Don't Buy the Wrong Mesh System! (Top 5 Budget Picks - WiFi 7)

It's never a good feeling when you pay

for fast internet, only for your Wi-Fi

to drop the second you leave the room.

Now, I've tested the top-of-the-line

mesh systems, and they are fantastic. In

fact, I've done a recent video with the

best mesh Wi-Fi systems that include

some of the top-of-the-line systems

along with some others. In fact, the

ASUS Lyra Voice 6 was also in that

video. But, it also qualifies for this

video because it's more of a budget

system. And the whole point of this is

that you might not need the best of the

best. And why pay more if you don't need

to? So, in this video, I'm going to go

over these five mesh Wi-Fi systems after

testing dozens of mesh Wi-Fi systems.

And these, without basically draining

your wallet, you can get a solid,

reliable connection that offers a lot of

performance for the price that you're

paying. So, these five are my top five

picks as of now. Now, I have done

individual reviews for each one of these

in case you guys want to find out more

details, see what their app looks like.

So, I'll leave those links down below.

I'll also leave the product links below

as well. Now, before we get into the

speed test range test numbers, let's

just quickly go over what a mesh Wi-Fi

is. So, basically, in a typical house,

you have a single router, and you're

pretty much connect to your Wi-Fi

device. And then, the further away you

get from it, typically, the weaker the

signal becomes, it starts dropping out,

or just can't connect to it anymore.

What a mesh Wi-Fi is is it's basically

two or more devices that work together

to increase your Wi-Fi coverage

throughout your home. Where, when you

connect to your Wi-Fi name, your SSID,

basically,

if you're closer to this guy, it'll

automatically switch you here. If you

walk throughout your home, you get

closer to this one, it'll automatically

switch you here. And it does this

seamlessly without disconnecting or

anything like that. There's nothing you

need to do on your device once it's set

up. And there is an upper limit of

probably shouldn't get more than five or

six in the mesh system, just to keep

things optimal. Starting off with the

internet speed test now, as you guys

already know, when you're accessing the

internet, you are limited by your

internet speeds unless of course the

router itself can't go that fast. Now,

in my case, my internet speeds happen to

be 5 gigs up and down, and none of these

mesh systems can actually go to those

speeds because they're all capped at 2.5

gigabit speeds.

Now, here's the interesting thing.

Four of these mesh systems, aside from

the ASUS BT6, four of these when I do an

ethernet speed test, I can actually get

to 2.5 gigabit speeds, which is really

just like 2.35 when you're doing

internet speed test. However, the ASUS

BT6, because it only has one fast 2.5

gigabit port, the other ports are

gigabit, when I do an internet speed

test on ethernet, I actually get just

under gigabit speeds. However, at the

main mesh system, at the main router, I

can on Wi-Fi actually exceed gigabit

because at the source, it's still 2.5.

It's just as soon as it comes out, it's

no longer 2.5 gigabit. So, for ethernet,

um just under gigabit. For ethernet for

these, I can actually get to 2.5 gigabit

speeds.

Now, for the Wi-Fi devices, the speed

rating and the dual band versus tri-band

can actually make a difference. So, the

Deco B25 is actually the least expensive

of the bunch, and it's a dual band

system just like the Eero 7 with the

speed rating of B5000, which again is

the same as the Eero 7.

However, the Deco B25 is the least

expensive of the bunch. Eero 7 does cost

a little bit more.

But looking at the results for Wi-Fi, we

actually got 1.6 down, and we got 892

up, whereas the Eero 7 was a little bit

better at 1.649 down and 1.272 up. But

then when we go to tri-band, our speed

rating increases. We also have access to

the 6 GHz band, which is faster

typically, and we could see that there's

a pretty big jump, especially in the

upload section, but overall, the ASUS

BT6 definitely went up much higher than

the other two. And the Deco B63 and the

MSI Roam MB8 Pro, in fact, even exceeded

that. Whereas the MSI took the cake for

the download section, and the B63 took

the cake for the upload section.

But the tri-band with the higher speed

rating does make a difference for Wi-Fi

speeds.

Now, to find the true performance of

these mesh systems, I do a local speed

test where I make my computer into the

server, and I go from Wi-Fi device to

router to computer. And then in the case

of wired and wireless backhaul, I go

from Wi-Fi device to the secondary one,

which then jumps to the primary one,

which then goes to the computer which is

acting as a server, and this isolates

the mesh system where I'm no longer

relying on the public speed test server

or my ISP, my internet service provider.

And I have done a video on how to set

this up in case you guys are interested,

the link's below as well. Now, right off

the bat, you could see that the ASUS BT6

is actually capped at just under gigabit

speeds, and the reason is that it only

has one fast 2.5 gigabit port. The other

ports are all gigabit, and that's why

it's being capped to just under gigabit

speeds, where the rest of the mesh

systems actually improved over their

internet speed test. So, Deco B25 did

better, eero 7 was even better, and

really the kings were the MSI Roam MB8

Pro as well as the Deco B63.

But both very, very similar in terms of

performance, very, very similar.

