There’s nothing really special about the Wyze Mesh Router Pro — from its compact, Eero-like physical design to its run-of-the-mill AXE5400 Wi-Fi 6E connection. This mesh Wi-Fi kit is roughly equivalent in speed and coverage to several other mesh Wi-Fi kits like the Eero Pro 6E, TP-Link Deco XE75 Pro, or the Nest Wifi Pro, which isn’t a bad thing at all. The tri-band AXE5400 wireless connection is balanced to deliver strong performance on older 5GHz-only devices and 6GHz devices alike.
For the most part, Wyze makes good on this wireless potential, and in my testing, it delivered a consistent internet experience. Still, Wyze is fairly new to mesh routers, and it shows in the software side with a bare-bones app, oversimplified Wi-Fi options, and fewer mesh expansion options than other similarly priced mesh kits.
Wyze Mesh Router Pro
The Wyze Mesh Router Pro is a quick mesh router with AXE5400 speeds split evenly between 5GHz and 6GHz bands allowing for fast speeds on both Wi-fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E clients. This router delivers strong speeds, with the majority of results pushing past 700Mbps on my gigabit connection. The software for the Mesh Router Pro fails to justify the Pro name with only simple settings available to users with sub-par parental controls.
Price and availability
The Wyze Mesh Router Pro is available from the Wyze web store and Amazon starting at $180 for a single router covering up to 2,000 square feet. If you need more coverage, a two-pack is available for $280 with 4,000 square feet of coverage. Finally, you’re able to get a three-pack from Wyze’s web store for $384 with up to 6,000 square feet of coverage. It’s important to overbuy a bit when it comes to mesh systems, especially Wi-Fi 6E routers. Things like walls, furniture, and appliances can cause signal degradation, and the mesh nodes must have a good connection to the primary router for the mesh to work properly.
If you don’t get the coverage right on the first try, don’t fret. You can add in more Mesh Router Pro nodes later as needed.
Design and hardware
The Wyze Mesh Router Pro nodes are fairly compact at around 5.5 inches across and only a few inches tall. The case is made from plastic that feels suitably thick and sturdy and comes only in black, which looks good. On the back are two Ethernet ports, one running at 2.5Gbps and the other a 1Gbps that can be used as either WAN or LAN. While most people still don’t need it, multi-gig internet is a reality in quite a few cities, so it’s nice that this router is ready for it. Alternatively, you can use that port to connect something like a NAS or a high-end PC.
A USB 2.0 port is also planned to be used as a storage option for Wyze cameras with a future firmware update. I could not test this feature at the time of this review with firmware version 1.0.0.73, and I don’t have Wyze cameras. If you’re considering this mesh system for this feature, I recommend waiting until Wyze confirms the current availability of this feature. I never recommend buying a product based on the promise of a future update. For now, the USB port does nothing when I insert a USB storage device, and there is no option for it in the app.
The router’s top has a status light that turns green once everything is connected and working. The router also has a green LED on the bottom, giving it a handsome underflow. If lighting accents on a mesh router don’t match your style, you may switch them off with a few taps in the app. Other than that, heat dissipation was adequate in my time with the mesh, and the entire system feels suitably premium.
One final thing to note is that the included Ethernet cable is only three feet long. I ended up using another longer Ethernet, so I could position the router more optimally. I think Wyze should have provided a longer cable, so it’s easier to position the router on a shelf or desk. This is important with a Wi-Fi 6E mesh system since 6GHz Wi-Fi is more susceptible to signal degradation, and even furniture can impact coverage. Still, you can get one fairly cheaply online if you need a longer cable.
Setup and software
When it comes to setting up the mesh system, it was a breeze. While it’s not the fastest setup process I’ve ever used, getting all three nodes up and running took less than half an hour. The Wyze app uses Bluetooth to program the nodes, and my Asus Zenfone 8 on Android 13 had no trouble locating all the nodes I had plugged in. I did need to move closer to one node after a failed connection, but the retry went off without a hitch.
One thing to look out for during setup is the split network option. Wyze lets you choose whether you would like a single or split network with a different Wi-Fi name for each band. In this case, that breaks out to 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands. This decision is more important than it seems because you can’t change your mind once you complete the setup. The Wyze app does not allow you to go from a single to a split network, so a factory reset is in order if you pick the wrong one.
For most people, a single network is the way to go, as the router will automatically assign each connected device to a band with a strong signal. Unfortunately, that means that even if you have a Wi-Fi 6E device, it may be placed on a 5GHz connection regardless. This is a reasonable choice for most people since 5GHz Wi-Fi has better coverage than 6GHz and will likely be more consistent, but if you want to try out the latest Wi-Fi standard, it can feel disappointing.
To manage your Wi-Fi network, open the Wyze app and select your Mesh Router Pro from the main screen. If you have other Wyze smart home devices, they will also show up here. Once you select your router, you’ll see your connected devices, mesh nodes, and more advanced settings. In these settings, you can change your Wi-Fi name and password. You’ll also be able to enable the guest network from here.
In the advanced settings, you may assign IP addresses, switch on bridge mode, enable WPA3 security, and set a prioritized device. Oddly, you can only set one device as prioritized, but this is a welcome option if you have a work computer that needs to be first in line all the time. You can also disable 5GHz Wi-Fi for 20 minutes, which could alleviate some issues by setting up smart home tech that doesn’t support 5GHz Wi-Fi. Last and possibly least, parental controls are the basic domain blocking type which isn’t much use to most parents. In a vacuum, it’s fine, but compared to what you get from TP-Link or Asus, it’s not good enough.
You can also access these settings in a web browser by typing in the IP address for the router, bypassing a security warning about an expired certificate, and entering the admin username and password that can be found on the bottom of your main router. The settings are basically the same as those in the app, but it’s nice having the option to change your Wi-Fi setting on a PC.
