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Home / Features / Best mesh Wi-Fi system 2023: eliminate dead spots in your home

Best mesh Wi-Fi system 2023: eliminate dead spots in your home

Getting blanked by your broadband in the far reaches of the living room? Here's our guide to the best mesh Wi-Fi system

Looking for the best mesh Wi-Fi system? Want to speed up your internet? Tired of buffering wheels? You’re in the right place.

Mesh networks are designed to eliminate Wi-Fi black spots by placing a network of range-extending nodes around the home, giving your signal a more even spread and greater stability. If your router is already reaching parts other broadband routers can’t, you’re fine as you are, no real need to read on, see ya.

Some providers like BT and Virgin offer their own mesh network add-ons with select packages that work specifically with their home hubs; other router makers incorporate mesh smarts into their modems to tempt you into staying with the same brand if you expand your network.

In truth, it doesn’t really matter which network you opt for as most will work with your provider. They’re not exactly cheap, but could come in cheaper than a kneejerk reaction to upgrade your broadband package. Here are some that we like the look of.

The best mesh Wi-Fi routers to buy today

Netgear Orbi WiFi 6E RBKE963B

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The first thing you’ll notice about the Orbi RBKE963B (beyond its delightful model number), is its slick, menacing, and oh-so-stylish black paint job. While it also comes in white, we’re hopelessly besotted by its Sith-like looks — but less so with its absolutely eye-watering price tag.

Comfortably the most expensive option on our list, it’s a choice for only the most bleeding-edge users, who want one of the fastest, most high-end setups around, with the gear and workload to match.

With blistering-fast speeds of up to 10.8Gbps, along with the latest 6GHz band to support the latest Wi-Fi 6E devices, you’ll be enjoying unhampered speeds with any Wi-Fi 6-toting PCs, smartphones, and more.

With multiple ethernet ports per router and two satellites covering a massive area of around 700 square metres between them, this is one of the very best home internet solutions around, period. If you’ve got the cash, and the need for speed, look no further.

Amazon eero 6 mesh Wi-Fi 6 router system

If you’re after Wi-Fi 6 speeds for a lot less, then Amazon’s eero system offers plenty of bang for your buck, with friendly, curvy looks to match.

Capable of supporting speeds up to 900 Mbps (and with a pair of routers covering 140 square metres), they’re clearly not as souped-up as Netgear’s super-premium Orbi rivals above. But it’s hard to argue against the still-decent features, combined with the far, far more palatable price.

Throw in built-in Zigbee smart hub powers, Alexa support, and support for more than 75 devices, and you’ve got one of the best home mesh router setups for most people.

The Deco PX50 stands out from the crowd by offering something that’s truly unique, and, quite frankly, extremely useful.

At first glance, this pair appears to be like any other mesh router offering, with an understated black and white cylindrical design that’ll help them blend in with the rest of your smart home setup. Their real beauty though, lies in their built-in powerline skills.

Rather than relying on wirelessly chaining up their Wi-Fi signals, so to speak, individual PX50 units can rely instead on powerline technology to share their connections, making them an absolute godsend for larger homes and/or those with incredibly thick walls.

Not only are you getting up to 1500 Mbps Wi-Fi 6 speeds, but a pair will also comfortably cover up to around 420 square metres. If you’re worried about having to spend more on a triple-pack with other brands, then the PX50’s built-in powerline magic could save you some cash, with more reliable performance to boot.

Tenda MW6 dual-band mesh Wi-Fi system

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Three mesh units at this price make for one of the best value options around, with a total covered area of up to 500 metres square making for a formidable whole-home solution.

Naturally, you’ll be compromising a bit on speed and tech, with older Wi-Fi 5 on the cards. Still, max speeds up to 300 Mbps on 2.4GHz and 867 Mbps on 5GHz are far from shabby, and should still be more than enough to meet even the needs of heavy users.

If you need to cover a lot of space and aren’t fussed about reaching the absolute best top speeds (which most of us rarely need anyway), then this is a great, sensible option, with the added bonus of futuristic-looking cubes thrown in for good measure.

Google Nest Wi-Fi Pro

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Google’s homegrown Wi-Fi 6E mesh router system will turn heads with its fat Tic Tac-like design, and it won’t be for everyone. But if you’re after something different, glossy, and minimal, then there’s a certain charm to them that we can’t argue against.

Looks aside, they offer a very reasonable package for the price, with the latest Wi-Fi standards, nippy speeds, and up to 120 square metres of coverage per individual unit. 

Amazon’s eero system has it beat when it comes to value for money, but if you’re a fan of the Google ecosystem and/or love the curvy design, then this is the option for you.

Linksys AXE8400

Linksys AXE8400 ($450)

Linksys was hot off the blocks in 2017, launching one of the first true home Wi-Fi mesh networks. 
In truth, we found the original Velop system to be pretty buggy and the nodes suffered from numerous dropouts.

But superfast broadband wasn’t built in a day… and now Linksys has something new. The AXE8400 system retains the brand’s usual straight-up tower-like design, only now it packs in Wi-Fi 6E technology
 for blazingly fast speeds and superspreading of the good sort: bandwidth. In fact, Linksys says it
 can manage the demands of more than 65 devices.

The catch is that it’s very expensive indeed – about a grand for a three-node pack – but then, each node is supposed to
be good for 3000ft2 of coverage. It’s worth noting that the AXE8400 is also backwards-compatible with previous versions of the Velop series – so even though they won’t be Wi-Fi 6E certified, or feature the motion detection tech, that won’t stop the spare nodes from coming in handy to kill dead spots.

TP-Link Deco X20 AX1800 (£107)

Not to be confused with 
a network of cookie
 jars, the cylindrical Deco system is Wi-Fi 6-ready, WPA3-protected and compatible with Alexa. Each node is good for 200m2 of coverage and TP-Link, the mad buggers, reckon it’s been tested to connect over 150 devices without affecting performance.

Asus ZenWifi

Each ZenWifi node will cover a massive 2750ft2 and, unlike a lot of the offerings here, is available in white or black. Wi-Fi 6 and WPA3 are both on board, and a lifetime subscription to Trend Micro’s cybersecurity tools is included. That’s plenty of poke for the price – and the overall design doesn’t scream ‘IT manager’ either.

Netgear WiFi 6 Orbi

Netgear WiFi 6 Orbi (£700)

The Orbi system is multi-gig-ready and can also handle hundreds of devices. It comes with top-level cybersecurity, though that’s only free for the first year. Castle owners will be pleased to know it’ll cover 4000ft2, and it works with both Alexa and Google Assistant. Not bad, eh?