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Real-World Performance Test of the Nest Wifi Pro

Squyd5070
Community Member

For the more technical people who might read this, I'll break down my experience with the Google Nest Wifi Pro. This write-up covers about 2 months of usage and the speeds reported are averages over many individual tests.

I tested to see if the Nest Wifi Pro can provide (via wifi) near-maximum throughput supported by each client device when a single client is in use and when multiple clients are in use simultaneously.

Speed tests were conducted using the Ookla Speed test app for the Pixel and the Ookla Speed test command client app for the two PCs.

  • The router is set to WPA3 security with 160MHz channel width.
  • The internet service is 1 Gig fiber (1000 Mbps uplink and 1000 Mbps downlink).
  • The location is wired with CAT-6 Ethernet.

The 3 clients used to test the performance of the Google Nest Wifi Pro are as follows:

1. Pixel 7

2. Beelink Mini PC (SER)
Security type: WPA3-Personal
Description: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160MHz
Driver version: 22.190.0.4
Antenna, TX/RX Streams: 2x2
Bands: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz (160 MHz)
Max Speed: 2.4 Gbps

3. HP Envy Laptop
Security type: WPA3-Personal
Description: Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9560 160MHz
Driver version: 22.190.0.4
Antenna, TX/RX Streams: 2x2
Bands: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz (160 MHz)
Max Speed: 1.73 Gbps

Testing the Nest Wifi Pro one client at a time...

The Pixel always manages to connect to the 5G band and can get speed test results of as much as 880+ Mbps down, 750+ Mbps up, and fluctuating link speeds from 800 Mbps to over 1300 Mbps. It NEVER connects to the 6GHz band. NEVER, even though it can see the 6 GHz band.

The Beelink will sometimes connect to the 2.4GHz band and other times to the 5GHz band. It achieves wireless speeds on the 5 GHz band from 145 Mbps to 200 Mbps (both up and down) most of the time, with fluctuating link speeds of 300/150 Mbps, 300/270 Mbps, or 433/433 Mbps.

The HP Envy rarely connects to the 2.4GHz band and almost always the 5GHz band. It achieves wireless speeds of around 205 Mbps (both up and down) and fluctuating link speeds of 300/270 Mbps or 300/150 Mbps.

Using the Nest Wifi Pro and testing multiple clients simultaneously...

I wirelessly streamed three TVs at once on the 5 GHz band (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney). The total bandwidth used never exceeded 180 Mbps which is well within the capacity of the Nest Wifi Pro. I also conducted a speed test on the Pixel 7 (achieving 900+ Mbps down and 800+ Mbps up) while the three TVs were streaming and there were no ill effects to the streams.

Enter the TP-Link AXE300... placed in the same exact location as the Nest Wifi Pro...

Using the TP-Link AXE300 and testing one client at a time...

Using the TP-Link AXE300, the Pixel always connects to the 5GHz band and achieved speeds of 940 Mbps down and 820 Mbps up. This is a modest increase from the Nest Wifi Pro.

The Beelink mostly connects to the 5GHz band and achieved speeds of 650 Mbps down and 550 Mbps up. This is a 3X increase from the Nest Wifi Pro.

The HP Envy mostly connects to the 5GHz band and achieves speeds of 950 Mbps down and 780 Mbps up. This is about a 4.5X increase over the Nest Wifi Pro.

There is no point testing the TP-Link AXE300 with multiple clients simultaneously, as the bandwidth demand from streaming services is so low, compared to its capabilities. But even when I tested it, there was no difference compared to the Google Nest Wifi Pro.

What is the difference between these two routers?

  1. The Google Nest Wifi Pro is a 2x2 (transmit/receive) at each band (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz). The TP-Link AXE300 is a 4x4 (transmit/receive) at each band (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz) (and has TWO 5 GHz bands).
  2. The total maximum speed of the Google Nest Wifi Pro is 5,400 Mbps. The total maximum speed of the TP-Link AXE300 is 16,000 Mbps.

Enter the Network Attached Storage device within your network...

Imagine you have a wired Network Attached Storage device, full of home videos and music and pictures, etc. That device can appear on client devices and a network drive and serve videos and music to them. Here is when the maximum speed of the router matters, when serving videos or music from a wired hard drive to several wireless clients like TVs and streaming boxes...

That link speed of 1300 Mbps on the Pixel allows me to copy from the Network Attached Storage at 70 or 80 Megabytes per second with the TP-Link, not 18-36 Megabytes per second with the Nest Wifi Pro.

So, what does all of this really mean?

  1. The Nest Wifi Pro is fine for internet service speeds of 500 Mbps or less, but if you have anything faster, the AXE300 is better. The Nest Wifi Pro NEVER matched the maximum wifi speed of a single client on the 5 GHz band.
  2. All the hype over maximum router speeds for streaming TV and music doesn't mean much for practical home use: 4K streaming requires around 25 Mbps per TV when multiple TVs are in use simultaneously, and such bandwidth demands are WELL within the capabilities of either router.

What Google should have done is pack the Nest Wifi Pro with 4x4 (transmit/receive) for the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands. The 2x2 (transmit/receive) on the 2.4 GHz band is more than adequate since IoT clients usually have a maximum speed of around 72 Mbps, to begin with. 

The Bottom Line

The Google Nest Wifi Pro is a good router, but if you have a faster internet speed, you can do better if you have newer, faster client devices.

3 REPLIES 3

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi Squyd5070,
 

Thanks for posting! We appreciate you taking the time to fully review your Nest Wifi Pro mesh system. We understand that you saw some things our Nest Wifi Pro could do better. We’re always open to improvement, so I suggest you send your feedback using our Google Home app as well. Here’s how: 
 

  1. Open the Google Home app. 
  2. In the top right, tap your account > Feedback. 
  3. Select the device you would like to leave feedback for. 
  4. Enter your feedback. Make sure “Screenshot” and “System logs” are checked to include them in your feedback. 
  5. Tap Send. 

Our product development team reviews all the feedback we get and use the data to improve overall customer experience with our Nest Wifi Pro devices. Feel free to reply to this thread in case you have any additional questions or clarifications and we’ll be happy to answer them for you.


Best, 
Abi

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey there,

Checking back in should you still have some questions here. Let us know by replying to this thread. 

Regards, 
Abi

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi everyone,

We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update within 24 hours. If you have any new issues, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the Community.

Cheers, 
Abi