18 PCWorld AUGUST 2019NEWS
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It’s smaller and cheaper than the Beacon 3, but just as smart. BY BEN PATTERSONN
okia is doubling down on home
networking. Just last year, the
former smartphone titan
acquired mesh networking
startup Unium and bowed its first wireless
router, the Beacon 3. Now the company is
back with a sleeker, cheaper mesh router that
can work in tandem with its pricier sibling.On sale as of July 9, the $129 Beacon 1 (or
$299 for a bundle of three) uses the same
mesh-networking technology that powers the
$199 Beacon 3, along with a new intelligent
channel-hopping feature and a bridge mode
that’s compatible with an existing router.
Dubbed “Intelligent Channel Selection”
by Nokia, the Beacon 1’s smart