%	427.00 +250	429.13 +258%	413.30 +331%
I hop, 68 ft thru ceiling, iv walls (A to B to D)	158.01 +58%	99.81 +839.eight%	73.23 +1,557%	332.79 +726%	245.66 +419%	230.53 +1074.4%
Two hops, 80 ft thru ceiling, 4 walls (A to B to C to D)	n/a	30.71 +189.2%	56.63 +1,181%	145.41 +261%	north/a	north/a

*Start iii tests involve straight router-to-client communication, with customer laptop moving to new rooms and floors. Second three tests add together extensions to same configurations. Percentages indicate modify in data throughput between 2 sets.

In an old suburban dwelling with lots of thick walls, a single Google Wifi unit of measurement, interim as a router, had a range that reached equally far every bit 105 anxiety. By comparison, the Eero reached but 65 anxiety, The Google Wifi network easily covered the 3,500-square-pes, three-story home in two dissimilar configurations, with range to spare.

(Prototype credit: Purch Labs examination involving Google Wifi router at corner of workspace. Red indicates strongest bespeak, blue weakest. Credit: Purch Labs)

Nosotros starting time prepare one node acting as a router in the eye of the abode'southward primary floor, with the two other nodes acting as extensions in the basement and 2nd floor, straight higher up and below the router. Then we put the router node in the basement and the extensions on the main and 2nd floors.

(Image credit: Purch Labs examination with Google Wifi router at corner of workspace, and one satellite node in center. Red indicates strongest bespeak, blue weakest. Credit: Purch Labs)

Either way, the network delivered between sixty- and 95 Mbps of download speed out of a potential 100 Mbps equally measured past Speedtest.net.

(Image credit: Purch Labs test with Google Wifi router at corner of workspace, one satellite node in centre, and another satellite node in opposite corner. Cerise indicates strongest signal, blueish weakest. Credit: Purch Labs)

Google Wifi too survived our informal saturation test, in which we played videos on an iPad Pro and a Microsoft Surface Pro iii tablet while a MacBook Air played an internet radio station and a Samsung Milky way Tab Pro S swapped information with a LAN storage system. The audio came through loud and clear, while the video was polish without dropped frames or skips.

(Image credit: Purch Labs exam with Google Wifi router at center of workspace, and satellite nodes in opposite corners. Ruby indicates strongest bespeak, blue weakest. Credit: Purch Labs)

Google Wifi review: Setup, warranty and support

In a globe where every new mesh-router kit tries to simplify the setup process further, Google Wifi well-nigh takes the lead. Information technology doesn't require whatever knowledge of networking, the cyberspace or of computer technology. Y'all will demand a Google account, even so.

After plugging the Google Wifi device I planned to use equally the router into an electric outlet and my broadband modem, I loaded and opened the Google Wifi app on my iPad Pro tablet. There are apps for iOS 8 and later and Android 4 and later, just as with most mesh-router systems (except the Orbi), there'due south no way to configure the devices from a PC, Mac or online interface.

Yous'll need to type in the code printed underneath the Google Wifi device, or capture its QR code. The interface rapidly creates a Bluetooth connexion with your phone or tablet. Later you sign in using a Google business relationship, the app finds the device and asks you to select the device'due south location or type one in.

Finally, yous demand to come up with a network name and a passcode. That'south it. The network started doling out data later a quick restart. Adding the mesh extensions took 5 minutes each. At the end, the software presented me with a summary of the settings and performed a network test. All told, it took 15 minutes to fill my house with information.

The Google Wifi mesh kit includes a one-year warranty and a slew of online resources that range from videos and tips to mesh tutorials. In that location's a 24/seven hotline if you lot need to talk to a technician, and you can too email them questions. On the downside, in that location's no manual with detailed instructions.

MORE: How a VPN Can Boost Your Security and Privacy

Google Wifi review: Customization and smart dwelling house

As is the case with the Luma and AmpliFi HD apps, the Google Wifi app'south setup screens run in portrait mode. The principal screen monitors the network, shows that your extensions are connected and lets yous adjust a invitee network's settings. At any time, you tin can run a network check.

The Settings section has a manner to prioritize which systems get first dibs on data, and can also control home automation devices such as the Philips Hue span and continued lights directly, and smart thermostats and smart locks through IFTTT.

However, at that place's no way to interact with a voice banana, whereas most mesh-router systems tin accept basic Amazon Alexa commends. And although Google shares a parent company with Nest Labs, IFTTT is for the moment the merely way Google Wifi tin interact with the Nest Cam, Protect and Smart Thermostat.

The Google Wifi app lets yous manage port forwarding and set your favorite DNS server. The Network Settings are rudimentary, all the same, compared with those of some traditional routers, having but the abilities to restart the router, do a factory reset and add another extension.

Google Wifi supports static IP addressing, and you can as well reserve IP addresses for key LAN accessories. It also lacks controls that are standard on high-performance traditional routers, such as the ability to adjust the transmission strength and change the aqueduct width. While Google Wifi doesn't currently work with IP version vi addressing, Google is working on an update to add together that office.

MORE: 32 All-time Things Google Banana Tin Practice

Google Wifi review: Security and parental controls

Like virtually contempo mesh-router systems, Google Wifi supports WPA2 wireless encryption. It won't work with older and less secure WEP-based devices, though. If y'all have any Wi-Fi-enabled devices built earlier 2002, you might have to connect them to the router via Ethernet.

Each Google Wifi unit has an Infineon Trusted Platform Module (TPM) congenital in, which can thwart hackers past creating an encrypted link with Google's servers for downloads and verifying the installed firmware upon reboot. Google Wifi automatically updates its firmware as needed, something that many mesh routers, and more than regular routers are beginning to practise.

Unlike some other modern home wireless routers, Google Wifi lacks parental controls. You can "pause" the internet connexion to specific or all devices for dinner or a family meeting, merely that's about it. You can't cut off excursions into the dark side of the online globe past blacklisting websites or categories. Nor tin y'all limit individual users' hours of online utilise.

The Google Wifi also doesn't screen out known malicious websites, which the current Bitdefender Box and upcoming Norton Core and F-Secure Sense security routers practice.

Google Wifi review: Verdict

It may non exist the nearly powerful mesh-router kit around, only Google Wifi's $300 three-pack is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to fill a large habitation with strong wireless connections. Because information technology lacks parental controls, a detailed settings menu or a desktop authoritative interface, the Google Wifi may non for everyone — but it is for those who want to ready upwards a mesh-router organisation without thinking nigh it likewise much, or without busting their budgets.

Brian Nadel is a freelance author and editor who specializes in technology reporting and reviewing. He works out of the suburban New York City area and has covered topics from nuclear power plants and Wi-Fi routers to cars and tablets. The former editor-in-principal of Mobile Computing and Communications, Nadel is the recipient of the TransPacific Writing Award.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/google-wifi,review-4307.html

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