Eero heads outdoors with Wi-Fi skills
The Eero Outdoor 7 finally delivers on the long-awaited desire from Eero users for dedicated outdoor Wi-Fi. Its rugged, weatherproof design and powerful Wi-Fi 7 capabilities make it a superb solution for extending your network into outdoor areas, and the performance is exceptional. While the single Ethernet port is a personal irk, and the price is a little high, the ease of setup and seamless integration with the Eero ecosystem are major plus points. Ultimately, if you're looking for a high-performance, weather-resistant Wi-Fi 7 Eero solution to blanket your outdoor spaces with reliable coverage, the Eero Outdoor 7 is a much welcome arrival.
Pros
- Amazing outdoor coverage
- Matter controller with Thread
- Zigbee radio
- Power over Ethernet
- Wi-Fi 7
Cons
- Only one Ethernet port
- No 10Gb Ethernet
- Not tri-band, no 6GHz
Eero Outdoor 7 review: Introduction
At the end of last year, Amazon-owned Eero, after years of users begging for one, finally took the covers off of a dedicated outdoor device, designed to extend your Wi-Fi mesh network into your garden… so there’s no more need to stash a regular indoor Eero in a weatherproof box.
Eero Outdoor 7, as you may have guessed from the name, is a Wi-Fi 7 enabled Eero router / satellite, designed to team up with the likes of the Eero 7, Max 7 or Pro 7.
This being Eero though it is, of course, compatible with any Eero routers and satellites, including the excellent Pro 6E and 6+.
It’s powered by Power over Ethernet (PoE) so, should you be able to run an Ethernet cable to the outdoor space you want to extend your Wi-Fi coverage to, not only will you have an easy way to power up the Outdoor 7, but also – if you connect to the Eero PoE Gateway or another Eero satellite via a PoE injector – create a wired backhaul, thus totalling eliminating your outside Wi-Fi woes.
Wi-Fi 7, in case you didn’t know, is a step-change in features and performance, which makes it far more suitable to ever-faster internet speeds and the increasing number of devices connected to home networks; we’re told the Eero Outdoor 7 can handle 200 devices.
There are hardly any Wi-Fi 7 devices at the moment but investing in a system now will future proof your home network for years to come.
It doesn’t come cheap at $349.99, but it is the answer to a lot of Eero user’s (including yours truly’s) outdoor Wi-Fi prayers.
Read on for my full Eero Outdoor 7 review.
Design and setup
- Rugged design
- IP66 weatherproof
- Powered by Ethernet cable
Eero never really strays too far from the blueprint when it comes to design and the Eero Outdoor 7 looks pretty much as you’d expect: white, rectangular, minimalist.
It differs, however, from the likes of the new Eero 7 or the Eero Pro 6E, as the exterior isn’t a shiny plastic, instead it’s gritty metal material, and it feels a lot heavier than its indoor brethren and is bigger too, at 6.34 x 8.18 x 2.54 inches.
Turn the Eero Outdoor 7 around and you’ll find a groove where you can easily slip it on and off the mounting bracket you get in the box.
Also in the box you get mounting accessories for stucco, vinyl, wood, or fiber cement walls and a step-by-step guide for easy installation. So, wherever you want to mount it, it should be pretty easy.
I mounted mine on a wooden shed and it took less than 5 minutes. Eero states to mount the Outdoor satellite 6-15 feet above the ground.
Wherever you do decide to mount it, be sure to think about how you’re going to power it up. On the bottom is a sole Ethernet port, and that is your only option for getting power to the Outdoor 7.
You can just use the PoE adapter you get in the box for power-only and, in this case, you’ll need an outdoor power socket to plug the other end in.
In this mode, you’ll be using the Eero Outdoor 7 as a regular wireless Wi-Fi mesh node, so you’ll want a regular indoor Eero, within range, to get a stable connection. As with adding any new Eero node to the mix, you’ll do a placement test during setup, and you’ll be warned if the signal isn’t good enough.
If you want a wired backhaul, you’ll either need to run an Ethernet cable (Cat 5a or better) from the Eero PoE Gateway, or get a PoE injector involved.
