Amazon’s home networking company Eero could be about to launch its first routers with support for Wi-Fi 6, according to a pair of leaks. ZatzNotFunny reports that two devices — a Eero 6 Gateway and Eero 6 Extender — have hit the FCC, and has also posted an image of a third device’s box, the Eero Pro 6.
Wi-Fi 6 is the latest version of the Wi-Fi standard and it delivers faster speeds and better support for more devices connecting to a single router. Eero is adding support for the new standard a little later than some of its competitors, who had Wi-Fi 6 products available last year. However, this year the prices of Wi-Fi 6 routers have started hitting more mainstream price points and are now much more widely available.
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In terms of specs, Eero’s new gateway and range extender will reportedly both be dual-band devices, while the Eero Pro 6 router will be tri-band, indicating it should be capable of faster speeds. The dual-band gateway is expected to have a pair of Ethernet ports as well as a USB-C port for charging, but the extender will reportedly come with just a charging port. The routers also appear to contain hardware to support the Zigbee wireless protocol, which ZatzNotFunny notes could allow them to connect to devices like smart light bulbs without needing to go through a Zigbee hub.
There’s no word on when the new devices will be released, but we’re coming up on a year since Amazon used its late-September 2019 event to announce new Eero hardware alongside a host of new Alexa-enabled devices. If it follows a similar schedule this year then an official announcement might not be far away.
