topic Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro in Broadband & Landline

Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Chasloyal — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 00:15:29 GMT

So we currently have a Smart Hub Plus which is fine to be fair but as we've got a few WiFi 7 compatible devices in the household now I've decided that I'm going to buy a Smart Hub Pro on the grey market as such.

I fully understand EE won't give me any product support with the router were I to need any because I've not got it from them, so my question is about firmware updates.

I'm no expert on such things but I'm guessing our current Smart Hub Plus receives different firmware updates to what the Smart Hub Pro does.

So is anyone able to tell me if the network/servers will pick up our router has changed and so the updates that come through after that will be for the Pro rather than the Plus once I've hooked it up?

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

XRaySpeX — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 02:30:23 GMT

Your SH Pro should still receive the f/ware updates due to it. I even believe that EE will still support it even when they did not supply it as it is a current suitable EE router. I sometimes use an SH+ not supplied by EE (but not from grey market as such) & it has had its f/ware updated & been supported by CS.

There are other legal aspects that I won't go into here but may come into it.

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Ewan15 — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 07:44:52 GMT

@Chasloyal You will find that the Smart Hub Pro will get the correct firmware updates. I used a grey market Pro for many months until recently, when EE offered meal an excellent deal (unprompted) to upgrade to their Ultimate package. I had no issues at all with my grey market pro.

The only thing you will notice is the EE APP will still show the router that was issued by EE as part of your plan, however you will see the serial no within the router details page in the app is that of the Pro Router together with its Firmware version.

EE are aiming for a common UI between the Pro and the Plus router models. If you look carefully the version numbers are similar. The Plus appears to be ahead of the Pro at the moment by 4 iterations

PRO - r3.8.26-R-1595999-PROD-1

Plus - r3.8.30-R-1627300-PROD-83002

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Chasloyal — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 09:27:36 GMT

Thank you @XRaySpeX and @Ewan15 for the very useful, not to mention surprisingly positive, information the both of you have given me.

With the not insignificant numbers of brand new Pro routers for sale on places like Amazon and eBay I felt rather comfortable about pulling the trigger. Glad to hear I wasn't being overly confident in just assuming it would OK and going through with the purchase of one last night after what you's have said.

Thank you again 👍🏻

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

XRaySpeX — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 09:22:41 GMT

Thanks! You're welcome 🙂 ! Glad I could be of assistance & trust it is now sorted.

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

XRaySpeX — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 09:47:22 GMT

Posted in the open:

@Chasloyal wrote:
Hiya mate,
Thank you for your reply and a very happy new year to you!
Would you be so kind as to go in to a wee bit more detail about you meant when you said there were legal aspects that may come in to it?
Regards Chas

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

XRaySpeX — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 09:59:13 GMT

@Chasloyal : Unless you buy these routers direct from EE, as I believe the ones on Amazon are, you can assume that the sellers were originally loaned these by EE for a BB service from EE. Therefore they are not their property to sell & they were meant to return them when they cancelled their BB, unless they have paid a non-return fee as detailed in https://ee.co.uk/help/orders/return-and-recycle-ee-product .

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Matt_124 — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 11:00:41 GMT

Important to note also that even when paying the non-return fee, this does not transfer ownership and the equipment remains the property of EE at all times per the T&Cs.

Section 4.c (https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/help/terms-and-conditions/broadband/home-network/ee-home-network-terms-09-december-2025.pdf)

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Ewan15 — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 12:07:58 GMT

@XRaySpeX Nobody has yet explained why certain sellers have stacks of these routers to sell that arrive with the seals unbroken. This would imply they have been provided them to sell. They clearly do not fall into the the non returned kit sold on category.

It is also pointless selling your EE Provided equipment unless you plan never to leave them, as they will charge you for a non return, which is invariably far more than what you got when you sold it.

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Chasloyal — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 11:54:43 GMT

@XRaySpeX this seller had already sold about 15 of them when I grabbed mine last night. So he's sold another 3 or 4 since then as he's now sat on 19 sold and 5 still available.

He's hardly the only seller who has/has had plenty available which is why I used the 'grey market' term.

I appreciate luxury watches and home network devices are very different consumer markets but hear me out. Like when Omega have made too many pieces of a certain model and/or discontinuing it they'll just out surplus stock on the cheap via the back door and let the grey market sellers do their thing.

