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On October 23, 2024, Amazon announced the availability of the eero Outdoor 7. As the name suggests, this is the company’s first outdoor access point that features Wi-Fi 7. By the look and description, it seems impressive.
Or is it? Let’s find out more!
Amazon eero Outdoor 7: It’s an outdoor access point, alright!
In the announcement blog post penned by eero’s co-founder, Nick Weaver, the new Outdoor 7 is painted as an “extraordinary” outdoor device. Specifically, Weaver wrote:
“…we tested it in the heat of Arizona, a commercial refrigerator, on beaches, and in a tunnel with 100 mph winds. After our team’s rigorous testing, it’s safe to say eero Outdoor 7 is ready to weather the elements—it has an IP66 rating and can operate in temperatures ranging from -40 F to 130 F in the rain, snow, and sun.”
Before you get carried too far away, that’s a meandering (or maybe poetic?) description of IP66‘s qualification, though it’s unclear which beaches were involved, considering Arizona is landlocked.
In any case, this specific Ingress Protection (IP) rating simply means the device is dust-tight and is protected against water jets, regardless of where you use it, how you test it, or whichever way you choose to describe its “toughness”. As for the temperature range, that’s generally the case for all electronics housed inside an IP66 casing.
It’s worth noting that IP66 is a low requirement for something to be classified as “outdoor.” Many other access points feature higher ruggedness. For example, the majority of business outdoor APs, like the EnGenius EWS850-FIT, are IP67-rated and can work even when submerged in water.
That brings us to the most essential part of a Wi-Fi broadcaster: The Wi-Fi specs. And on this front, the Amazon eero Outdoor 7 is unimpressive for its standard.
Bare-minimum Wi-Fi 7
First of all, the Outdoor 7 is a dual-band broadcaster—it doesn’t have the 6GHz band. If that’s not already disappointing enough, it has the lowest 2×2 specs, similar to the case of the TP-Link Archer BE230, which costs less than $100.
Still, with a 2.5Gbps uplink port, the AP can likely deliver high Gig+ sustained real-world performance to a Wi-Fi 6 or newer client. And that’s plenty of bandwidth.
Tip
Gig+, or Gig Plus, denotes a speed grade that is faster than 1Gbps but slower than 2Gbps. So, it’s 1.5Gbps, give or take a couple hundred megabits per second, and it’s not speedy enough to qualify as Multi-Gig Ethernet or multi-Gigabit. Intel coined the term to describe its Wi-Fi 6E client chips, the AX210 and AX211, in terms of their real-world speeds.
Gig+ primarily applies to the sustained speeds of Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7, via a 2×2 at 160MHz connection, or broadband internet speeds.
In terms of range, Weaver said that a single eero Outdoor 7 device can provide up to 15,000 ft2 (≈1390 m2) of outdoor coverage. The number seems impressive from the indoor perspective. In the outdoor world, it’s commonplace, if not mediocre.
As explained in this detailed post on Wi-Fi range, when unobstructed, the Wi-Fi signal of a 5GHz broadcaster can reach as far as 150 feet (46 m) outward, which translates into a circle area of some 70,000 ft2 (≈ 6000 m2) in coverage. The 2.4GHz band can reach even further than that.
With that same math, the 15,000 feet2 of the eero Outdoor 7—unclear of which band, 2.4GHz or 5GHz—translates into a circle with a radius of less than 70 feet (21 m). So, comparatively, this access point has a modest outdoor range. And that’s before the grain of salt we cautiously need to take with the marketing language.
The table below shows the eero Outdoor 7’s hardware specs provided by Amazon.
