Linksys Velop Whole Home Wifi Intelligent Mesh System Review

Verdict

At shut range, the Linksys Velop MX5300 Whole Home Mesh WiFi 6 System is fast. However, avoid the ane-pack version equally you lot don't go boosted satellites to amend range. Instead, buy the two-pack for ameliorate range and performance. A high purchase toll and subscription-only plans for the full parental controls makes this fairly hard system to recommend at the moment, though.

Pros

• Looks nice
• Easy to set up
• Fast at close range

Cons

• No satellite for a complete mesh arrangement
• Lost speed at range
• Some features are subscription only

Cardinal Specifications

• Review Price: £369.99
• 4x4 ii.4GHz (1147Mbps), 4x4 5GHz (2402Mbps), 4x4 5GHz (1733Mbps)
• 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports
• Wi-Fi half dozen (Up to 5282Mbps)
• Gigabit Ethernet WAN

Named the Linksys Velop MX5300 Whole Domicile Mesh WiFi 6 System, I'd wait this package to come up with one router and at least a single satellite for placement around the home.

Instead, this is what Linksys calls a "1-pack". So, this "mesh" system comes with but a router, with the option to buy add-on satellites – or a two-pack coming in the future. For now, then, this is less a mesh system than a single Wi-Fi 6 router with 12 wireless streams for clients.

Since I first reviewed this organization, the MX10600 twin pack is now available, throwing in a second satellite for a total price of £799. As a result, I've added extra test results in to show how the additional satellite improves things.

Linksys Velop MX5300 design – A bit chunky, but the router fades into the background

The Linksys Velop MX5300 is a rather tall fleck of kit. Information technology doesn't accept upward as much desk space every bit a traditional router, measuring 243 x 114 x 114mm. I quite similar the patently plastic outside; in one case you have the router fix, it kind of fades into the background.

Effectually the back of the router are the ports you need to get the router continued to the cyberspace. There's a Gigabit WAN port, although it's a scrap of a shame that this isn't future-proofed with a 2.5Gbps port.

Joining this are four Gigabit Ethernet ports for wired devices, which is fairly standard fare for any router. Finally, at that place's a USB port, which you can plug storage into if you want to utilise the arrangement equally a quick and piece of cake NAS.

The port lineup at the rear of the MX5300 is pretty standard

If you buy the twin pack, y'all go another MX5300 to use as a satellite. That'southward fine in terms of looks, but it's a shame that the satellite doesn't have four Gigabit Ethernet ports, rather than giving you 3 plus a WAN port that you lot can't apply.

Linksys Velop MX5300 features – Unproblematic setup, but advanced parental controls cost actress

Every bit is common today, the Linksys Velop MX5300 is set up and configured through the Linksys app. Information technology'due south best to set up a Linksys account at this indicate; doing so gives you remote control of your router, and so you can fix whatsoever problems or reboot the system over the net.

Linksys uses Bluetooth to connect to the router, then a wizard volition walk you through the setup of your broadband and internet connection. Information technology took me less than five minutes to have the router upward and running.

Once done, the app provides complete command over the router. There's a spider web-based management page too, although this only replicates the features in the app, so you shouldn't have to turn to it.

The app is simple to employ

Basic parental controls are built in, whereby you can set up a schedule for each device on your network or pause access to a specific i. For each device, you also take the choice to manually block a website – only you have to blazon in the spider web accost y'all wish to block. More powerful routers accept predefined blacklists that yous tin enable, either by selecting a user's age or categories of sites that you want to disallow.

Related: Best wireless router

I'd also prefer to be able to group devices into profiles, providing command per person. For example, if you have kids, you want to enforce cyberspace access devices on all of their devices at once, rather than having to manually control each 1.

For these features you'll take to subscribe to Linksys Shield, which gives y'all profiles and more detailed spider web blocking. It'south a shame you don't get at least basic controls for free, as you exercise with the Netgear Orbi system, which besides offers a more fully featured paid-for subscription.

In one case you've run a speed test on your internet connectedness, you lot tin also fix up to three devices to get net priority. These automatically receive total net and Wi-Fi speeds. However, everything else on your network gets throttled, as I discovered on running my get-go set of speed tests. My advice is to just employ this feature if you're having bug with 1 device, such equally a smart Idiot box that tin't stream Netflix because other users in the house are downloading large files.

You can prioritise up to three devices

Other features are surprisingly lite. For example, you lot can't choose a wireless channel for any of the networks and you can just use the Channel Finder pick to become the MX5300 to look for the all-time channels to use.

Linksys Velop MX5300 performance – Quick, simply non as fast as the competition

The Linksys Velop MX5300 is a tri-band router, giving you one two.4GHz network (1147Mbps) and 2 5GHz networks (2402Mbps and 1733Mbps). The router presents all three networks under the aforementioned name, pushing connecting devices to the all-time ane based on features, range and operation. This is common and makes managing devices easier, equally they should simply connect to the all-time network for them.

Each network has four streams, giving a total of 12. Streams are very important in the WI-Fi half dozen world, every bit with Wi-Fi 6 devices information technology means that each one can either go its ain dedicated bandwidth (a stream) or get better performance by using multiple streams at once. Wi-Fi 5 devices don't have the same sharing benefits, although they should withal get faster throughputs.

Related: What is Wi-Fi 6?

To test the router'due south performance, I used a laptop that had been upgraded with a 2×two (two-stream) Wi-Fi 6 adapter. Starting in the same room every bit the router, I got upload speeds of 447.64Mbps and download speeds of 468.01Mbps.

Moving to the starting time floor, speeds dropped off a little: upload speeds of 313.78Mbps and download speeds of 314.57Mbps. On the 2d floor, speeds reduced further, with upload speeds of 16.32Mbps and download speeds of 63.29Mbps. For my house (a Victorian terrace with loftier ceilings, and thick walls), an extra satellite would actually have come in handy.

Testing with a second satellite, and operation completely changed. Close-up, I got the aforementioned results, with a little boost on the kickoff flooring. On the second flooring, things really picked up, with an average throughput of 338.60Mbps. This shows how important additional satellites are in mesh systems; if you're not going to buy satellites, you may also buy a standalone, more powerful router.

Comparison the MX5300 with the Netgear Orbi WiFi 6, the Orbi is much faster at close range and just pulls ahead on the get-go and second floors, too, every bit a result of its 2nd satellite. The MX5300 is faster than the older Wi-Fi 5 Orbi RBK50, although not at range – again, due to the additional satellite.

Should you buy the Linksys Velop MX5300 Whole Home Mesh WiFi 6 System?

The Linksys Velop MX5300 Whole Dwelling house Mesh WiFi six System is a somewhat strange product, in that information technology currently isn't a mesh organisation, with simply a single router. I would avoid this product. The MX10600 is a far better production, able to push a bespeak to the top of my house, although information technology's comparatively expensive, and then remains harder to recommend until there's a toll drop. At the moment, the Netgear Orbi RBK850 is faster and cheaper, but the best overall Wi-Fi 6 system is the Asus ZenWiFi AX. If you're merely after reliable, fast Wi-Fi and don't need Wi-Fi 6, the older Orbi RBK50 remains the best-value mesh organisation.

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