Linksys Velop Pro 6E review: Wi-Fi 6E gets (more) affordable

Price When Reviewed

$399.99

Best Prices Today: Linksys Velop Pro 6E MX6200

The ‘E’ in Wi-Fi 6E may formally stand for “Extended,” however till just lately, it has additionally stood for “Expensive.” Linksys goals to vary that with the Velop Pro 6E MX6200, a Wi-Fi 6E mesh system accessible in a three-pack, which you’ll be able to choose up for round $400 / £500. 

Why do you have to care about Wi-Fi 6E? Speed. It’s the most recent Wi-Fi customary, and presents quicker speeds than Wi-Fi 6 {hardware}. If you’ve got a contemporary telephone or laptop computer, you’ll be able to anticipate to take pleasure in quick speeds over 1Gbps, and older units ought to profit from clearer, much less congested connections on the two.4GHz and 5GHz bands as nicely. 

Imagine a brand new lane has opened up on the motorway and all the quicker vehicles are benefiting from the additional capability. That’s Wi-Fi 6E in a nutshell. 

Aside from efficiency, the Linksys Velop Pro 6E presents the standard perks you’d anticipate from a mesh Wi-Fi system: seamless home-wide Wi-Fi protection and distant administration of your house community via the Linksys app. 

Everything sounds nice on paper, so we took a three-pack Linksys Velop Pro 6E system for a take a look at drive. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Design and construct

• Six inner antennas, no inner modem
• One gigabit WAN port, one gigabit LAN

The Linksys Velop Pro 6E models are neat minimalist towers with curved sides, save for one sharp-edged nook. All of the antennas are tucked away inside, simply as with virtually all mesh methods, and just like the Linksys Atlas 6 models, have rubbery bases, which shield the floor you place them on.

While the Velop Pro 6E models are produced from plastic, they really feel fairly weighty and durable. They stand simply shy of 8 inches tall, so they won’t match simply all over the place; and as you may anticipate given their form and dimensions, the models can’t be wall-mounted. 

You solely get two Ethernet ports right here, one WAN, one LAN. Most mesh methods will provide you with a minimum of a few additional LAN ports to play with, so this can be a disadvantage. 

You might purchase a community change for those who want the additional bodily connectivity, for any units in your front room which may profit from a wired connection — video games consoles, or NAS drives, for instance. There are not any USB ports, or every other bodily connections on the Velop Pro 6E models. 

Another potential problem is that these are gigabit Ethernet ports. Customers receiving quicker providers from their ISP could nicely have a modem with a 2.5Gbps port, and if that’s the case, you would be dropping out on a number of efficiency. The Asus ZenWiFi XT9 models have 2.5Gbps WAN ports, however are proportionally dearer.

On the opposite hand, most individuals nonetheless have sub-1Gbps broadband, so this received’t be a deal-breaker. It’s simply one thing to be aware of for those who plan to improve sooner or later.

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Installation

• Linksys cellular app makes it easy
• Setup ought to take not more than 15 minutes  

Linksys has made establishing the Velop Pro 6E as simple as pie. The Linksys cellular apps take you thru the method, one step at a time. Virtually each firm within the house networking enterprise presents the same guided setup for patrons lately, but it surely’s all the time good to see that an effort has been made to streamline and helpfully clarify what generally is a complicated course of, particularly for those who’ve by no means achieved it earlier than. 

The cellular apps see you connecting to the Velop Pro 6E system in your telephone by way of Bluetooth to start with. 

As it’s a mesh system, the setup course of entails you connecting the primary Velop Pro 6E unit to your modem, and establishing an web connection — energy off your modem first, then join the Velop Pro 6E to your modem with an Ethernet cable, join the router to the mains, then energy your modem again on.

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Once that’s achieved, you’ll be able to then energy up the opposite two. Specs-wise, all the Velop Pro 6E models are the identical, so it doesn’t matter which one you select to behave as the first node. 

For the setup course of, you’re required to plug the opposite two Velop Pro 6E models into the mains in the identical room as you’ve arrange the first unit, so make the pairing course of simpler. Once all of the units are linked, you’ll be able to then change the community identify, set the Wi-Fi password, and create an admin password. 

Once achieved, you’ll be able to then unplug the opposite two models and place them wherever they’re wanted in your house. The app permits you to change the names of the models — they’re known as “Router,” “Child 1,” and “Child 2” by default — so when you’ve positioned them optimally round your house, you’ll be able to name them issues like “Living Room,” “Kitchen,” or no matter you need.

The means of establishing all three nodes took me about 15 minutes in complete. As there are three nodes, and I’m nonetheless reeling from the season 3 finale of Only Murders within the Building, I modified the default SSID to “PickwickTriplets,” as a result of I can’t get that blasted music out of my head. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Features and distant administration

• Linksys app supplies a transparent overview of your house community
• New Safe Browsing network-level filter instrument 
• Channel Finder searches for the quickest Wi-Fi channels
• Guest Wi-Fi, precedence for as much as three units, and port forwarding are current

The Linksys Velop Pro 6E has all the fundamental house networking options you’d anticipate, plus a few others, all of that are very simple to activate due to the intelligent structure of the Linksys cellular app. 