Amazon eero Outdoor 7: Hardware specifications
| Wi-Fi specifications | Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax) 2×2 2.4 GHz (688Mbps peak) 2×2 5 GHz (2161Mbps peak) |
| Ethernet | One auto-sensing 2.5 GbE, PoE-capable port |
| Wi-Fi features | Automatic channel selection Band steering WMM, OFDMA, SU-MIMO |
| Frequency bands | ISM (2.4-2.484 GHz) U-NII-1 (5.15-5.25 GHz) U-NII-2A (5.25-5.35 GHz, DFS) U-NII-2C (5.47-5.725 GHz, DFS) U-NII-3 (5.725-5.85 GHz) |
| Network security and services | WPA2, WPA3, TLS v1.2+, VPN passthrough, IPv6, NAT, UPnP, port forwarding, DHCP, static IP, and cloud connectivity Guest network and easy sharing |
| Smart home hub | Thread, Zigbee, and Matter (as a controller only), Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0, Works with Alexa, and Amazon Connected Home |
| Management tools | iOS & Android apps Parental Controls Password sharing eero Insight |
| Compatible subscription services | eero Plus eero for Business eero for Service Providers |
| Included in the box | One eero Outdoor 7, one 30W Outdoor PoE+ power adapter (18.6 ft.), one mounting bracket, one M22 connector, and mounting accessories for wood, fiber cement, vinyl siding, and stucco. |
| Size | Without bracket: 6.34 x 8.18 x 2.24 in. (161.03 x 207.77 x 56.89 mm) With bracket: 6.34 x 8.18 x 3.55 in. (161.03 x 207.77 x 90.17 mm) |
| Weight | eero Outdoor 7: 2.5 lbs. (1.1 kg) |
| Operating temperature | Tested to operate between -40°F to 131°F (-40°C to 55°C). |
| Power | Compatible with Amazon eero 30W Outdoor PoE+ power adapter (included) or a 30W 802.3at or 802.3bt Class 4 power supply. |
| Warranty | 3-year limited warranty. |
A PoE+ AP designed for the Amazon PoE gateway
As shown in the table, the Amazon eero Outdoor 7 is a PoE+ device with a 30W Outdoor PoE+ power adapter option that incurs extra cost.
Generally, you can use it with any PoE+-capable switch or a standard injector. However, it’s designed to be the native extension of the eero PoE Gateway, which can power up to eight PoE devices by itself. The two are in the same ecosystem, allowing users to use the eero mobile app to manage them as a single network.
Other than Wi-Fi, the eero Outdoor 7 also features Smart Home hubs, which come in handy for those with a lot of supported IoT devices.
And that brings us to the cost. One thing is for sure: the Outdoor 7 is not cheap.
Amazon eero Outdoor 7's PRELIMINARY Assessment
Pros
IP66-rated for outdoor ruggedness
Wi-Fi 7 with 2.5Gbps PoE+ port
Nice and convenient design; built-in Smart Home hub
Cons
Expensive; PoE power adapter costs extra
Entry-level dual-band Wi-Fi 7 (no 6GHz) with limited outdoor range
Hi privacy risks with the eero mobile app; no local web user interface
Pricing and availability
Amazon says the Outdoor 7 is available to pre-order today, costing $350 per unit without the power adapter. With the adapter, it’ll go for $400, or you can get a 2-pack deal for $680. The AP will start shipping on November 13.
Again, as mentioned, this AP is best used with the eero PoE Gateway and all that implies. In this case, other than the outdoor design and Wi-Fi specs, it’s safe to assume the same experience from it as Amazon’s first access point, the eero PoE 6.
I love how you explain stuff. It’s a LOL Wi-Fi 7 access point, and Eero has always been full of it. Thanks for cutting through the bullshit, brotha!
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Doug. Thank You. I have been for years using a pair of chinese {…} units. They convey my PTZ camera signal and it avoided me having to dig up the drive, which would NOT have been appreciated.
They have stood up against everything mother nature has thrown at ’em over the last three (3) !!! years. I can highly recommend them. Setup was a bit of a pain as you need to change yr adapter address to get them set up. But once done… they have never once given trouble.
They are available on Amazon and I would almost suggest that they would be worthy of your review Doug. I really mean this.
Albert
A few things, Albert:
1. The name is Dong.
2. Please respect the comment rules.
3. Things tend to be cheap for a reason.
My sincere apologies Dong.
Albert
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Is 6 GHz even authorized for outdoor use without AFC, which AFAIK is still in its infancy? If not, then it’s not surprising that this is dual-band — or that most outdoor APs are still Wi-Fi 6 at best.
There are already outdoor Wi- Fi 6e access points which use the same 6GHz band as Wi-Fi 7. But yes, the 6GHz is complicated.