A Wi-Fi 6 Mesh for the future, but early adopters have to pay a premium

Every now and then a new gadget or piece of technology comes up for review, which is all about cutting edge technology, delivering what it claims and outperforming its rivals while it’s at it. Still, one way or another, you have to factor in the premium you have to pay for early adoption. And yet it is not a matter of simple black and white. There are contours, situational changes, and the future-proofing that you need to keep in mind. We all know that a home Wi-Fi Mesh system is one of those things to get, just in case you have spotty or very low Wi-Fi coverage in some areas of your home. Especially in this time when working from home is of paramount importance. A lot is happening with Wi-Fi 6, too: the next generation of Wi-Fi and a standard that succeeds 802.11ac with the 802.11ax standard. If you have the hardware for this, things just get a little better. Or does it? That’s where the Linksys Velop MX5300 Wi-Fi Mesh comes in.

Chances are, you may not have realized that you probably own a Wi-Fi 6 enabled device. You just don’t know yet. The HP Elite Dragonfly laptop, the Lenovo Legion 7i laptop, the Apple iPhone 11 series, the Samsung Galaxy Note20 and the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra, Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 series, the OnePlus 8 Pro and the OnePlus 8, the Asus ExpertBook laptop and the Dell XPS laptops are just a few examples. As I said, these are just a few examples. There are many more in the world of phones, laptops and tablets, some of which you may already be using. Everything you need to find support for the 802.11ax Wi-Fi standard for us and you’re done. However, your current Wi-Fi router certainly doesn’t support Wi-Fi 6. That’s because it’s been about a year since it was standardized and not many routers have hit the market yet. The Linksys Velop MX5300 Wi-Fi Mesh is certainly one of the early movers.

It has premium prices, be prepared

Let’s get this out of the way first. The Linksys Velop MX5300 costs Rs 34,999. And that’s the price of a single node. If one node is enough to cover your entire house, fine. However, if, like me, you need two nodes to cover every corner of the house in the goodness of future-proof Wi-Fi 6 goodness, you should get a second node. That will cost another Rs 34,999 again. Still, Linksys isn’t charging you this price for nothing. The Wi-Fi 6 mesh systems and indeed standalone routers are expensive right now.

Take for example the Netgear Orbi RBK852 which is also Wi-Fi 6 ready – it costs Rs 64,999 for a pack of two units (I haven’t tested this yet). Even the traditional single-unit router, the Netgear Nighthawk RAX80 AX8, costs Rs 27,799. There is no doubt that Wi-Fi 6 routers will become more affordable next year.

Hoping for the future

Since that’s out of the way, we can now move on to the actual performance of the Linksys Velop MX5300 Wi-Fi Mesh System. Hold these nodes up for the first time and you realize the footprint. They’re big, in fact much bigger than the Linksys Velop tri-band Wi-Fi Mesh nodes, which look incredibly small compared to this one. The extra volume comes from the extra hardware, including the antennas, and the processing power that the Linksys Velop MX5300 Wi-Fi Mesh includes.

There are also four LAN ports on each node, all Gigabit. There is also a USB port for connectivity to Network Access Storage (NAS). It means business, and that’s very clear from the start.

That said, a Gigabit WAN port is fine at this point as that’s the theoretical top speed most fiber broadband providers offer right now. But who knows what the scenario will be in a few years? Perhaps the trick to getting the speeds of two of these Gigabit WAN ports together would have been the way forward – that could be a trick Linksys overlooked.

The Linksys app is all about intuitive brilliance

Setting this up is a very intuitive process, thanks to the rather nicely done Linksys Velop app for Android and the iPhone. I used the iPhone to set up the Linksys Velop MX5300. To get started, connect it to your internet service provider’s (ISP) modem. You need to make sure that Bluetooth is turned on on the phone at that time to be able to detect the node. The installation process provides information about what it does – and does most things itself anyway. This includes detecting the node, checking for internet connectivity from your ISP’s modem, and then setting it up. At some point you will be prompted to enter your preferred Wi-Fi SSID name and password, after which the Velop will configure itself for a few minutes. You can keep an eye on the status light on the top of the Velop node itself: it’s pink in install mode and glows blue when everything is ready and the internet connection is working. Blue is actually the standard designation when you use the Velop, for a good internet connection. A little less, and it turns red.