Moving on to wired backhaul, we could

see we actually got very similar numbers

to the single router configuration,

because this thing is hardwired from one

node to the next via ethernet, so we got

very similar performance. Now, we move

on to wireless backhaul, and this is

where you can actually see a difference

because the Deco B25 and the eero 7 just

fell short. The Deco B25 was actually

faster than the eero 7, but both of

these fell short because they're

dual-band systems, and typically

dual-band systems are not that great

when it comes to wireless backhaul.

Whereas the tri-band systems did much

better. So, you could see that the ASUS

BT6, there was really no difference

between wired or wireless backhaul,

where the MSI Roam'ee B Pro and the Deco

B63 did drop from their wired backhaul

speeds, but still doing very well, where

the MSI took the cake for the download

section, and the Deco B63 took the cake

for the upload section.

Next, we get into range tests, and range

will vary drastically by location.

Essentially, the more obstructions there

are, typically the less range you get,

or if you're more of an open area,

typically the more range you're going to

get. Now, these are all tested in the

same exact area, so it it is an

apples-to-apples comparison among

themselves, but again, range will vary

drastically by location. So, I should

also mention I do cap my range test to

100 ft. In my area, it can actually

exceed 100 ft with all of these, but I

do cap my testing to 800 ft.

Now, 20 ft away across the board, they

all pretty much dropped in speeds. I

mean, not too much, but really the ASUS

BT6 hardly dropped at all because it's

really the port limitation with this

mesh system since it does have a fast

speed rating.

Now, 50 ft away outside my place, we

could see much more noticeable drops,

except kind of the ASUS BT6, which is

really again, it's the port limitation

cuz it does have a fast speed rating.

So, not too much of a drop for the BT6,

where the rest of them did fall quite a

bit, where the MSI Routers may be pro is

still taking the cake for the download

section, and the ASUS BT6 is taking the

cake for the upload section.

Now, across the street at 100 ft away,

this is when the ASUS BT6 is actually

dropping noticeably from the 50-ft mark,

but still doing fairly well. In fact, it

took first place in the upload section,

where the MSI really took the cake for

the download section. And the

interesting thing is for the MSI, the

download section was significantly

faster than the upload section. To

summarize, all these mesh systems are

fantastic in different situations, so

let's cover that as well as some of

their options to help narrow down your

search.

So, right off the bat, for internet

speeds of up to gigabit for wired

backhaul, I would consider any one of

these. They will all do just fine.

For wireless backhaul, I would only

consider these three just because these

two are just not that fast for wireless

backhaul because they're dual-band

units.

Now, for up to 2.5 gigabit speeds for

wired backhaul, these four would

generally be okay. However, the

dual-band units, pretty much after 1.6,

1.7 gigs, they're just not quite as fast

after that. So, really above 1.6, 1.7, I

would really only consider these two,

where I would consider these up to 1.6,

1.7, even maybe even 1.8 gigs uh up to

those.

Uh but above that, I would really only

consider these two for wired backhaul uh

for up to 2.5 gigabit speeds. Now, for

wireless backhaul, I would not consider

these. I would just consider these two

for up to 2.5 gigabit speeds. And for

anything in excess of that, I would

check out my other video, which is the

best mesh Wi-Fi video that I recently

did.

Now, in terms of options, this may sway

you one way or another because if you

want something that's very

very very simple

with the least number of options

possible, check out the Eero. Um this

thing is super easy. It just sets up and

it just works. In fact, it works great

for up to certain speeds, which we just

discussed. But

this thing gives you two Wi-Fi names,

which are SSIDs. It just gives you your

main one and your guest one. Really not

a lot of options. And then if you want

parental controls, that actually

requires a separate subscription. So,

keep that in mind.

Now, TP-Link offers more options than

the Eero. They also offer a decent

number of parental controls included in

the price. And then they offer more

advanced parental controls for a

separate subscription if you want to use

the more advanced ones. But there are a

decent number of basic parental controls

that are included in the price with the

TP-Link Deco. And then they also give

you more SSID options, which are again

the Wi-Fi names. You get a separate

Internet of Things guest one. You get a

couple main ones. So, there are more

options in general. You get some VPN

options. So, just more things to

customize. And MSI is right around there

with TP-Link. It offers more options in

certain categories and a little bit less

in other categories. So, it's roughly

around the same as TP-Link.

But the good thing about MSI is they do

offer parental controls included in the

price and there is no separate

subscription for that. Um again, a few

SSID options and everything. So, it does

offer a decent number of options.

Then we get to ASUS, which has a ton of

options. They have the most Wi-Fi name

options. They have the parental controls

included in the price. They have the AI

protection included in the price. And

then a ton more.

So, if you really like to tinker with

settings, definitely check out ASUS. But

there it is, guys. Hopefully you guys

found this video helpful. If you guys

did, smash that subscribe button. Let me

know which one you guys like. Do you

guys already have one? Are you planning

on getting one?

Um either way, thank you guys for

watching. Catch you guys in the next

one.