How We Test Home Security Systems and Services

How We Test Home Security Systems and Services

Home security is one thing you want to be sure works before you buy it. After all, if an emergency ever does happen, you want to be confident your system will be up to the task of catching would-be burglars, scaring them off and promptly notifying you and the authorities.

Buying into one of these systems can cost a lot -- both upfront and after factoring in monthly fees -- and paying that price requires a lot of trust. We've tested every major DIY home security system and professionally installed and monitored home security service in a home setting to offer our recommendations on the best ones to buy.

Here's how we test home security systems at CNET.

Step 1: Checking the security basics

Most home security systems, DIY or professional, essentially do what they're supposed to do. If you trip an armed entry sensor, an alarm will go off and you'll get notified via phone. Ditto motion sensors, glass break sensors, leak detectors and all the other simple devices that comprise any given home security setup.

Testing the reliability of the security product

The first part of home security testing is simply confirming that each of these devices responds properly to its stimulus -- and the vast majority of the time, they all do. (It's a big red flag if they don't, considering reliability is a core selling point of any safety-related technology.) I usually do this initial set of tests when I set up the system for the first time.

Testing promised features

The second phase of testing introduces a little more complication. I check to make sure all the more complex devices (such as security cameras, video doorbells, keypads and base stations) work properly. This means laying out the list of included features (such as smart alerts and motion detection zones), then testing each of them one by one.

Cameras are a little harder to evaluate than simple entry sensors or leak detectors.

Chris Monroe/CNET

Again, I do these tests as I set up each device, and the outcomes are usually a little less clear-cut than the simple device tests: A leak sensor either detects or fails to detect water, after all. A video doorbell may sense motion reliably and identify deliveries semi-effectively, but be less consistent in labeling animals (assuming that's a feature).

I make note of all the features included on these more complex devices, as well as how they perform in an initial battery of tests. Then I move on to the next phase.

Step 2: Real world testing

I always test home security systems in a home setting, installing and using them for at least a full week. This ensures that I don't just get "lab results" that are abstracted from the real-world use case of a security system. In short, I want to see them in action, getting practical use, over the course of a week.

As I do this, the testing becomes less formal and more experiential. Do the beeps from the hub every time a door opens get annoying? If so, how simple are they to deactivate? Is the base station easy to use, or do I default to the app in most cases? Do I experience false alarms or connectivity issues? If an alarm gets set off, how quick are the notifications -- and what kind of alerts occur with professional monitoring? Can I check back through the camera feed to figure out which neighborhood critter got into our garden? If I pull up the livestream of the back door camera, can I clearly hear my kids playing in the yard or does the wind interfere with the sound quality?

We test every home security system in real homes to make sure they're genuinely useful.

Josh Goldman/CNET

There are innumerable questions here, and I try to put myself in the shoes of as many potential users as possible. How do kids or pets change the equation? How would the system work in an apartment? Which types of chimes are the video doorbells compatible with -- and can they be used wirelessly?

This section of the review is often the biggest for two reasons. First, it's the most representative of how you'll actually experience the home security system. Unexpected elements that you'd only discover if you lived with the system for a few days often emerge. It's during this phase that I've found some cameras don't have adequate dampening of environmental noise, and their sound is essentially useless on a windy back porch. Or I've found that a video doorbell with plenty of great features takes a few seconds too long to pull up its feed via app, making it impractical for intervening during a package theft.

The second reason why the section is often large is that there are so many elements to home security systems. Unlike stand-alone devices, these systems depend on integration -- their ability to work as a team. You can only get a feel for how well that coordination actually works if you test them over time in the environment they're meant to be used in.

Step 3: Measuring the value

At the same time that I test all the individual devices and make note of their extra features, I also record their prices. This gets a little tricky, because home security systems are notorious for offering huge discounts all the time. That means the MSRP might not reflect what you'll pay for the hardware, but it provides a useful starting point.

Then, while I'm performing real-world tests in the background, I spend a day or two thoroughly comparing each device to the equivalent one in each other system on the market. How do the prices match up? What about the extras? Ultimately, I'm trying to figure out how the value compares.

