Product Review – Google Nest Wifi Router and Point

Summary: Google Nest Wifi is an excellent mesh Wifi router that provides Wifi coverage for a large area with no disruption in connectivity or drop in speeds. Go for it even if you have a home with many floors and a lot of walls!

User since Mar 2020

*****

Detailed Review

I bought the Nest Wifi router and point for a $50 off during the 2019 Thanksgiving sale at BestBuy. However, I was able to get it to India only in March 2020. After using the router for nearly a month, I have provided my review and ratings on various features of this router and point, below. As with all my reviews, I don’t go into the detailed specifications but only provide a crisp and honest review of my experiences with this product.

Aesthetics & Appearance - 100
The main router and its extension unit (called the point) are both offered in a nice round pleasing unit that can nicely fit into any ambience without looking out of place. The router does not have any ugly protruding antennae, so that adds to the aesthetic appeal. I bought the Mist color option, to go with my existing Google Home device and now the main Google Nest Wifi router and my Google Home speaker adorn the two sides of my TV in the living room.

The nice round-shaped point (Gray in color on the Mist color option of this product) also doubles up as a speaker with Google Assistant, with touch-sensitive controls at the top of the unit and feedback to voice commands shown with a pleasing white light all around the bottom of the unit.

Installation - 100
Setting up the main router and the extension point is very easy and takes just about 15 minutes in all. Take out the internet connection that goes into your existing router and plug it into one of the network cable inputs at the bottom of the main router that is marked with the symbol of a globe. Plug in the main router into your power supply, install the Google Home app from the Play Store and follow the easy instructions. The point is setup using Wifi, so it only needs a power supply.

Router Coverage & Performance - 100
Once you follow the instructions, your entire home is covered with a consistent, fast performance Wifi signal (fast, of course, depends on the speed of your main internet broadband connection) that never drops anywhere in the home. The signal is very good even in remote nooks and corners of my home and every device in my home connects seamlessly as we move around. To give you a sense of my home, we have three floors with concrete walls and roofs and the coverage is simply brilliant!

Note: I played around with multiple positions of the router and the signal quality was maintained at all positions. It doesn’t really matter

Nice Features - 100
The point doubles up as a speaker with Google Assistant. Its speaker is of pretty good quality and can produce seriously loud music with really good fidelity and not jarring your ears. Google Assistant is all goodness (of course, if you are a Google fan) Google Home is a simple-to-use app with powerful features. All the capabilities of the Google Home app can be used with your point.

If you have one or more Google Home speakers already, you can group the point and other Google Home speakers into a Speaker Group to play music around your house and become a DJ with just an Android phone in your hands!

Another cool feature is the broadcast feature where you can broadcast nice messages to all your speakers (or one specific speaker or point) from your Android phone.

The Google Home app lets you run speed tests on the router as well as check the speed on the point. You can also remotely control the volume and casting of audio on your point, using the Google Home app on your phone. Pretty cool when you see your kids getting confused on why their song suddenly stopped playing or became really low in volume 

Only one limitation - 75
The router has no provision to plug in an external USB drive. In my case, I had an external shared hard disk plugged into my Netgear router and I couldn’t have that capability with my Nest Wifi router. So, I had to keep my existing Netgear router and take the internet connection out of my Netgear router into my Nest Wifi router and give it the same Wifi name as my Netgear router. Now, everything works fine and I get the external hard disk access as well as the speed and coverage of Nest Wifi but I couldn’t get rid of my existing Netgear router.