Eero third-gen Wi-Fi mesh debuts at Amazon’s Fall 2019 Hardware Event

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  Hero shot of the new Eero model. It's basically a nightlight-less Beacon with an Ethernet jack. [credit: Amazon / the Verge ]
  
  

Today at Amazon's Fall 2019 Devices Event, the company announced a new hardware model of Eero Wi-Fi mesh. Our sources at Eero have been pretty quiet since Amazon acquired the company early this February—unlike Google, who somehow manages to "leak" the new Pixel every year before its actual debut, Eero and Amazon have kept their secrets close. We weren't completely sure there even would be a new Eero product announced today, and details are still thin, but here's what we know.
Amazon's presentation of the new Eero focused largely on ease of setup and use, as it fits into the new "Certified for Humans" program. This program forces devices to pass muster with a review board of "typical consumers," with IT professionals and hardware enthusiasts specifically prohibited. There was also some discussion of Eero's integration into the Alexa smart home ecosystem, with Alexa skills allowing you to direct Eero to enable or disable Wi-Fi access for specific devices at will—think "Alexa, pause the Playstation Wi-Fi" or similar. This is currently only supported for Eero, but there's an API that will allow other devices to support the skill as well, with functionality expected in Asus and TP-Link routers later this year and Linksys to come on board in 2020.
This new Eero is a new model, not an entirely new generation. Functionally, it's equivalent to an Eero Beacon with an Ethernet jack, and without the nightlight. The body is designed to sit on a shelf or desk, and more closely resembles an Eero Pro, but the radio chipset is the same 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) chipset used in the Beacon.

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