For simple devices, this process is often straightforward. A system that charges half the price for entry sensors -- as long as they perform well -- offers better value than its competitors. For complex devices, this can quickly become its own miniature review. Stand-alone security cameras and video doorbells can range from $20 to $300, and their features vary as widely. The same goes for cameras that integrate with home security systems.

Some home security devices, such as video doorbells, have become much more affordable in recent years. Both Amazon Blink and Wyze offer wireless video doorbells for under $100.

Chris Monroe/CNET

It's not just the hardware prices that factor into the overall value assessment, though. Most home security systems require -- or at least work best -- with monthly service fees. These fees often scale to include everything from rolling cloud video storage to full-fledged 24/7 professional monitoring.

Many of these services rely on the same underlying approach, but slight differences in price and feature offerings can make a big difference over time. Generally, I look for systems that offer a lot of possible configurations. Your home security needs are particular, so your home security coverage should be customizable for your household.

I also look at the industry norms. App support and self-monitoring are almost always free; cloud storage is almost always available for a small monthly fee; professional monitoring is almost always available for $25, give or take. If a system significantly departs from such norms, I make note of it. Sometimes, such as when Wyze Home Monitoring originally launched $5 per month professional monitoring, that departure might be a standout feature. Other times, like when companies like Cove charge monthly fees for any app access, it can be a big criticism.

A few more considerations

While I prioritize value and performance when it comes to home security systems, a few other aspects of a service are worth considering.

Reviewing the home security installation process

Professionally installed systems come with, as you may have guessed, installation. While I often write about the installation process, this typically doesn't impact the overall evaluation much since installation can vary, depending on the region and particular installer.

Reviewing the home security provider's customer service

Likewise, I always use the provider's customer service channels rather than troubleshooting with media representatives. That way I get a basic sense of the customer service. I will often make note of significant differences in these offerings but again, because of such a low sample size, I avoid generalizing my experience when it comes to scoring or the final evaluation.

Some publications look to consumer surveys or online reviews to weigh customer service. While I test it and will often touch on it in reviews, I avoid relying on third-party reports of customer service for my reviews. Ideally, a system shouldn't need customer support except in unusual circumstances, anyway. If it does, that likely indicates another problem altogether.

Putting together the score and recommendation

Different people need different home security systems. That's why I don't simply make one recommendation and call it a day. Instead, I aim to offer the best systems for everyone's needs -- whether you own or rent, whether you're looking to spend hundreds or thousands, whether you're hoping for a professionally installed and monitored system or something more DIY and self-monitored.

Regardless of what you're looking for, I always aim to find the best home security systems with reliable hardware, flexible services and unbeatable value.

Recap: Every testing step we take

Here's everything we do when we review home security systems and services:

• Review setup
  
• Review reliability 
  
• Review promised features
  
• Review user experience over the course of a week
  
• Review the overall value
  
• Review installation and customer service
  

Each of these features come together to help us score any given product and list each product appropriately in a variety of lists, whether it's the best for everyone or for some customers in select circumstances.

If you're looking for more information, check out our recommendations for the best home security systems, the best home security systems for renters, the best security cameras and the best video doorbells. 

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Best Wi-Fi 6 Routers of 2022

Best Wi-Fi 6 Routers of 2022

The good ol' 802.11 standard we commonly call Wi-Fi gets updated every several years with new features and faster speeds. The latest iteration (802.11ax) arrived in 2019, marking the sixth major generational update, and the Wi-Fi industry dubbed it Wi-Fi 6 to make things less complicated and easier to identify for customers.

Since then, Wi-Fi 6 has established itself as the de facto standard for next-gen gadgets. Just about every new phone and computer release supports it, and we're starting to see support pop up among peripheral devices, too. Did you pick up an Apple TV 4K or Amazon Fire TV 4K Max media streamer last Black Friday? Both of those support Wi-Fi 6. Have you managed to score a new PlayStation 5 console yet? That's a Wi-Fi 6 gadget, too.

