OnHub - Just another router Or---?

[RogersMoin]

Hello, @Community

I was doing some reading and bumped on to something interesting, thought I should share it. Have you heard about OnHub yet?

Specs are interesting, check it out. Most likely our REs - @VivienM, @Gdkitty and @Datalink will not like it as it has

built-in antennas (13) and it has only 1 WAN and LAN port.

The box is definitely different than the other routers, it has the Bluetooth support and also a 3W speaker?

Cheers,

RogersMoin

***Edited Labels***

[Datalink]

Yup, it looks interesting all right.  Here's a couple links for it:

https://on.google.com/hub/

From that page comes the following:  To give you fast Wi-Fi, OnHub’s 13 antennas (six 2.4GHz antennas, six 5GHz antennas,

                                                                      and a congestion-sensing antenna) are arranged in a unique circular pattern.

That seems to suggest that the antenna are not necessarily mounted on a flat motherboard with a number of components around them, as is common with internal antenna (Hitron included).  If so, off the motherboard, with a circular array, wifi performance might not be too bad.  Just have to wait for the reviews to come out. 

Here's another link:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/googles-onhub-is-a-200-wi-fi-router-and-smart-home-hub/

http://business.financialpost.com/fp-tech-desk/cio/google-inc-unveils-cylinder-shaped-onhub-wi-fi-ro...

From the post article:  The OnHub will be available for $269 on Aug. 31 in Canada, from Best Buy and the Google Store.

So, not cheap, almost into the range for high end Asus and Netgear routers.

[VivienM]

While I do like external antennas (at least compared to the mediocre internal 'antennas' used on most consumer-grade wifi gear), the biggest criteria (and the reason I love the Asus routers) for me is software quality/stability. If this thing is reliable and doesn't need daily/weekly reboots, then great...

[RogersArthur]

So far Google's OnHub Wi-Fi router looks pretty cool with some key features. Looking forward to seeing what other features it has to offer and what type of feedback it's going to receive from users.

RogersArthur

[ShakTiburon]

Wouldn't this be... to extend their Wifi-Calling "Project Fi".
I know google did this with maps,
where it used Wifi in the area to detect the location of a user. (Used Wifi in the area to map out the location). Nifty trick imo. (Second layer of a-gps)
OnHub Feels like it will be used as a connection pass for users in the area to use the hub for wifi calling, seperate network (Your personal network still private).
I would assume this is more so targeted for US market than us.

All speculation...
but I am conspiracy nut 😄 (No but I was reading about a Router by google for a while, so I don't know if this is it or an idea that has been scraped few years back)

[ch4]

FCC page here: https://fccid.io/TE7TGR1900

It is made by Shenzhen manufacturer TP-Link. Here is TP-Link's specifications page for OnHub:

http://www.tp-link.us/products/details/cat-9_TGR1900.html#specifications

It looks to me like an impressive peace of gear, and the 1 Gbps LAN port can be quite sufficient for a home network. It will obviously need to be switched to allow more than one device on the LAN. But on the other hand, traffic behind the switch that is destined within the LAN will not be bottlenecked by only having one LAN port on the router.

Sure it may not be the best specced router on the market, it doesn't have a built-in switch, and it only has internal antennae. However, it is certainly more capable than most if not all entry to mid-level consumer market routers. Only problem is the $200 USD price tag, there are similarly capable routers at that price point or less without the numerous bells and whistles (like a speaker, seriously? Budwieser included speakers in their cases of beer!)

ps: Datalink made this point about the price tag, I concur with him.

[RogersMoin]

Thank you, @ch4.

I'm wondering if anybody in the Community is using OnHub? I believe it's available at Best Buy stores since last month.

RogersMoin

[ShakTiburon]

Oh is it now? I wanna definitely hear some reviews!

[ch4]

@RogersMoin I wonder, too. Hopefully this will show up on Google and someone will post their thoughts 🙂