The Linksys app will also ask you if there is a node you want to add to the Wi-Fi network you just created. In case you do, it will also guide you through the steps for that. Pretty straightforward process, and setting up the primary node and satellite took less than 20 minutes in total – some of which was spent admiring the rather pleasant bulk of the Linksys Velop MX5300 nodes!

You need WiFi 6, you just don’t know it yet

The benefits of Wi-Fi 6 will become apparent soon enough. Each satellite delivers better internet speeds compared to comparable mesh systems using the previous generation’s Wi-Fi 5 system. This is most apparent as you go higher with the speed options on your broadband line. Second, the range of each node is also better, and so are connection speeds the further away from the node you move. Wi-Fi 6 uses more beamforming streams to increase range and throughput, uses both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, and has less interference from nearby sources.

Inside each Linksys Velop MX5300 unit are 13 antennas and powerful signal amplifiers. The default transmission rates for each node are up to 2402 Mbps (5 GHz radio 1), 1733 Mbps (5 GHz radio 2), and 1147 Mbps (for 2.4 GHz radio). This is a tri-band system which means the nodes also interact with each other using a dedicated 5GHz band which speeds things up as well.

This mesh router storm has been tested on a 200 Mbps fiber broadband line, where it’s pretty common to get regular speeds of up to 235 Mbps for symmetric uploads and downloads. When you’re a few feet from the router, in the same room, or even a wall away, the speeds I got didn’t really show any loss of bandwidth on my internet line. The speed tests here registered between 220Mbps and 229Mbps downloads and between 225Mbps and 231Mbps for uploads. You’ll also find that the Velop MX5300 holds speeds better across devices when many phones, laptops, TVs, and smart speakers are connected to the same Wi-Fi streaming and bandwidth.

On the older Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi mesh system, the same HP Elite Dragonfly laptop recorded speeds of 52 Mbps on a 250 Mbps internet line, 2 walls away and in a different room from the router. With the Linksys Velop MX5300 and connected to 802.11ax, the same HP Elite Dragonfly gets close to 70 Mbps in the same spot. It’s better because of the Wi-Fi 6 at play here that the comparative performance is certainly significantly better, but this is still a pretty significant drop in speed at a distance. A lot can also depend on the hardware in your laptop and whether it uses the latest drivers or not.

When the Velop satellite was turned on in the same room, the full bandwidth of 225 Mbps to 243 Mbps was also available in that part of the house. This is useful if you have a 500 Mbps or 1 Gbps connection at home, as the speed will be slower if you move further away from a conventional router. The theoretical transmission speeds also provide enough headroom to deliver the fastest 1Gbps connections. But the key element here is that if you see a significant drop in speed with only one node connected to your ISP modem, you’ll need to add a second node somewhere in your home to show the full power of the Linksys Velop MX5300.

The last word: welcome to the future, now or later

It really isn’t an easy picture when it comes to a recommendation (or not) for the Linksys Velop MX5300. There are just too many elements in the game. You get this as a standalone router (which is surprising) and with it the ability to build a mesh now or later. It costs a lot of money, but does get you into the much smoother and faster realm of Wi-Fi 6. Being one of the first players in the space, all that 802.11ax-compatible technology costs more money. And as an early adopter you pay for that. The point is, if you do, you won’t come away disappointed. The Linksys Velop MX5300 delivers, especially as a two-node mesh setup. And it more than lives up to its promise of cleaner and faster Wi-Fi. The gadgets you bought might deserve this breather on Wi-Fi.