Product Comparison: BT Whole Home Wi-Fi vs Google GA00158

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BT Whole Home Wi-Fi Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System (Pack of 3)

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Google GA00158 Wi-Fi Whole Home System (Pack of 3)

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General Specifications

Brand

Google

Model

Whole Home Wi-Fi

GA00158-UK

Origin

China

About the Product

Superfast, super-reliable Wi-Fi for every room. BT Whole Home Wi-Fi puts what matters most at your fingertips. It talks to all your gadgets to make sure they are always automatically connected to the fast and strong signal. And it is bristling with brilliant controls that put you in charge of a supercharged home network.

Google Wifi points work with your modem and internet provider to give your devices a fast signal in every room. Unlike traditional routers and range extenders, Google Wifi can give you both great speed and complete coverage of your home. All communication between devices on your network is encrypted and your system’s security is updated automatically to give you peace of mind.

Key Specs

Kit Contents

3x nodes, 3x power adapter, Ethernet cable

Designated Areas

Up to 4500 sq. ft.

Up to 1380 sq. ft.

Max. Wi-Fi Speed

2600 Mbps

1200 Mbps

Max. Wi-Fi Speed

What customers say about "Key Specs"

BT Whole Home Wi-Fi Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System (Pack of 3)

The BT disks have great range, speed and reliability! Very easy to set up.
I ordered the three disk pack and it has given me 100% coverage.
3 disc because I live in a large old house with very thick walls. The reception is now full speed in every room! Including the attic!!!!
The Whole Home system delivers much better wireless than my stonking big Netgear R8000 Nighthawk x 6 AC3200 which drops off massively once distance to router increases.
I now have high speed WiFi coverage across the entire house. Works a charm with the 4K netflix stream in the far corner of the house!

Google GA00158 Wi-Fi Whole Home System (Pack of 3)

A 40mbs increase all because of the single Google WiFi unit. It's just a miracle, amazeballs, incredible!
This has sorted out our problem completely with really good wifi coverage throughout the house with speeds pretty much the same as if I was standing by the router.
I got the mesh units up and running and talking to each other and apparently all giving very good data speeds.
Easy set-up, good coverage of flat, speeds are good.
WiFi connections says it is connected to the WiFi but no speed at all .network dropping off . Happens on all my devices.

Size & Weight

Height

6.5 in.

2.7 in.

Width

6.5 in.

4.1 in.

Depth

3 in.

4.1 in.

Weight

0.9 lbs.

0.75 lbs.

What customers say about "Size & Weight"

BT Whole Home Wi-Fi Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System (Pack of 3)

Each disc is about the size of a smoke alarm and are not unattractive in the scheme of things.
The main product picture is a little misleading - all the discs are the same size, somewhere between a saucer and side plate sized!
The discs are largely made of metal and appear very well built. The system is very easy to setup using the free to download App.
The BT nodes are circular and stand on a chrome stand. At first they feel heavy and solid until you realise that most of the weight is in the stand.
Bigger than expected, at size of small side plate, but not ugly.

Google GA00158 Wi-Fi Whole Home System (Pack of 3)

They are small in size and unobtrusive sitting on a living room table. Very pleased with this product.
It is the size of a traditional whiskey glass, and weight just about the same.
I like the small size of the units though, and the scheduled offline times for devices + parental filtering.
My only criticism is the big price tag and the big size of the devices. I expected the "pucks" to be much smaller to easily hide away.
I completely underestimated the size of the routers... each one is fairly substantial and definitely stand out when plugged in in a visible location.

Network Specifications

Wi-Fi Technology

Dual-Band

Wi-Fi Bands

2.4Ghz + 5GHz

Wi-Fi Standards

802.11a/b/g/n

802.11a/b/g/n/ac

Encryption & Security

WPA (TKIP), WPA2 (AES), WPA/WPA2

WPA2-PSK

Wi-Fi Technology
Wi-Fi Bands

What customers say about "Network Specifications"

BT Whole Home Wi-Fi Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System (Pack of 3)

Excellent, fast, reliable wifi .. similar to how Superhub 3 could do it runs 2.4 & 5Ghz network on one SSID - but this actually works!!
No more dropping your WiFi and restarting it to pick up the strongest signal. It will also put each device on whichever band it decides is best (2.4 or 5g) and it is consistently fast no matter where I am in the house.
The backhaul from disc one that is connected to the router via LAN with backhaul between the other disc number two is via wifi at 5 GHz with good signal.
Tablets happily run on 5GHz and security cameras run on 2.4GHz.
Excellent speeds and coverage, but android devices with both 2.4 and 5ghz appear to lose connection with 'authentication error'.

Google GA00158 Wi-Fi Whole Home System (Pack of 3)

Seems that it more than doubled my wifi bandwidth, and has removed all the dead spots. Can highly recommend!
I like the fact that Google Wifi uses the same network name for both 2.4/5Ghz bands, it's a nice feature which allows devices to select the band automatically.
Super easy set-up, convenient app to monitor things from, 2.4 and 5 settings are combined so no more switching to the faster on.
The google wifi puts out a simultaneous 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz signal and each of your devices can choose with signal it needs and if your device can do both, it will choose the frequency with the strongest signal.
Smart home sockets mostly use 2.4 GHz and typically require the managing device to be on 2.4GHz. iOS devices connect to 5Ghz. Looks like google is using this to force us all to Android. This surely is an anti-trust violation.

Features

Interfaces

WAN/LAN

2x WAN/LAN

Easy App Controls

Yes

Processor

MIPS ‘Classic’ CPU

Quad-core ARM CPU

Power Source

AC (power cord)

Extras

Works with all broadband providers, AC2500 Dual-Band wireless technology, Wi-Fi roaming and band steering, Self-configuring network, Intelligent backhaul channel and band selection, Easy setup, Connection advice, Simple dashboard, Complete control, Secure network

Expandable mesh Wi-Fi, TX Beamforming, Bluetooth Smart Ready

Memory

4 GB Flash and 512 MB RAM

What customers say about "Features"

BT Whole Home Wi-Fi Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System (Pack of 3)

You can manage each disk separately with app.
Using the app on my smart phone, I found the best spots in which to place the other two discs. The result is that I have Wi-fi throughout the house and no dead spots or weak spots at all.
The control app is relatively easy to use and you can set some basic child controls which effectively just stops internet connectivity to selected devices during scheduled times.
The App is ok, nothing to get too excited about but does the job.
The Whole Home Wifi app is OK. It kept showing alerts to update Whole Home Wifi software even though I had set it to update automatically.

Google GA00158 Wi-Fi Whole Home System (Pack of 3)

Software wise, it's more than functional, and allows you to see all the devices on your network, as well as gives you an idea of the speed.
The app works well and helps you get the hubs in the right place. It does things behind the scenes which make sure you get the best signal.
The app, shows all connected devices, shows if they are using the wifi and how much.
The units look great, the app is very well designed and easy to use.
There are no advanced settins on the Google wifi app which is a shame. I get why not. It is meant to be plug and forget.

Warranty / Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

2 year(s)

1 year(s)

Certifications

Other Information

Manufacturer

Link

Manual

Download

MSRP

121.00 $