Wi-Fi 6 devices like those are backwards compatible with older routers, but if you want to unlock their full potential, then you'll need a Wi-Fi 6 router running your home network. That was an expensive proposition back when Wi-Fi 6 first arrived, but not any more. Shop around, and you'll find a number of options available for less than $100, as well as mesh systems, gaming routers, range extenders and more. Some do the job better than others -- but that's where we come in, with comprehensive, hands-on tests to help identify the best upgrade picks for the money. 

Expect regular updates to this post as we continue to put Wi-Fi 6 to the test in 2022. Whenever we find a new router that merits consideration, we'll add it to the list. For now, here are the models I'd recommend for anyone making the purchase in August 2022.

Ry Crist/CNET

When a router supports Wi-Fi 6, that means that it's capable of using new features like OFDMA and 1024-QAM to deliver faster speeds and lower latency to busy networks with lots of connected devices. That's true even with the budget-priced value picks -- and among those, the one that performs the best is the TP-Link Archer AX21.

Currently priced at $100 and on sale for $70, the Archer AX21 did an outstanding job in my at-home speed tests. At the end of multiple days of tests across five spots in my house, the Archer AX21's average download speed on a 300Mbps fiber network was a near-perfect 299Mbps. That includes triple-digit download speeds in the very back of my house, a common dead zone where a lot of the routers I test struggle to stay connected at all. In 2022, I retested the AX21 after upgrading my home network to gigabit speeds -- it isn't powerful enough to top out a connection like that, but it still delivered fast, consistent speeds, with my downloads averaging in at 441Mbps.

That level of performance was strong enough for the Archer AX21 to beat out similar models from Netgear, Asus and D-Link, and it even kept the pace with fancier routers that cost significantly more. It's also a cinch to set up, thanks to TP-Link's Tether app for Android and iOS, which also offers quick access to basic network settings without bombarding you with ads like some other router apps will.

All of that makes the Archer AX21 an extremely worthy pick for small- to medium-size homes, and one of the best value picks you'll find that supports Wi-Fi 6.

Read our TP-Link Archer AX21 review.

Ry Crist/CNET

2021 was a very good year for TP-Link, and it wasn't just because of the Archer AX21. There's also the TP-Link Deco W7200, which cruised through my speed tests to earn a spot as my top-rated mesh router of the year. With multiple devices working like a team of routers to spread a faster, more reliable signal across a larger area than a single router can, it's a fantastic pick for large homes -- and one that won't set you back very much at just $233 for a two-pack.

What's great about the Deco W7200, along with its full support for Wi-Fi 6, is that it's a tri-band model with the usual 2.4 and 5GHz bands plus an additional 5GHz band that the system uses as a dedicated wireless backhaul connection between the main router and its satellites. That dedicated backhaul is the key to unlocking the best mesh performance, because it keeps those system transmissions separate from your regular network traffic. Tri-band mesh routers like those will often cost you $400 or more, but the Deco W7200 gets you there for hundreds less.

Sure enough, the performance was outstanding when I tested the system out. In fact, of all of the mesh routers that I've tested at home, only two averaged faster download speeds -- the first costs more than $200 more than the Deco W7200, and the other costs more than three times as much. That makes the Deco W7200 a flat-out unbeatable value, and a better, more noticeable upgrade for most homes than splurging on a high-powered standard router. 

The only real downside? So far in 2022, it's been a bit of a challenge to catch the Walmart exclusive in stock. If you're struggling to find it, keep reading for other suggestions, or check out the TP-Link Deco X90, a slightly higher-end model that performed even better than the W7200 in my tests. It's a bit more expensive, but Amazon currently has it marked down to $400.

Read our TP-Link Deco W7200 review.

Ry Crist/CNET

Asus is one of the top names in the gaming router category, boasting the best variety of fast, flashy routers that promise elite performance, low latency, and advanced controls for your connection. The Asus RT-AX86U is actually one of the more understated routers in that mix -- it doesn't include color-changing lights or an oversize, ostentatious design -- but it's still one of the best gaming routers you can buy. Gaming aside, it's one of the best Wi-Fi 6 routers you can buy, period.