Wireless performance
With the software concerns placed to one side, the Wyze Mesh Router Pro really shines when it comes to pure wireless performance. The AXE5400 connection breaks down to 600Mbps at 2.4GHz, 2402Mbps at 5GHz, and 2402Mbps at 6GHz, which keeps things reasonably balanced between bands. One thing to note is that the mesh must use some of this capacity for the backhaul — that is, the wireless link between the primary mesh node and the satellite nodes.
The primary router, or “root router” as Wyze calls it, is the center of the mesh and connects directly to your modem. A wireless connection links this router with the satellite routers to form the mesh network. I had three total routers, and the satellites were kept relatively close to the root router with only a couple of walls between them. This allowed for a strong 6GHz backhaul to be used, which kept speeds high no matter which router my device was connected to. Wyze will automatically optimize the backhaul, and if the signal is weak, it may use 5GHz as a backhaul instead due to its better coverage.
Speed tests were performed on each node with over 700Mbps down and over 500Mbps up on all of them. This is pretty close to the best speeds I get from my gigabit fiber internet connection at the time of day I ran the tests. It shows that the mesh is healthy and capable of delivering strong speeds around the whole house. Moving on to wireless tests, the results were mostly excellent, with only one exception.
Living room (root router)
Bedroom (satellite router)
Zenfone 8 (160MHz Wi-Fi 6E)
214/178Mbps, 268/184Mbps
748/743Mbps, 778/812Mbps
780/653Mbps, 792/745Mbps
Galaxy S20 (80MHz Wi-Fi 6)
695/374Mbps, 688/444Mbps
659/504Mbps, 624/426Mbps
605/346Mbps, 596/357Mbps
LG G8 (80MHz Wi-Fi 5)
606/325Mbps, 600/380Mbps
451/488Mbps, 414/529Mbps
544/358Mbps, 586/378Mbps
The strangest result out of all of these tests has to be the Zenfone 8 in the living room. For these results, the Zenfone 8 connected to Wi-Fi 6E at 6GHz while all other tests connected to Wi-Fi 6 at 5GHz. I toggled Wi-Fi off and on at each location to allow the phone and the mesh system to connect to the best router, but for this test, the phone picked 6GHz. I believe this slow result was due to connecting to one of the satellite routers since the Wi-Fi signal on the device was low. Either way, during the rest of the testing period, the phone mostly connected to 5GHz, and speeds were very good.
In general, I’m impressed with the speeds the Wyze Mesh Router Pro delivers. I must note that I noticed a few more instances of buffering and apps hanging for just a moment before loading in compared to the router I was using previously, but this is nitpicking.
During my review period, I wanted to leave the mesh alone as much as possible to allow it to optimize properly, so for most of my time with the Mesh Router Pro, I used the single network options. I performed a factory reset to test the split network option and found the results largely the same as using a single network. My house doesn’t have much interference from my neighbors, so my 5GHz speeds were very similar to 6GHz, but if you live in a congested environment and have multiple neighboring Wi-Fi signals show up on your devices, 6GHz performance can come out ahead since it has many more available channels to sidestep congestion.
Competition
The biggest problem with the Wyze Mesh Router Pro is just how much competition it has. First up is theTP-Link Deco XE75 Pro, a tri-band Wi-Fi 6E router with an AXE5400 connection and 2.5Gbps Ethernet. TP-Link expects a little more coverage out of its nodes, with an estimated 5,500 square feet of coverage with a two-pack compared to Wyze’s 4,000 square feet. TP-Link’s nodes are quite a bit taller, but not huge, at 6.7 inches tall.
TP-Link makes mesh expansion easy with compatibility across its entire Deco lineup, so you can even use a cheaper Deco for a little extra coverage if needed. TP-Link also includes more advanced parental controls for free, with the option to add more options with a subscription. TP-Link’s solution costs a bit more, but with stronger expected coverage, it’s likely a better fit for many.
If you’re willing to spend a little more money for a lot more features, theAsus ZenWiFi ET8is an AXE6600 tri-band Wi-Fi 6E router with some of the best advanced features of any mesh system. This router favors 6GHz bandwidth with 4804Mbps going to the 6GHz band, 1201Mbps at 5GHz, and 600Mbps at 2.4GHz. If you have 160MHz Wi-Fi 6 devices, they won’t get as much out of Asus’s solution.
Asus includes a free security and parental control software package called AiProtection Pro with robust profile-based parental controls. Asus also allows you to change just about any setting you can think of in a web browser, with simplified settings available in the Asus router app for those that prefer simplicity. Asus even makes mesh expansion dead simple with AiMesh allowing you to create a mesh with just about any Asus router from the last few years. You could even create a mesh with a powerful ROG gaming router at the center.
It’s also important to step back and ask if you need Wi-Fi 6E. Wi-Fi 6E is mostly important to those living in an area with a lot of wireless interference, so there may be little benefit if you live in a detached house. Simply put, 5GHz Wi-Fi will have better coverage across your home, so unless you see a dozen access points around you when you’re connecting to Wi-Fi, one of thebest Wi-Fi 6 mesh routersmight work better for you and cost less.
Should you buy it?
The Wyze Mesh Router Pro is a fast mid-range Wi-Fi 6E system that has been consistent and reliable the entire time I used it; it’s still tough to recommend because of its competition. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of AXE5400 tri-band mesh systems to choose from with similar pricing, and when it comes down to it, I would spend my money on a TP-Link or Asus ahead of this one.
However, from the firmware patch notes and open communication with its community so far, it looks like Wyze is set to keep pushing this router in the right direction. The Wyze Mesh Router Pro is a good router that delivers on its speed promises but is not quite up to par regarding its software and features.
