For the past couple years we’ve been seeing new wireless systems pop up all over the market. Now what we have on our best wireless router 2021 list is some of the most popular wireless systems out there now. We’ve done a lot of testing with each one of these so we do want to talk about it and figure out which one might be best for you. This article is a detailed review on Netgear Orbi, Google Wifi, Euro Pro and Unbiquiti Amplifi HD.
<h3>Comparison Table: Best Wireless Router 2021</h3>
Finding the best wireless router is time-taking and requires alot of effort. So we put our time and effort instead into finding the best of the wireless routers based on their wireless compatibility, frequency support and other factors that matters.
| Rank | Router Name | Ethernet Ports | Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ||
| 2 | 2 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ||
| 3 | 5 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ||
| 4 | 5 | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ||
| 5 | — | ⭐⭐⭐ |
Keep in mind the internet speeds will always be limited to whatever speed you’re paying for from your service provider so if you’re paying for 100 Meg down and 10 Meg up speed, getting a new Wi-Fi system isn’t going to magically give you a 500 mega connection. If you are living out there in smaller home you don’t really need a powerful router for just like a small apartment. Now that does depend of course on walls and your neighbors because all this interference can kind of come into play.
If you have DSL as your internet connection or satellite just a really frankly slow (less than 25mb/sec) internet connection. Getting a good router isn’t gonna really do a heck of a lot to help you if you don’t have a lot to work with in the first place.
We would also like to mention that if your modem is older than around 3 or 4 years old it might be worth checking into getting a new modem at the same time as getting a new WiFi router. So the big question here is why should we care about having good WiFi in our home. Well basically we would say it kind of breaks down to you’re not getting what you’re paying for if you don’t have a good router.
Table of Contents
Netgear Orbi RBK50
First on our list of best wireless router 2021 is Netgear Orbi RBK50 which is priced around $320. So this device comes with one main router that connects to your internet gateway and one access point that can connect to your main router wirelessly or can be wired directly for more stable and faster connections. Out of all systems we tested Orbi definitely provided the fastest speeds. Overall we’ve got great speeds in all testing locations including outside in the driveway.
Aside from speed and coverage Orbi RBK50 also has advanced network features that you won’t find on the other mesh wireless systems. Now as much as we love Orbi we did have a few issues with it. Even though the setup process was simple it did take a few tries to get the access point connected to the main router and we also had one or two occasions where devices will randomly disconnect from the network. If Netgear can iron out some of the reliability issues then the Orbi could easily be the absolute best wireless system.
Google Wifi
Moving onto the Google Wifi which cost around $260. This system comes with three identical circular units that have two Ethernet ports on each unit so to set this up you choose one of the units to connect to your internet gateway and you spread the other two units around your house to create the best coverage.
As far as performance goes to wireless speeds when we stand just a few feet away from the main router, we’re really good. Now once we start to venture around the house, that’s when things got kind of bad. Even though it worked well with devices in the same room, we got terrible speeds and other rooms around the house. At one point we were barely able to get a one may connection even though we had a decent signal strength. We even tried moving the units around but if we weren’t in the same room with one of the units we had some pretty bad speeds and this is unfortunate being a fan of Google products. Hopefully they can address this with the future firmware update.
Eero Pro
Next up is the Eero Pro (2nd-Gen) which is the highest priced system at around 500 bucks. The Eero Pro comes with three identical square units that have two Ethernet ports on the back of each unit and just like Google Wi-Fi you choose one to be your main router and the other two can be wired directly to the main router for better speeds or they can connect wirelessly. The Eero had a really easy and intuitive setup process and we had the whole system up and running in about 15 minutes.
As far as performance goes, the wireless speeds that we got when standing near the main router were just okay but they were very consistent. Even when we went outside in the driveway we were getting really good speeds. Now we did find out that the upload speeds were better than the download speeds but overall this system works great if you don’t need wireless speeds faster than 300 Meg.
Ubiquity AmpliFi HD
The last but not least among best wireless router 2021 is Ubiquity AmpliFi HD. Now if you’ve never heard of Ubiquity, they make some pretty impressive commercial wireless products and we currently use a few of their access points. Now the AmpliFi HD is probably the nicest looking system out of the bunch, as the main router is a nicely designed cube with a round touchscreen on the front and the mesh access points are basically large antennas that plug directly into a wall outlet. Even though the mesh access points are simple and easy to plug in with their magnetic antennas, they could be an issue if you have small children around so that’s definitely something to consider.
So the speeds we got when in the same room as the main router were great and they remained pretty consistent up to about 25 feet, as long as we could see the name router. now unfortunately the speeds from the access points weren’t nearly as fast as the speeds we got from the main router but they were pretty consistent. one notable thing about the access points is that they had a full connection back to the main router no matter where we put them in the house, so they would work well in a really large house.
The only system that we can’t really recommend right now is the Google Wifi since we were getting pretty much unusable speeds even when we weren’t that far away from the access points. Now there are several other mesh wireless systems out there that we plan on testing and we’d love to hear what your experiences are with them or what you’re using for Wifi.