Along with offering fast, consistent speeds, the RT-AX86U did a better job at managing latency than any other router I tested it against, and it comes with a full suite of tools for optimizing your connection while gaming, including an adaptive quality-of-service engine and an Open NAT database of game- and platform-specific port forwarding rules. There's even a Mobile Game Mode designed to instantly prioritize traffic to your phone.

In other words, the RT-AX86U checks all of the boxes you'd want from a gaming router (except the color-changing lights, I guess -- though you can get it Zaku-styled if you're willing to spend a little more). Most importantly, it makes strong enough use of Wi-Fi 6 to ensure that even the non-gamers in your household will appreciate having it around. 

At around $250 or less, it's definitely an upgrade pick, but a reasonable one that's still less expensive than a lot of gaming routers (and, as of writing this at the start of June, it's marked down to $200 on Amazon). And, if you're thinking about upgrading to a new multi-gig internet plan from AT&T, Frontier, Xfinity, Verizon, Ziply Fiber or another provider offering plans like those, you can get an upgraded RT-AX86U equipped with a multi-gig Ethernet jack supporting incoming wired speeds of up to 2.5Gbps for $250.

Read our Asus RT-AX86U review.

Ry Crist/CNET

Remember how I mentioned that the TP-Link Deco W7200 outperformed every other mesh router I've ever tested except for one? Well, here's the one that beat it -- the AX6000 version of the Netgear Orbi mesh system. 

With that all-important tri-band design and full support for Wi-Fi 6, the AX6000 Orbi blew us away with excellent signal strength and downright impressive top speeds when we first tested it out a year or two ago. Those speeds have held up ever since -- whether we're clocking top speeds in our lab or testing real-world speeds at home, literally nothing else I've tested performs as well. On top of that, the AX6000 Orbi deserves credit for being one of the first mesh routers to offer a multigig WAN port and breaking the bottleneck that capped incoming wired speeds at just a single gig.

Performance like that usually comes at a premium, and sure enough, the AX6000 Orbi costs $700 for a two-pack. Like a Mercedes Benz for the mesh category, it's more machine than most people need, but there's nothing wrong with coveting one -- or waiting for the rare sale. If it were my money, I'd rather go with that Deco W7200 system and spend the hundreds I'd save on something else, but if you just want the best mesh router performance that we've seen in our tests, full stop, money be damned, here it is.

Read our Netgear Orbi AX6000 review.

Ry Crist/CNET

Going with a mesh router makes a ton of sense if you live in a large, multi-story home with a lot of space to cover. In cases like that, it's worth it to prioritize getting a system with more than two devices in the mesh -- and Amazon's Eero 6 Plus gets you there for $299, complete with full support for Wi-Fi 6.

The Eero 6 Plus takes the Eero 6 that preceded it and beefs things up with a faster AX3000 build and new support for full-width 160MHz channels, up from 80MHz. Those wider channels allow the system to move data twice as efficiently to compatible devices, and they made a huge difference in my performance tests, where the 6 Plus finished as a top ten finisher among the thirty or so mesh routers I've tested at home. None of the routers that beat its average download speeds can beat its value, and that makes the Eero 6 Plus an excellent pick.

Read our Eero 6 Plus review.

Ry Crist/CNET

It was a bit too pricey for me to recommend when it launched at $380 for a two-piece setup, but I've seen the Asus ZenWifi XD6 marked down to $300 at multiple outlets in recent weeks, which makes it a much better value -- and right now, Amazon and other outlets are offering it for even less, at $260 for a 2-pack.

For the money, you're getting a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 mesh router that performed more like a fancier tri-band model in our tests, and one that was fully capable of optimizing our speeds throughout the entirety of the 5,400-square-foot CNET Smart Home. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it the most capable dual-band mesh router I've ever tested. 

As of writing this, multiple retailers (including Amazon and B&H Photo) have the XD6 on sale for $260, which is a great deal. If that price jumps up above $300 again, feel free to skip it. But this is a solid mesh router with one of the more comprehensive control apps available from a major manufacturer, making it a good pick for intermediate and advanced users who want to fine-tune their home network experience.

Read our Asus ZenWifi XD6 review.

