Google Wifi: Google’s second attempt at a home router [Updated]

Google last year released the OnHub Wi-Fi router. This year it has a new offering: Google Wifi (sic; although the wireless technology is properly written "Wi-Fi", Google's product is not).

The new access point is a little white cylinder. The main new feature? It's mesh-capable, so you can add new units around your home to expand your Wi-Fi coverage. It'll automatically pick which channels you use, to make sure it's always as fast as it can be. To that end, you can buy one of them for $129, or a 3-pack for $299. Preorders will start in November, shipping in December. You can join the waiting list here.

There's also a companion app to control the hotspots; you'll be able to control your kids' Wi-Fi access from the comfort of your phone.

The router is a 802.11ac device with 2.4GHz and 5GHz and 2×2 antennas, supporting beamforming. It's described as AC1200, so it should offer about 900Mbps for 5GHz connections, 300Mbps for 2.4GHz ones. It also has two gigabit Ethernet ports. For a router it also packs a lot of processing power: it's got a quad core processor, with 512MB RAM and 4GB flash.