Review: $700 is too much for Linksys Velop’s Wi-Fi 6 mesh router

Previously this thirty day period, I was amazed with the speed and effectiveness of the Netgear Orbi six Wi-Fi six mesh router, but at $seven-hundred for a two-piece setup, it was too high priced to endorse for most audience. Netgear’s not alone, however — there is a complete pack of high quality-tier mesh routers marketing in that $600-to-$seven-hundred price assortment, which include possibilities from Arris, Ubiquiti and from Linksys. Particularly, that final 1 would be the Linksys Velop MX10. Like the Orbi six method, a Velop two-pack with the router and 1 satellite rings in at the princely sum of $seven-hundred.

An additional Orbi similarity: the new Velop takes the existing, tri-band pitch, which offers the router and its satellites their very own committed 5GHz band to pass details back and forth without having reducing your bandwidth, and speeds factors up with guidance for Wi-Fi six. That is a worthwhile technique, as our checks display that even properties with no Wi-Fi six gizmos on the community at all nevertheless stand to profit from the a lot quicker, extra effective transmissions in between mesh details. The sensible effect is that Wi-Fi speeds around the satellite will be almost as great as speeds when you are around the router alone, with considerably less of a drop-off at length than you’d working experience with a prior-gen Wi-Fi five method.

Absolutely sure enough, the Velop did nicely when I analyzed it in my household. After managing a hundred and eighty controlled speed checks at numerous situations of working day and in various rooms through the house, the Velop completed with the second-highest over-all ordinary download speed of any mesh router I have analyzed. But it wasn’t as fast as the similarly high priced Orbi six, and it was only a little bit a lot quicker than my top-analyzed Wi-Fi five method, Nest Wifi. That two-piece mesh router is considerably less than half the expense of Linksys Velop — and other, likewise reasonably priced devices that add in Wi-Fi six guidance are coming afterwards this calendar year. All of that helps make it complicated to endorse the Velop MX10 absent a significant sale.

What you are paying out for

The awesome point about tri-band mesh routers like the Velop MX10 is that the router and satellite get their very own, non-public backhaul band. That usually means that their transmissions usually are not feeding on up treasured bandwidth on the two.4 and 5GHz bands applied by your mobile phone, notebook, media streamers, wise household gizmos and other products on your community.

Couple that with the a lot quicker, Wi-Fi six speeds, and Velop has the glimpse of a potential-proofed method that will carry on to improve as incoming ISP speeds increase. But it also falls short in a crucial number of spots, in particular presented that a two-piece setup expenses $seven-hundred, with additional satellites marketing for $400 a piece.

1st is the design. I really don’t thoughts the blocky, monolithic aesthetic, but it would have been awesome if Linksys had finished extra to differentiate the new Wi-Fi six method from prior versions that glimpse extra or considerably less the very same. And, compared with the initially-gen Velop method, the place black was an solution, the new Velop only arrives in white.

Additional vital are the specialized omissions. For occasion, Linksys failed to give you a multi-gig WAN port like the 1 on the Netgear Orbi six router. Rather, you are trapped with a standard solitary-gig jack, which usually means that your incoming net speed from the modem will normally be capped at 1Gbps. That is about as fast as factors get by today’s benchmarks, guaranteed — but who is familiar with the place speeds will be a number of several years from now. At the quite minimum, a $seven-hundred method should incorporate the solution of aggregating the incoming speeds from two of those solitary-gig ports, a trick that plenty of today’s routers are starting up to choose benefit of. Not the Linksys Velop, however.

Other high-conclude mesh routers have incorporated design aspects like superior-on the lookout indicator lights and touchscreen interfaces, or even developed-in wise speakers in get to stand out from the group and justify the high quality price tags. Not the Linksys Velop, however.

That leaves those a lot quicker wi-fi speeds as the primary marketing level below — but Velop isn’t as fast as other devices in the very same price assortment. Particularly, Linksys pegs the top theoretical speeds at one,147Mbps on the two.4GHz band, and one,733Mbps on the 5GHz band, and two,400Mbps on the second 5GHz band that acts as the system’s backhaul. Orbi six provides theoretical top speeds of two,400Mbps on equally 5GHz bands, which is a step up from Linksys. In the meantime, the $650 Arris Surfboard Max Pro and $seven-hundred AmpliFi Alien just about every supply backhaul bands with theoretical top speeds of up to 4,800Mbps. That is a significant step up from Linksys.

By the specs on the box, the AX5300 Linksys Velop MX10 seems to be the weakest of those 4 top-tier devices — but our slew of controlled speed checks are intended to come across out for guaranteed. And hey, speaking of which:

A tale of two checks

Let us begin with the negative information. You know how Linksys lists top speeds for the Velop MX10 that are a little bit powering what you get from Orbi six, the Surfboard Max Pro and the AmpliFi Alien? Perfectly, which is exactly what we observed in our top speed checks — and the Velop was a little bit extra than “a little bit” powering the pack below.