Wi-Fi 6 router FAQs

If you've got questions about the ins and outs of Wi-Fi 6, be sure to check out my full explainer on the standard and what makes it better than the Wi-Fi of yore. You can also reach me by looking me up on Twitter (@rycrist) or by clicking the little envelope icon on my CNET profile page to send a message straight to my inbox. In the meantime, I'll post answers to any commonly asked questions below. 

What makes Wi-Fi 6 better than before?

Wi-Fi 6 includes support for new Wi-Fi features that help devices pass data back and forth faster and more efficiently. One of the key upgrades is 1024-QAM, which stands for quadrature amplitude modulation, or the trick your router uses to send radio waves that other devices can read as a series of ones and zeroes -- the binary code that makes up everything you see, read and experience online. 1024-QAM allows your router to send out 10 digits of binary code with each transmission, compared to eight digits of binary from Wi-Fi 5 routers that use 256-QAM. That's one of the key reasons why Wi-Fi 6 offers top speeds that are roughly 30% faster than before.

Other features of note include OFDMA, or orthogonal frequency division multiple access, which improves network efficiency by allowing your router to send data to multiple clients within a single channel at once. Think of that like a pizza delivery driver dropping off multiple pizzas to multiple customers in one trip to save gas. There's also Target Wake Time, which lets the router schedule devices that need to periodically check in so that they don't cause interference with one another. And, though it isn't specifically tied to Wi-Fi 6, most next-gen routers will support WPA3, the latest standard for Wi-Fi security.

Will older devices still work with a Wi-Fi 6 router?

Yes -- Wi-Fi 6 is fully backward compatible, so earlier-gen Wi-Fi devices will still be able to connect to them and get online. They just won't be able to take advantage of the new Wi-Fi 6 features that speed things up for current-gen devices.

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Motorola MH7603 mesh router review: A discount Wi-Fi 6 setup that falls short

Motorola MH7603 mesh router review: A discount Wi-Fi 6 setup that falls short

Like

• Easy app-based controls
• About as affordable as 3-piece Wi-Fi 6 mesh setups get

Don't Like

• Poor routing compromises Wi-Fi 6 speed gains
• No alternative to the app for setup and system management

At this point, the majority of newly released Wi-Fi devices support 802.11ax, or Wi-Fi 6, the wireless standard's newest and fastest generation. You'll need a compatible router in order to put those faster speeds to work at home, but fortunately, you've got lots of Wi-Fi 6 router options from a fairly wide range of manufacturers.

Motorola is in that mix after releasing new Wi-Fi 6 home networking hardware last year, and among the new devices, you'll find a three-piece mesh router with full support for Wi-Fi 6 and an asking price of just $239. That's $40 less than you'll pay for a three-piece Eero 6 system, $60 less than a three-piece Netgear Nighthawk system, and more than $100 less than a three-piece Nest Wifi setup, which doesn't support Wi-Fi 6 at all.

Ry Crist/CNET

That's a decent bargain for anyone looking to make the upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 in a large home, where a mesh setup with two extenders instead of one would be ideal. However, the system did a poor job of routing my connection during my at-home tests, and frequently sent my signal through an extender when it shouldn't have, which slowed things down. There also isn't any alternative to the app when it comes to setup or system management, which isn't ideal if you're concerned about data collection. This is still a stable, workable mesh system at an attractive price, but I think most households will want to shop around before buying in.

Each device in the system is identical and interchangeable, and features two Ethernet jacks.

Ry Crist/CNET

Setup and design

With a basic-looking, all-white plastic design featuring a single indicator light and a subtle Motorola logo etched up top, the MH7603 is far from the most interesting-looking mesh system on the market. Still, it's unobtrusive enough to blend in with most home decor, and the build doesn't feel overly cheap.

About as big as a cereal bowl, each device in the system is identical and interchangeable, so you can use any of them as the main router for your network and the other two as satellite extenders placed elsewhere around the home. Turn them around, and you'll find two Ethernet jacks on each device, along with a USB-C jack that you'll use to plug the things into power. Like a lot of entry-level mesh systems, you won't find any standard USB ports at all.

The Motosync app walks you through the setup process on your Android or iOS device. I had my network up and running in about 10 minutes.

