Whether you're a remote worker who enjoys a morning coffee on your deck or a business owner running a cafe in a busy college town, getting reliable Wi-Fi outdoors can be challenging. While some users have gotten creative with their weatherproof Wi-Fi solutions, Eero is now launching what may be the answer for many: the Eero Outdoor 7.
Besides killing Wi-Fi dead zones, one of the main reasons to upgrade to one of the best mesh Wi-Fi systems is so that you can extend your home network out into your garage or even into your backyard. However, to achieve something like this, you often have to get crafty with the placement of your mesh router nodes or satellites.
Over the years, eero’s customers have come up with all sorts of different ways from weatherproof boxes to outdoor closets to using a pole and rubber bands to bring their mesh networks outside. But with the eero Outdoor 7, they can easily and securely mount a weatherproof mesh device on stucco, vinyl, wood or fiber cement walls without all that hassle.
Since weather conditions can be quite extreme in different parts of the world, eero tested the eero Outdoor 7 in the heat of Arizona, inside a commercial refrigerator, on beaches and even in a tunnel with 100 MPH winds to simulate a Category 1 or even a Category 2 hurricane. The device itself can operate in temperatures ranging from -40F to 130F.
As with the eero Max 7 and the other devices on our list of the best Wi-Fi 7 routers, the eero Outdoor 7 supports the latest wireless standard. With Wi-Fi 7 on board, you can get multi-gig wireless speeds of up to 2.1 gigabits per second (Gbps). It also acts as a smart home hub so that you can connect Thread, Zigbee and Matter devices.
Even if you have an older eero device like the eero 6+ or the eero Pro 6E, you can still add the eero Outdoor 7 to your mesh network. This is because unlike with mesh routers from Netgear or Google, all eero devices are compatible with each other and can be used together on the same network.
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Qualcomm just announced the upgrade of the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which should run the best Android phones that launch next year. It appears that the new chip will also support major software updates for quite some time.
During the recent Snapdragon Summit, Chris Patrick, Qualcomm's SVP and GM Mobile Handset, announced to assembled journalists that the new system-on-chip would support up to eight years of Android operating system updates (via Android Authority). According to the report, that support includes the current OS version, which means you can expect seven years of Android upgrades (assuming phone makers release that many).
This means that Android phone manufacturers can support their devices for as long as they care to do so. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean every handset maker will support older devices for eight or seven years. They must customize their Android skins and features to work with the built-in Qualcomm Android board support package. Several Android device makers, including Sony and Motorola, are known to only offer one Android update and maybe three or four years of security updates.
Existing Qualcomm chips like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can support up to four operating system upgrades and four years of security patches. This has been a goal of Qualcomm to enable manufacturing partners to keep updating older phones for longer.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite is being built with the 3nm process, significantly improving the current 4nm processor used in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Transistors are packed closer together, improving performance and power efficiency. It should be quite a powerful chip.
Additionally, Qualcomm is swapping out the Kryo CPU from previous SoCs for a mobile-optimized Oryon CPU, the same as the Snapdragon X Elite silicon used in Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs released this summer.
Luckily, new phones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite are coming soon.These include the Asus ROG Phone 9, which should launch in November. Honor showed off the Magic 7 during the Snapdragon Summit, and that phone will debut on October 30, though it may take a few months before it hits US shores.
Qualcomm has confirmed that the Snapdragon X Elite will get eight years of support, but Android updates are offered by phone manufacturers. While brands like Samsung and Google have already upped their game and are offering seven years of OS updates for the Galaxy S24 and the Pixel 9 series, manufacturers like Xiaomi, Realme, Oppo, and others are yet to update their software update policy.
Companies like Motorola, who are often known to delay software updates, also recently announced that the Edge 50 Neo, its newest mid-range device, will get five years of updates. However, given the company’s track record, it will be interesting to see if it follows through on its promise.
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Qualcomm debuted its Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset at Snapdragon Summit 2024, and various phone makers have since come forward to confirm that their upcoming flagships will be powered by the all-new (and all-powerful) mobile platform.
Both Xiaomi and Honor joined Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon on stage in Hawaii to announce that the Xiaomi 15 and Honor Magic 7 series, respectively, will launch this month (likely in China) with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.
Asus, too, confirmed that the upcoming Asus ROG Phone 9 will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and Samsung mobile chief TM Roh also appeared at Snapdragon Summit to reaffirm his company’s ongoing partnership with Qualcomm. Roh didn’t mention the Samsung Galaxy S25 series by name, but you can bet your house that the best Samsung phones we see in 2025 will come packing the Snapdragon 8 Elite (disclaimer: that’s not serious financial advice).
In other words, it's highly likely that many of next year’s best Android phones will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, with Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series being the first of that number to ship in the US, UK, and Australia . Those aforementioned models from Xiaomi, Honor, and OnePlus will presumably debut in China first, before launching internationally at a later date in 2025.
As for how the Snapdragon 8 Elite stacks up against its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, it’s the first Snapdragon mobile chipset to feature Qualcomm’s second-generation Oryon CPU, and has been designed to “handle the complexities of multi-modal AI” much more efficiently.
Any phones equipped with Qualcomm’s latest chipset will deliver faster app launches, more seamless multitasking, and more powerful generative AI capabilities than their Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-equipped predecessors, and mobile gamers, too, will benefit from sharper images, smoother gameplay, and longer gameplay sessions thanks to the 8 Elite’s improved Adreno GPU.