That Ethernet port, by the way, is a 2.5GbE one, and Eero states that it can deliver wireless speeds up to 2.1Gbps. It’s a shame it’s not 10GbE, as that would mean the fastest possible connection to the Eero Gateway or a Max 7, but 2.5GbE is still more than speedy enough for the foreseeable future.
There is, and this is a bit of a kicker for me, only the one port though. So you can’t daisy chain two Eero Outdoor 7 satellites. The thinking here is, I guess, you’d have an extra port to keep clean and dry if it wasn’t being used, but it does seem like a missed opportunity.
You can, however, get two Outdoor 7’s working together as a point-to-point wireless bridge. If they’re spaced up to 1,000 feet apart with a clear line of sight between them, you shouldn’t see much drop out at all.
The PoE cable in the box also features a M22 seal gland – a polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) polymer seal that blocks water entry but allows for condensation and warm air to escape.
If you’re running a cable from inside to out, you’ll be pleased to hear that this waterproof protector comes apart, so you won’t have to drill a massive hole. If you are using PoE and a different Cat5/6 Ethernet cable, then this part also comes off and you’ll have to carefully squeeze your RJ45 connector through the hole.
Also on the bottom is a thread to screw in a ground wire, which is obviously handy if you live in an area with frequent lighting storms, or your grid gets regular surges.
The Outdoor 7 is rated at IP66 so will be able to handle any elements thrown at it, with an operating temperature range of -40F to 130F. Eero tells us it can be left outside all year round, whatever the weather.
Features and the app
- Excellent Eero app
- Premium features cost more
- Smart home skills
Whatever power mode you go for, and whatever way you mount it, the initial pairing for the Outdoor 7 is pretty much identical to any other Eero device and the Eero app talks you through the process and also guides you through physical installation (which you should obviously only do, once you know it all works okay and syncs up with your Eero network).
Managed via the Eero app, the Eero Outdoor 7 is controlled entirely via the cloud with no local web interface. That means no advanced setting, such as the option to change the network channels or separate 2.4 and 5GHz networks; although you can disable 5GHz on Eero temporarily if you’re having issues adding new devices to the network.
The fact that there’s option to split networks into individual bands isn’t really a problem, therefore, especially given Wi-Fi 7’s MLO technology.
The Eero app provides a great overview of what devices are connected to what satellites, and what is going on in your Eero network.
It’s also the place you’ll go to check your network status, reboot devices, create profiles, change settings and so on.
The Eero 7 Outdoor is also a Matter controller with Thread border router capabilities built in, and there’s also Zigbee on board for direct communication with the likes of Hue smart bulbs.
However, and this is always the biggest gripe with Eero, you will need to cough up more to go beyond basic web functionality; Eero Plus is currently $99.99 / £99.99 per year.
For free, you’ll still be be able to create user profiles and assign devices to each person, scheduling when they can and can’t access the internet.
Eero Plus adds in stuff like ad-blocking, web filtering, historical data, and app-blocking, and subscriptions to some extra software like Malware Bytes, 1Password and VPN powered by Guardian.
You also get a clever internet backup feature, where you can designate a second Wi-Fi network for the Eero system to connect to, should your Wi-Fi go down.
Performance
The Outdoor 7 has all of the Eero features you’d expect like TrueChannel and TrueRoam capabilities and we’re told that it provides 15,000 square feet of coverage.
That’s a helluva lot more than a regular Eero node, even the top-dog Eero Max 7 tops out at 2,500 square feet of coverage per unit.
But, that’s because we’re talking outdoor coverage. There’s no walls to get through and much less interference.
And that’s why Eero, I’d suspect, hasn’t bothered with a 6GHz radio on the Outdoor 7.
Streams-wise, it has a pair of dual band radios; 2×2 2.4GHz and 2×2 5GHz, providing up to 2.1Gbit/s of Wi-Fi throughput. Not that you should think of Wi-Fi 7 as individual blocks of spectrum.
Thanks to Multi-Link Operation (MLO), Wi-Fi 7 devices can connect on multiple frequencies at the same time to improve speeds. That is the real key to the speed improvements that Wi-Fi 7 promises.
