@nleaney wrote:
Let us know your experience. I currently have a Netgear R7800 which I'm relatively happy with but was considering upgrading to a Mesh set up. The Pods might just save me a little expense (if they work as advertised)
If they're to save you money, then presumably they'll be free within your package. In that case get some ordered, and see how they work, given that your needs may differ from the OP's. If they work well, keep them. If they have any peculiarities that irritate then return them - and you can do that at any time, I believe, so there's not a problem of a product return window or cooling off period. Bear in mind that for optimal pod performance you have to leave all hub wifi settings on the defaults and hope these work with your equipment, and trust VM not to do anything unhelpful through firmware updates.
If they're not free within your package, then renting two pods costs "only" a tenner a month, and avoids the outlay on a mesh setup, but in ten months that would be the cost of buying outright a fully fledged entry level mesh system, after which you're going to be worse off by ten quid each month. If value for money is important then there's no sense in renting them. Even renting a single pod would be the same cost over twenty months as a far superior three unit mesh system bought outright.
For some people, the "integrated with the hub, leave it all to us" and single supplier proposition of the pods can be inherently attractive, and the prospect of an ongoing rental charge they may see as not a worry. For those people, the pods are a sound choice even if rented, but if you've previously chosen to buy your own router and run the hub in modem mode, it seems improbable that you'd fit into that group?