Screenshots by Ry Crist/CNET

To set the system up, you'll need to download Motorola's Motosync app on your Android or iOS device. It's a well-designed app that does a very good job of walking you through the setup process, which requires you to scan a QR code on the bottom of one of the devices to set up the router before adding the extenders to the network. Though I admittedly only tested the system with a single extender in my home, setup was wrapped up within 10 minutes.

The Motosync app incorrectly labeled the devices on my network as threats and couldn't offer much information about them.

Screenshots by Ry Crist/CNET

Once the network is up and running, the app offers the usual mix of features for managing your network. You can see which devices are currently connected, run a quick speed test, activate parental controls or the guest network or monitor potential threats to your connection.

Specifically, the app will alert you if an unidentified device joins your network, though it seems a bit sensitive. After I finished setup, the app erroneously listed every device on the network as an unidentified potential threat, complete with an ominous skull and crossbones icon. Additionally, the app wasn't able to offer much information about those devices at all, with no autodetection of manufacturer or device type metadata. It's a pretty minor quibble, but I could see it all adding up to unnecessary confusion and concern for networking novices.

Privacy considerations

One other note about that app: It isn't made by Motorola. Instead, the app (and all of the software powering Motorola's home networking hardware) is the exclusive product of a New Hampshire-based company called Minim that specializes in "intelligent connectivity products that dependably connect people to the information they need and the people they love."

It always gives me pause when a router manufacturer turns to another company for its home networking software instead of designing its own because it can mean you now have two companies' worth of privacy policies and service agreements to read through in order to get a sense of what's going on with your data. That's unrealistic for most people.

The section of Minim's privacy policy for California residents outlines the types of personal data collected when you use the Motosync app. Among other things, that data includes your search history and your financial account records.

Screenshot by Ry Crist/CNET

Minim tells CNET it doesn't share any user data with Motorola, and the Minim privacy policy is relatively straightforward. It's more or less in line with what I've seen from other companies. That said, being in line with the rest of the industry means that Minim is definitely collecting data, including personal data such as your name, email address, phone number and device identifiers. A lot of that goes toward network optimization and threat detection, but some of it is used for direct marketing purposes, like emailing customers about a third-party product if their data suggests it would be relevant to them.

According to a separate section of the policy for residents of California, where disclosure laws are more strict, Minim gets more specific and acknowledges that it collects but does not sell various categories of personal data, including information about past purchases and usage habits, "inferential information" about your behavior and preferences and online information like your browsing history, your search history and your service interaction history. Minim acknowledges that it collects employment history and financial information, as well, though the company says that neither one is used for marketing purposes.

As for the third parties Minim shares data with, the list includes unnamed vendors and contractors as well as internet service providers that lease Motorola networking hardware to their customers. That data is encrypted both in rest and in transit, and retained for 30 days, the company says.

"Our Privacy Policy does allow for data captured from consumer activity on the Minim and Motosync apps and on Motorola hardware to be kept for a maximum of 30 days," a Minim spokesperson said. "This is because we wanted to enable ISP customers, depending on their support department tracking and reporting requirements, to have access to subscriber data for that period. Notably, specific website/service (DNS) activity and user profiles are not visible to the ISP."

In fairness, you'll find similar data disclosures in the privacy policies of other manufacturers, including TP-Link, Netgear and Asus, but Minim seems to be casting a wider net than most. For instance, most manufacturers use your IP address to track your rough location for marketing and analytics purposes, but Minim uses your device's mobile GPS coordinates to pull that info, as well.

Head to the Motosync app's settings and tap "Revoke data consent" if you'd like to opt out of data collection.

Screenshot by Ry Crist/CNET

"When a customer uses our mobile application, Minim and MTRLC LLC may collect and store information about the customer's location by converting his or her IP address into a rough geo-location or by accessing the customer mobile device's GPS coordinates," the policy reads. "Minim and MTRLC LLC may use location information to improve and personalize our services for customers. If customer does not want us to collect location information, he or she may disable that feature on the mobile device."

