[ad_1]
Wyze, the smart home company, revealed its first Wi-Fi mesh routers last year. The entry-level Wyze router is here, and now the higher-end model is available for purchase, but there’s a catch.
The Wyze Wi-Fi 6E Mesh Router Pro, as it’s officially called, is a mesh system like Google’s Nest Wifi or Amazon’s Eero line. It promises whole-home coverage, thanks to the use of multiple base stations and compatibility with the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard. Wyze advertises speeds of up to 2.5Gbps and support for 6GHz bands, but you’ll only get those cutting-edge features with a connected device that also supports Wi-Fi 6E. There aren’t many of those yet; some examples include the 2023 MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch, select Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets, and the latest Mac Mini.
There are some features that are missing compared to other popular mesh systems, such as support for Thread or Matter, but Mesh Router Pro covers all the basics. Each station has Ethernet ports, which is not the case with regular Eero or Google Nest systems. The Wyze app is used to manage and change settings, but there also appears to be some sort of web dashboard, according to the company’s support documentation.
However, there is a catch with the new system. Wyze said in November that he would sell the Pro system in a bundle for $173.99, or $273.99 for a 2-pack, but those plans have changed. There is no option to purchase a station – you can only purchase a 2-pack for $273.99 or a 3-pack for $447.98 (currently on sale for $393.99). Although the main selling point of a mesh Wi-Fi system is multi-station connectivity, the option to buy a unit would still be useful for anyone wanting the other features and integration of the Wyze ecosystem.
The lack of a 1-pack option also makes expanding your network later on a more expensive proposition; even if you only need one more unit to cover a dead zone, you will have to buy two units. The regular Wyze Mesh Router is available as a single unit, but it only supports Wi-Fi 6 (not 6E) and can’t join a Pro Station mesh network.
Wyze acknowledged the issue in a Reddit comment, saying that a 1-pack build will eventually be available, but there’s no public timeline for that at the moment. That’s good to hear, and the wait shouldn’t be too bothersome; anyway, most people don’t have anything with Wi-Fi 6E support right now.
[ad_2]