Hence I've got this suspicion that perhaps BT Group have got a mountain of older version Smart Hub Pro's which they ain't going to supply to subscribers at that 12 quid a month premium or whatever it is but also can't be seen to let them go cheap either. So punters subscribing to the more pricey monthly packages get these shiny new upgraded WiFi 7 routers, whilst us rabble on the more budget conscious plans still get the opportunity to grab an EE WiFi 7 router, but it's a lower spec bit of kit from an unauthorised seller.

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Ewan15 — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 13:04:49 GMT

@Chasloyal Just to be clear grey market SH40J's (Smart Hub Pro's ) are exactly the same as the ones EE send out. The only difference is the software version or initial firmware, when I compared both boxes.

NB resetting the Router does not cause the current firmware to revert to a prior version.

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Ewan15 — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 16:28:17 GMT

@Chasloyal

"So is anyone able to tell me if the network/servers will pick up our router has changed and so the updates that come through after that will be for the Pro rather than the Plus once I've hooked it up?"

The answer is yes, EE systems will identify your Pro router and supply the correct firmware updates, despite the EE App saying you have a Smart Hub Plus connected (Which you don't).

There are two things going on here.

1) The actual EE router you have connected, which will receive the correct updates

2) Your EE Account which says you have a Plus Router and makes the EE App display images of it.

The two are not related to each other. Stick with it and you may in time get an offer to upgrade that effectively offsets the annual price increases by way of an EE supplied pro.

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Chasloyal — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 22:55:03 GMT

Thank you so much geezer, your knowledge has been invaluable 👊🏻

Not had any problems at all, plugged her in and she was up 'n' running within a couple of minutes. Switching over the Ring Doorbell/chimes/spot cams and all our other devices went like a dream. Download speed about he same as the Plus, we're on FF 500, but upload is significantly quicker which seems strange.

One thing I've noticed about the Pro is it runs warm, really warm actually, do you know if that's the case with all of them or might I have a dud here?

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Huggons1 — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 19:25:29 GMT

My pro is still running on r3.8.24-R-1531355-PROD-1.

Have you checked your version to see if you have received the newer R3.8.26-R-1595999-PROD-1 version?

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Chasloyal — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 23:01:43 GMT

Indeed I have mate...

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Ewan15 — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 14:26:36 GMT

@Chasloyal "One thing I've noticed about the Pro is it runs warm, really warm actually, do you know if that's the case with all of them or might I have a dud here?"

Make sure your router is not in a cupboard, but in a well ventilated area. My router is on my desk and does not run hot, although warm air comes out of the vents at the top. Based on other things you have posted, such as it updating to the latest firmware, I would say it is working as it should.

Hope this helps.

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Chasloyal — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 16:40:16 GMT

I think it must have been labouring through the firmware update and/or the set-up process in general when I posted that because it's much cooler now.

Being a bit of a gamer I'm rather OCD about stuff like that so it's sat on a small Ottoman that we bought purely to keep our routers ventilated and to be able to ping their radio waves about as unobstructed as possible.

We hardly live in a mansion and our gaff is a new build, so the walls are pretty thin too, but as the ONT is positioned in the front corner of the house the SH Pro, like our previous routers before it, has this perch all to itself....

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

JimM11 — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 18:27:43 GMT

@Chasloyal Looks like you may also have a pre wired home with that Ethernet socket just in view behind the Router, and good to see you have a mountain of Ethernet connections also!

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

Chasloyal — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 23:55:53 GMT

I have no idea what that phone point is doing in that quad socket because it's a dummy that's never had anything behind it.

When we first moved here it was FTTC and the coppers came in to the kitchen which is round the other side of the house.

Alas when FTTP did become available Open Reach were only prepared to install the ONT at the nearest entry point in to the property which is where you see it in the pic.

The engineer even took the cover off that quad socket to see where the coppers to the phone point were coming from but there weren't none 🙄

Re: Buying a Smart Hub Pro

JimM11 — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:03:16 GMT

@Chasloyal Unlucky then, some off the new builds have Ethernet socket's all wired up and back to a central location, my sister's new build 2 years old now all wired back to the Utility cupboard, so stuck the EE Router in there, wired all the socket's up to patch cables, and Ethernet now in all her rooms, she just has to plug in wherever she want's and full speed on the Ethernet cable! Just depends on what the builders do!