The app’s major goal is to provide you an outline of your house community. Tapping on the Devices icon brings up a listing of all the things that’s presently related to your community, whether or not it’s utilizing 2.4GHz, 5GHz, or 6GHz Wi-Fi, or if it’s utilizing a wired Ethernet connection. 

Tapping on a tool icon on this listing (e.g. “Google Pixel 6”) lets you prioritize that system, to make sure that it’s all the time received satisfactory bandwidth in your community — helpful for those who’re working from house and need to make sure that you’ll all the time have the ability to make video calls from a selected system. You can solely prioritize as much as three units, so select fastidiously. 

From this listing, you can too apply parental controls to particular units. These allow you to manually pause web entry, or schedule a break, if you wish to implement a while away from screens. You even have the power to create a blocklist, by including particular person internet addresses — efficient, however time consuming. 

Rounding this out is a brand new beta function known as Linksys Safe Browsing, a function which guarantees to “block unwanted content on devices connected to your network using DNS security.” In this case, “unwanted content” is content material of the grownup selection. It’s a network-level filter, which implies it’s utilized to all units utilizing the community, as an alternative of particular person units. 

URLs for all the Aylo (previously MindGeek)-owned websites and the websites of some well-known grownup outlets had been inaccessible from all of my take a look at units when this function was activated. 

It’s not excellent; one widespread identify you’ll have heard of escaped the dragnet, and all the main UK playing websites may very well be accessed too, in addition to websites promoting alcohol. It’s a beta function, so you’ll be able to’t be too crucial, it can possible enhance over time. Until then, your greatest wager is to utilize devoted parental control software or change DNS settings your self.

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Channel Finder, which we noticed on the Linksys Atlas 6, is current right here, and this scans all the radio bands, and selects the least-busy channels inside these bands in your units to make use of. A few days after I set the Velop Pro 6E up, I ran Channel Finder, and all the nodes switched channels on the two.4GHz band.  

You’re not in a position to manually choose channels your self, which is a bit irritating for those who occur to know that sure channels work greatest in your house. You’ll simply need to run Channel Finder, which takes about 5 minutes to do its factor, and hope for the very best. For most individuals, this received’t be a problem. Linksys says that the Velop Pro 6E makes use of one thing it calls “cognitive mesh” to routinely decide which channels are the very best to make use of, and it’ll change these itself with out your enter. The Channel Finder instrument then, is a method of manually forcing a re-scan of accessible channels. 

Other extra frequent house networking options are right here: Guest Access permits you to create a short lived sub community for visitors to make use of, for those who don’t need to hand out your major community password; and port forwarding choices — discovered beneath Advanced Settings – embody single port forwarding, port vary forwarding, and port vary triggering.

You even have the choice to allow DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection), which sees you in a position to entry extra of the 5GHz band that’s generally utilized by radar methods. The app warns you to not allow this for those who reside inside 20 miles of an airport, as it’s possible you’ll lose connectivity — because of this, it’s turned off by default. In testing, having DFS on didn’t seem to make a lot distinction, however you’ll have extra success in your space. 

Linksys deserves credit score for having an app with a transparent and easy-to-navigate structure that’s full of genuinely useful data, which may very well be a lifeline to anybody new to house networking. Generally talking, you received’t need to hassle with opening up the desktop management panel. The solely causes you’d want to try this is for those who needed to vary sure DNS and VPN settings. The solely factor that’s dangerous about it’s that it’s generally sluggish to load, sometimes taking a few minutes to get previous the “Getting router settings” display. 

Performance

• Consistently delivers 1Gbps speeds for those who’re in the identical room because the router…
• …and also you’re utilizing a tool with Wi-Fi 6E
• Expect 400-700Mbps in all different indoor places 

The Linksys Velop Pro 6E demonstrates very nicely the professionals and cons of 6GHz Wi-Fi. As you’ll be able to see from the pace take a look at outcomes under, taken utilizing the WiFi Speed Test Pro Android app, I might reliably get 1.2Gbps when in shut proximity to Velop Pro 6E node. 

That’s nice information for those who’re planning on establishing a node in a house workplace working house, or your front room is the place you’ll be spending most of your time together with your telephone, laptop computer, sensible TV, and video games consoles. 

It additionally exhibits that the 6GHz frequency can’t penetrate even skinny non load-bearing partitions. In all exams the place I stood greater than 15 toes away with a single wall in the best way, I used to be bumped again on to the 5GHz band. 

Whether I’m testing out a single router or a mesh Wi-Fi system, I take a variety of pace exams in the identical 4 places in a two-up two-down home in south London. One is the place I stand 3 toes away from the first node, one other with me 16 toes away, with a non load-bearing wall between me and the first node. 

Another pace take a look at is taken upstairs, roughly 50 toes away from the first node, whereas the ultimate take a look at takes place exterior within the again backyard, roughly 65 toes away from the first node. 