To be correct, a solitary Linksys Velop system wired to a nearby server returned a top wi-fi speed of 510Mbps when we hopped on the community with a Wi-Fi six notebook and downloaded information from five feet away. That speed fell by considerably less than twenty five{fb741301fcc9e6a089210a2d6dd4da375f6d1577f4d7524c5633222b81dec1ca} to 396Mbps when we moved to a length of seventy five feet, which is a decent result — but I was nevertheless unimpressed. The AmpliFi Alien, Arris Surfboard Max and Netgear Orbi six routers all strike speeds comfortably higher than 800Mbps at shut length. Identical goes for the Asus RT-AX92U, which is extra of a midrange Wi-Fi six mesh pick.

In the meantime, the Nest Wifi router strike a top speed of 612Mbps at shut assortment. Yep, that Wi-Fi five method was truly about 100Mbps a lot quicker than the Wi-Fi six Linksys Velop in this check.

People underwhelming top speeds would possible maintain you back if you have got a gigabit net approach — but the ordinary net link in the US is only around 100Mbps. If your approach is something considerably less than 500Mbps, then the Velop MX10 provides extra than enough muscle mass to get your money’s really worth.

Situation in level: My very own household, the place we conduct our second spherical of checks. I have got a 300Mbps fiber approach from AT&T, which is nicely in the Velop’s capabilities, and at just one,300 sq. ft., my floorplan should not offer significantly of a challenge for any mesh method as considerably as assortment is involved. A high-conclude method like the Velop MX10 should shine in an atmosphere like that.

Absolutely sure enough, which is what transpired. It wasn’t as impressive as the Orbi six, which averaged a speed of 289Mbps immediately after a hundred and eighty controlled speed checks performed in various rooms through the house at numerous situations of working day, but the Velop MX10 nevertheless managed to beat out each and every other mesh method I have analyzed with a complete-household ordinary download speed of 243Mbps.

In my back bathroom, the farthest location from the router, I observed ordinary speeds of 212Mbps, which was seventy eight.six{fb741301fcc9e6a089210a2d6dd4da375f6d1577f4d7524c5633222b81dec1ca} as fast as my ordinary speeds when I was in the dwelling place, the very same place as the router. That is a much better “assortment ratio” than you are going to see from any Wi-Fi five method, but it really is not very as solid as the eighty two.7{fb741301fcc9e6a089210a2d6dd4da375f6d1577f4d7524c5633222b81dec1ca} that I observed from the AmpliFi Alien or the ridiculously impressive 96{fb741301fcc9e6a089210a2d6dd4da375f6d1577f4d7524c5633222b81dec1ca} that I observed from Netgear Orbi six.

Coverage checks, too

After testing top speeds at our lab and actual-earth speeds in my house, we choose just about every mesh router we review to the five,800-sq.-ft. CNET Clever Home to check out its sign power. To do so, we set the router and its satellite up on the primary ground and then use NetSpot program to log the sign power from dozens of details throughout the two-story household. Signal power isn’t the very same point as speed, thoughts you — but the much better your sign is, the a lot quicker you are going to be in a position to connect.

The check nets us those nifty-on the lookout warmth maps. In just about every 1, blue is negative, green is great, yellow is great — and orange is flat-out awesome. Of the 4 high-conclude, tri-band mesh routers we’ve mapped out so considerably, Netgear Orbi six is our obvious coverage leader as a result considerably, and the initially router we’ve ever analyzed to display so significantly orange in 1 of these maps. The Linksys Velop MX10 was considerably less impressive, however it did deal with to offer enough coverage throughout the around-entirety of the location, which is a solid result for a two-piece method. 

Nevertheless, it was a little bit disappointing that the Velop wasn’t in a position to outright outperform the Wi-Fi five devices we’ve mapped out. Its coverage seems to be right on par with what you are going to get from devices like Nest Wifi, Eero and the twin-band, Wi-Fi five variation of Netgear Orbi — all of which expense considerably less than half as significantly as the Velop MX10.

The verdict

The Linksys Velop MX10 is a decent mesh router, but it failed to are living up to the $seven-hundred price tag in our checks. With entire guidance for Wi-Fi six and a committed backhaul band, it provides fast speeds and solid effectiveness at assortment — but not as fast or as solid as other, similarly high priced devices. And, without having a multi-gig Ethernet port or the solution to combination the incoming sign from many ports, your incoming, wired sign is trapped with the very same bottleneck as prior-gen routers. That is not potential-proofed enough for me to explain to you to look at breaking the lender.

Endurance will pay back off for those who can maintain off on a networking upgrade for just a minor while lengthier. New, considerably less-high priced twin-band Wi-Fi six mesh routers are on the way — and with rates as reduced as $one hundred ninety for a two-piece setup, they will possible be a ton nearer to the sweet location for most properties. But if you genuinely should spend $seven-hundred to get a tri-band mesh method with guidance for Wi-Fi six into your household right now, you have got other possibilities like Netgear Orbi six and the AmpliFi Alien that do extra to justify the splurge. I say adhere with those — or, if you can, maintain off until finally Black Friday rolls around again.