Over the past 3 months, we have looked at all the major players in the home mesh networking space and one thing we have discovered is that you can have a stable system but it will not be very fast or you can have a fast system that will not be very reliable, there is always some form of compromise. That is until now, the Linksys Velop Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi system manages to find that sweet spot between performance and reliability that every user needs in their home Wi-Fi.
For over two decades, Linksys have been bringing consumers products that can help keep them connected with a focus on a single ideology – that their products must enhance the technology that connects us to the people, activities and experiences we love and make wireless connectivity mainstream around the globe. Linksys, have made it even easier with their Velop system, a system based on their intelligent mesh technology that makes getting online easier than ever.
Their Monolithic nodes come in two colors – black or white and are a welcome change to the current aesthetic trend in this field of round saucer shape discs that have large footprints on shelves and desks. Their shape is unique, perhaps even a little ‘artsy’ and do blend in nice with most modern home decor. Each modular node covers approximately 2000 sq. ft and work with most ISP provided modems. Each unit also features six antennas and high powered amplifiers providing simultaneous Tri-band connectivity with a Wi-Fi rating of AC2200 per unit, which translates to two 5ghz bands with a top speed of 867Mbps and one 2.4Ghz band of speeds up to 400 Mbps. It is also worth mentioning that each node also has two auto-sensing Gigabit Ethernet ports for hardwired WAN and LAN connections.
The Velop also has a lot going on inside these units, starting with powerful MU-MIMO technology and a few unique features to this system including Beamforming for the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands and their own Seamless Roaming Technology that selects the clearest channel for your connected devices and will self-optimize connections between nodes to better meet the layout of your home. Best of all, their self-healing technology means that if one node becomes disconnected, it will automatically re-route connections between the two existing nodes so you never lose connectivity.
One thing we really enjoyed with this system was the ease of set-up and after fighting our way through their direct competitors frustrating process (review to come) this was a welcome change. The app is intuitive and easy to navigate and par for the course, offers some powerful parental controls and many network customization features. The welcome Amazon Alexa integration is a neat touch and their commitment to firmware upgrades and impressive 24/7 support makes this a strong recommendation for the best mesh system.
Lastly, how is the performance? Well, as we stated earlier, this may be the perfect all-rounder mesh system. Home coverage was excellent with no dead spots from our 3 node pack and speeds…while not Zyxel Multy X fast, were definitely in the good to very good range for our current plan of 500Mbps down and 20 up. We routinely got 450+ on the primary node and approximately 220-300Mbps on the satellite units which is very good. Finally, there was no drops or loss of connectivity during our review period.
Linksys’ Velop system is what a good whole home mesh Wi-Fi system should be – easy to set up, reliable and speedy and for that reason it is one of the best currently on the market and worth your attention.
BUY yours here – Linksys Velop Tri-band AC6600 Whole Home WiFi Mesh System- 3-Pack (coverage up to 6000 sq. ft)