The Outdoor 7’s design and antenna use, therefore, focuses on maximizing range and coverage, not achieving peak 6GHz speeds, which are inherently short-range.
It’s also important to remember that currently, only a limited number of devices support 6GHz Wi-Fi 7.
This being Eero, it’s all backwards compatible too, you’ll be able to get the Outdoor 7 modules singing and dancing with your existing Eero kit (although you’ll obviously lose some features and speed if you mix and match with older generations).
For example, one of the benefits of Wi-Fi 7 is that it can use 320MHz channels, which is up from 160MHz on Wi-Fi 6/6E. If you mix and match with older Eero devices, and you won’t get this option.
I’ve been testing the Eero Outdoor 7 with a ‘1Gig’ contract with my ISP.
While the theoretical max speed of 1,130Mbps isn’t really achievable, I have got used to Wi-Fi speeds inside my house at over 750Mbps via various Pro 7s and 6Es, all wired directly to an Eero PoE Gateway. (My Xbox is hardwired to my Gateway and gives me a 928Mbps result on the speed test.)
Before setting up the Outdoor 7, I had been using an Eero PoE 6 in my garden, wired to the Gateway over Ethernet, inside a weatherproof box and I was getting speeds of between 500 and 550Mbps.
In the same vicinity, I’m now getting 700-800Mpbs from the Outdoor 7; and around 450-500Mbps at the other end of the garden (around 150 feet away). I even managed speeds of over 400Mbps inside my office, which is an outbuilding around 170 feet away from the Outdoor 7.
That’s with the Eero Outdoor 7 directly connected to the Gateway over Ethernet. When I tested on a a Wi-Fi connection – the nearest node being a Pro 6E around 30 feet away in the kitchen, with a line of site to through some glass doors – I was getting over 450Mbps at the closest point, 350Mpbs at the end of the garden and 300Mbps in the office.
My road is the corner property and I walked 500 feet down the cul-de-sac that runs parallel to my garden and still was able to get a solid 200Mbps connection.
Long story short… it’s fast and it’s powerful.
Final thoughts
The Eero Outdoor 7 solves a long-standing problem for Eero users. Its robust, weatherproof design and Wi-Fi 7 capabilities provide impressive range and speed, especially with a wired backhaul and, while it’s not cheap, and the single Ethernet port is a limitation, the easy setup, smart home features and seamless Eero integration make it a very welcome addition to the Eero mix.
How we test
When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.
Home Wi-Fi devices play a key part in controlling, a smart home ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony.
Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart controller compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.
Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.
Read our guide to how we test to learn more.
FAQs
No, the Eero Outdoor 7 is compatible with all Eero routers and satellites. However, to take full advantage of Wi-Fi 7 features, it’s best paired with other Wi-Fi 7 devices like the Eero 7, Max 7, or Pro 7. Older Eero devices will still work, but may limit some of the newer features.
Yes, you can use the included PoE adapter for power only. In this setup, you’ll need an outdoor power outlet. However, using PoE directly from the Eero PoE Gateway or a PoE injector allows for a wired backhaul, which often provides a more stable and faster connection.
No, the Eero Outdoor 7 has only one Ethernet port, so daisy-chaining via Ethernet is not possible. However, you can use two Outdoor 7 units as a point-to-point wireless bridge for long-range Wi-Fi extension.
No, it’s a dual-band device.
Eero Outdoor 7 review: Specifications
| Product name | Eero Outdoor 7 |
| Release date | October 2024 |
| US price | $349.99 |
| UK price | n/a |
| Dimensions | 208 x 161 x 161 x 90mm (when mounted) |
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Speed rating | BE5000 |
| Wi-Fi coverage | Up to 15,000 sq. ft. of outdoor coverage |
| Supported speeds | Up to 2.1 Gbps wireless |
| Smart home connectivity | Zigbee Smart Home Hub Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 Works with Alexa Thread Matter (as a controller only) |
| Radio frequency | 2.4 GHz: 2×2 5 GHz: 2×2 |
| Ethernet | One auto-sensing 2.5 Gigabit, PoE-capable port |
| Outdoor rated | Yes – IP66 |
