You can now buy Amazon’s Eero Wi-Fi directly from Apple

As we’ve reported previously, the three-piece Eero kit—specifically, the redesigned version released after the Amazon acquisition—should be on anybody’s short list when considering new Wi-Fi gear. Eero can’t quite hang with Plume on the absolute busiest, toughest multi-system performance test—but it comes far closer than any other consumer kit we’ve tested, and it does so without Plume’s unpopular ongoing subscription fees.

On paper, the base Eero kit doesn’t look very impressive—it only offers dual-band radios and no Wi-Fi 6. The secret lies in its TrueMesh firmware, which dynamically adapts Eero’s backhaul topology to the changing needs of the network on a moment-to-moment basis. In practice, Eero’s dynamic management allows it to outperform some systems with much beefier hardware—particularly when its lower cost means putting in three access points to a higher-cost competitor’s two.

Eero began supporting Apple’s HomeKit home automation infrastructure in February of this year. We haven’t tested its HomeKit support, but we expect Apple’s own strict QA likely means it’ll be a better experience than the kit’s Alexa integration, which was pretty bad back in December.

We suspect this is big news for Eero, even starting from its current lofty position as an Amazon company—many Apple customers are very insular to the limited Apple ecosystem, and the listing in the Apple store next to competitors Linksys and Netgear will likely get looks from new customers it was unable to reach through normal retail channels.

Current prices at Apple.com mirror those at Amazon—but Amazon will give you a free Echo Dot with your Eero kit at no additional charge, which Apple will not. Smart consumers should always check both venues before purchasing anyway, as Amazon has put the kits on sale for as much as $50 off several times now—and those sale prices may not always be reflected at downstream vendors like Apple.