The other problem with all of this is that Motorola doesn't offer an alternative to the app, with no instructions for web-based router setup or management in the in-box quickstart guide. A quick glance at the terms of service tells you why:

"In order to use the Service, Subscribers must download and use a mobile application," the Minim terms read. "In order to download and use the mobile application, Subscribers agree to certain contractual terms of use."

On the plus side, you can opt out of data collection entirely. To do so, go to the settings section of the Motosync app and tap "Revoke data consent." Doing so will automatically draft an email to the company requesting to opt out of data collection.

Represented by the green bars in this chart, the Motorola MH7603 wasn't a standout in our speed tests.

Ry Crist/CNET

Performance and speed

In terms of speed, the MH7603 was a middling performer among mesh routers. In my home, a 1,300-square-foot, shotgun-style house in Louisville with a 300Mbps fiber internet connection, the MH7603 returned an overall average download speed of 219Mbps, averaged across five spots throughout the house (you can read more about how I test Wi-Fi routers by clicking here). 

An average of 219Mbps is lower than you might expect, but right in line with other dual-band, AX1800 mesh routers I've tested, including the Netgear Nighthawk mesh router (218Mbps) and the Asus ZenWiFi AX Mini (207Mbps). Like those other basic Wi-Fi 6 systems, the MH7603 saw its average fall because of poor routing -- specifically, it had a habit of routing my connection through an extender when connecting directly with the main router would have been faster.

Speeds were fine when I'd connect at close range to the main router, in the living room (green), but speeds were much lower whenever my connection started in the back of the house (yellow), closer to an extender.

Ry Crist/CNET

To account for that in my data, I run two separate sets of speed tests with every mesh router I review. For the first, I connect to the network while I'm in the living room, the same room as the main router, and then I work back toward the opposite end of the house. For the second set of tests, I reverse it and start my connection in my home's back bathroom at the back of my house, near the extender.

In both cases, the system should be smart enough to figure out when the extender is and is not necessary, but the MH7603 struggled at that task, which showed up in the numbers. In the first set of front-to-back tests, my average, close-range download speed in the living room was a lofty 370Mbps, which is about as fast as things get with my connection. But when I'd start my connection near the extender and then move into the living room, that average speed fell all the way to 244Mbps. That's because at several points the system was still routing my connection through the extender.

Faulty routing like that compromises performance because it means that your connection is often making an extra and unnecessary jump on its way to the cloud. Compare Motorola's overall average of 219Mbps in my home with the overall average for Google's Nest Wifi, a mesh router with no support for Wi-Fi 6 at all. That system is slower and less advanced than what Motorola's offering, but it does a much better job of routing your connection, and finished with an overall average of 222Mbps -- higher than the MH7603. Motorola's poor routing is essentially wiping away the Wi-Fi 6 speed gains.

For better performance from a Wi-Fi 6 mesh router, your best bet is to go with a tri-band model, with an additional 5GHz band that serves as a dedicated backhaul connection between the router and its satellites. The fastest we've tested is the AX6000 version of the Netgear Orbi, but it's too expensive for most at $700 for a two-pack. Fortunately, the TP-Link Deco W7200 is right behind it, performance-wise, and only costs $230 for a two-pack if you can catch it in stock at Walmart. For now, that system still sits in the top spot on my list of the best mesh routers we've tested.

Ry Crist/CNET

The verdict

The Motorola MH7603 mesh router is easy to use and capable of delivering fast speeds, but it's also prone to slowing things down with poor routing, and that makes it a fairly mediocre pick among entry-level Wi-Fi 6 systems.

Superior options include the aforementioned TP-Link Deco W7200, which only comes with one extender but makes up for it with outstanding tri-band performance, as well as the pricier Asus ZenWifi XD6, which is the top-performing dual-band mesh system I've tested to date. I'd even prefer a solid Wi-Fi 5 system like the Google Nest Wifi over the MH7603 thanks to the noticeably better routing. Bottom line: If you're going to upgrade to Wi-Fi 6, then I think you want more of an upgrade than this.

Correction, Feb. 1: This review has been updated to reflect that Minim is the exclusive owner of the Motorola brand license for home networking and home security products.

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