Considering buying EE Broadband, and curious about the performance of the Smart Hub Plus router?
We’ve recently purchased EE Home Broadband, and used their Smart Hub Plus WiFi 6 router.
In this article, we’ve tested and reviewed this router, to see if it’s any good, and whether you should join EE Broadband.
Let’s get started.
Contents
- Router overview
- Unboxing & setup
- Settings & options
- WiFi coverage
- Speed tests
- Value for money
- Verdict: should you join EE Broadband?
Router overview
| Brand | EE |
| Name | Smart Hub Plus |
| Dimensions | 30x17x4cm (approx.) |
| Maximum download speed | 1.6 Gbps |
| Ethernet ports | 4 (1 Gbps) |
| Broadband protocols | ADSL2+/VDSL/FTTC/ FTTP |
| Digital voice protocols | DECT/FXS |
| WiFi | Dual-band WiFi 6 802.11ax/ac/a/n 4 x 4 MIMO + 802.11b/g/n 3 x 3 MIMO (2.4GHz and 5GHz) |
| Maximum connected devices | 190 |
| Colour | Black |
| EE Broadband Pricing | Check on EE |
The Smart Hub Plus is a WiFi router that EE Broadband currently sends to new customers on most of their fibre broadband plans.
This router was launched at the same time as EE’s 1.6 Gbps full fibre broadband service, but is also included on most other superfast and ultrafast fibre broadband plans from EE.
The Smart Hub Plus is a fairly modern router compared to the Smart Hub 2 that BT (EE’s parent company) and Plusnet (another BT company) currently ship to their customers.
It comes with WiFi 6, and more comprehensive settings and customization options than what the Smart Hub 2 offers – such as the ability to control certain settings using a mobile app.
This router has a single status light, built into the EE logo on the front of the router. It comes with four gigabit Ethernet ports, a digital voice (landline phone) port, and a USB port.
It’s a fairly large router, at approximately 30cm wide, and 17cm tall, but is thin, at about 4cm deep, meaning it’s fairly easy to find a good spot for it without taking up too much space.
EE’s router is compatible out of the box with EE broadband add-ons, such as Smart Hybrid Connect (their 4G router backup option), Smart WiFi Plus (WiFi extenders), and WiFi Enhancer (traffic prioritisation logic you can control with the EE Home app).
Each of these services is available for an extra monthly cost to EE Broadband customers.
Unboxing & setup
Getting started with the Smart Hub Plus was a simple plug-and-play process.
Included with the router, you’ll find its Ethernet and power cables.
Plug one end of the Ethernet cable into your Openreach modem or wall socket, and the other end into the router’s WAN port, shown in red.
Then, plug the router into a power socket, and wait for it to turn on – you don’t need to push the power button.
Initially, the light on the front of the router will turn turquoise, while it sets itself up. After about two to three minutes, the light will turn green, and you’ll be ready to connect to WiFi.
The WiFi login details are printed on a plastic tab, which you can slide out from the back of the router.
Settings & options
Upon logging into the router, using the details printed on the password card, there is a good range of settings and options you can choose to customise, as well as information you can view about your broadband connection.
You can do things like:
- View active connections and devices by MAC address, and control their internet access. You can also create groups of devices if desired, for example to limit how long the kids can stay online.
- Configure a VPN connection and port clamping.
- Change WiFi channels, as well as choose whether you want to use 2.4 GHz, 5.0 GHz, or both.
- Manage mesh WiFi and extenders, including EE Smart WiFi.
- Set up port forwarding.
- Manage parental controls.
- …and a lot more besides.
There is a good range of settings available, and the user interface is intuitive and easy to use. However, it would be good to be able to set up custom DNS on the router, which isn’t an option at the moment with the current firmware.
You can also control some router settings using the EE Home app, but we did not find this particularly useful.
Basically all of the settings you’d want to change are available through the web interface, except for installing EE’s broadband add-ons, such as their 4G backup device, which we chose not to purchase.
With regards to the router itself, the mobile app is focused on helping set up the Smart Hub, but we found that we were able to plug in the router and immediately begin using it, with no real setup configuration required.
WiFi coverage
We were very impressed with the WiFi coverage offered by the EE Smart Hub Plus – this is one of the best things about this router.
We’re using the router in a medium-sized four-bedroom house, with a number of brick internal walls that sometimes cause issues with our WiFi signal.
Compared to our old WiFi 5 router, we were able to get much better signal using the Smart Hub Plus.
- We can now get signal in the back garden, more than 30 metres (and a number of walls) away from where the router is installed by the front door.
- Our download speeds are now much better upstairs, about double what they used to be.
- We no longer have any WiFi dead zones inside the house.
Given the size of the house, and the fact we’re not using mesh WiFi or any extenders, we’re very happy with the WiFi performance of EE’s broadband router.