You can see the place I’ve arrange the three Velop Pro 6E nodes in my house within the NetSpot heatmap under. The pink areas point out a powerful Wi-Fi sign, cooler colours point out a weaker sign. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

The Google Pixel 6 has a Wi-Fi 6E radio, and is due to this fact in a position to entry the quicker 6GHz band. The different two take a look at units have Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 antennas, respectively. This ought to provide you with an thought of the type of speeds you’ll get from the Velop Pro 6E on older units. 

Anecdotally, I can say that the quicker Wi-Fi 6E does add a sure one thing, if that sure one thing means having the ability to load YouTube movies and Bandcamp streams barely extra rapidly. For probably the most half, efficiency was broadly on par with most Wi-Fi 6 methods I’ve examined within the final yr.  

I used to be unable to hyperlink all the units with Ethernet cables within the rooms I’d set them up in, and so I can’t touch upon how nicely the Velop Pro 6E system works with wired backhaul. 

The system makes use of what Linksys calls “dynamic wireless backhaul” by default, which implies that any of the radio bands can be utilized for community visitors. There aren‘t any channels or extra radios which are “dedicated” — the place sure radio frequencies are reserved for community visitors, in order that they don’t congest the 5GHz frequencies your telephones and laptops are utilizing. 

One method you’ll be able to normally inform if a system helps devoted wi-fi backhaul, is that if the {hardware} options an additional pair of radios — which can be expressed as one thing like “4×4” as an alternative of “2×2” within the spec sheet.

Systems such because the Netgear Orbi RBK760S and Asus ZenWiFi XT9 function devoted wi-fi backhaul. There’s normally an additional price related to this, however in your cash you get extra sturdy protection, and for those who’ve received a busy family, it’s a function that ought to be in your radar — see our greatest mesh Wi-Fi spherical up for extra on this.

Linksys says that its strategy presents clients 6E speeds in a 2×2 setup at an inexpensive value, and in equity, it‘s onerous to disagree with that. Then once more, folks‘s wants range– my explicit home setup, with two adults and no youngsters, may not replicate the wants and makes use of of bigger, busier houses.

Price & availability

The Linksys Velop Pro 6E is that can be purchased within the UK and US. Price and launch date data for Australia and Canada will not be presently accessible. 

Being model new on the time of this writing, only a few locations had been promoting the Pro 6E.

In the United States, you should buy a Velop Pro 6E 3-pack straight from Linksys, for a comparatively inexpensive $399.99.  

Alternatively, Amazon has single models plus 2-pack, and 3-pack bundles for $169.99, $299.99, and $379.99. 

In the UK, the Velop Pro 6E is listed on Linksys’s web site, however there’s no choice to purchase straight. 

Amazon UK has single models for £199.99, in addition to 2-pack and 3-pack variations for £379.99 and £499.99.. 

Ebuyer has particular person Velop Pro 6E models on for £211.49 and a 2-pack for £396.99, however no 3-packs presently. 

Likewise, Ballicom has single models and a 2-pack for £211.87 and £397.27 respectively, however no Velop Pro 6E 3-packs simply but. 

There are presently no touchdown pages for the Velop Pro 6E on Linksys’ Australian and Canadian websites, nor and nor had been any accessible from third social gathering retailers on the time of writing. 

Thomas Newton / Foundry

Should you purchase the Linksys Velop Pro 6E?

The Linksys Velop Pro 6E supplies Wi-Fi 6E speeds for a cheaper price than rivals. The huge profit is the brand new 6GHz frequency which might ship nice speeds. However, this implies it can enchantment to consumers who’ve just lately upgraded to a brand new telephone or purchased a brand new laptop computer that helps 6E, such because the iPhone 15 vary. If you haven’t, and none of your units can entry that new 6GHz band, then you definitely’re not going to get the quickest speeds accessible right here.

If you continue to need to get a mesh Wi-Fi system, the Linksys Atlas 6 and Atlas Pro 6 at the moment are accessible cheaper than once they launched so contemplate these as comparable alternate options as they use the identical app.

The focus right here is definitely on Wi-Fi 6E at a extra inexpensive value, besides, it’s disappointing to not have extra Ethernet ports on a minimum of the principle router at this value. That is solely solved with a cheap Ethernet change, although.

I might criticize the shortage of a devoted wi-fi backhaul band, too, however a minimum of you’ve got the choice to hyperlink all the Velop Pro 6E nodes by way of Ethernet.

The barely pricier Netgear Orbi RBK760S options devoted wi-fi backhaul, as does the marginally cheaper Amazon Eero 6, however neither of those methods provide Wi-Fi 6E.

Ultimately, and to reply the query: You can buy the Velop Pro 6E for those who’re after an inexpensive but quick mesh Wi-Fi system and have a minimum of one system that really helps Wi-Fi 6E. It’s definitely a extra tempting choice within the U.S. the place it’s less expensive than within the UK, too.

This evaluate initially appeared on techadvisor.com.