Linksys Velop Dual-Band Whole Home WiFi Mesh System - Review 2022

When we reviewed the Linksys Velop mesh organization last year, its throughput performance, ease of utilize, and pleasing aesthetics earned it our Editors' Option for habitation Wi-Fi systems. The latest Linksys mesh offering, the Velop Dual-Band Whole Home WiFi Mesh System ($299.99 for the iii-pack we tested), is a somewhat scaled-downwards version of the original. Information technology's a 3-slice dual-band organization (as opposed to tri-ring), and its components are smaller than the original. This system is easy to install and manage using the well-designed mobile app, but information technology can't match the throughput performance and feature set of similarly priced Wi-Fi systems.

A Stylish Mesh Arrangement

You can social club the Velop Dual-Band Whole Habitation WiFi Mesh Organization equally a three-node system (that'due south what's reviewed here), a 2-node arrangement for $199.99, or as a unmarried-node router for $129.99. Each node is an AC1300 dual-band router that uses 3 internal antennas to provide upwardly to 1,500 square feet of coverage, and each is capable of speeds of up to 400Mbps on the two.4GHz ring and 867Mbps on the 5GHz band. (The three-pack system reviewed here covers a total of 4,500 square feet.) They are powered past a 716MHz quad-core CPU, 256MB of wink retentivity, and 256MB of DRAM, and support the latest 802.11ac technologies, including MU-MIMO data streaming, beamforming, and automatic band steering.

Every bit with other home Wi-Fi systems, the nodes communicate with each other using mesh engineering to provide whole-house coverage and offer seamless roaming using a single network SSID and countersign. Each node has a Bluetooth radio used to communicate with your smartphone for system setup.

At v.five past iii.1 by three.1 inches, the nodes are about 2 inches shorter than the original Velop nodes, but they retain the same stylish artful. They have two gigabit LAN ports and a ability jack around back, and a reset button and power button on the underside of the base of operations. The LAN ports can provide wired connectivity to devices such equally HDTVs and gaming consoles; the ports can likewise exist used to provide wired connectivity between each node.

A status LED at the acme of the enclosure is solid blue when connected to the internet, solid red when the connection is lost, blinking cerise when the node is out of range of another node, and solid yellowish when the connection is weak. It turns solid purple when gear up for setup and blinks purple when setup is in progress.

Setting Upward the System

You install and manage the Velop system using the Linksys Mobile app for iOS and Android. Y'all tin can also access settings using the Smart Wi-Fi web console.

The app opens to a Dashboard screen that shows your internet condition (online, offline) and how many devices are connected to the system...

Tapping the devices opens a screen with the list of connected devices and which node they are connected to...

You can tap on an individual device to enable/disable Device Prioritization and Parental Controls.

You tin can select up to three devices to give them bandwidth priority over other devices, but there are no bandwidth-limit or application-specific settings. Parental controls are besides limited: Y'all can pause net access and create access schedules for each device and cake specific websites, merely yous don't get the age-specific filters that you lot go with the TP-Link Deco M5 and Asus Lyra systems. Too missing is the congenital-in malware protection that comes with these competitors.

In add-on to Parental Controls and Device Prioritization, the Dashboard has a button for enabling/disabling Guest Admission and for tweaking Wi-Fi settings such as security type and Wi-Fi mode. There's as well a Channel Finder setting that lets you scan for the Wi-Fi channels that will offer the best operation. You tin access all of the above-mentioned settings by borer the iii-bar icon in the upper left corner of the Dashboard. This opens a menu on the left with tabs for Devices, Wi-Fi Settings, Invitee Access, Parental Controls, and Device Prioritization.

Other menu choices include Speed Check (which measures cyberspace upload and download speeds), Notifications (when enabled, it will warning you when a node goes offline), Velop Administration (time settings, firmware upgrades, and individual node statistics), and My Account (account email and password information).

The Velop also offers limited support for Amazon Alexa voice commands. Y'all tin enable/disable guest networking and ask Alexa for the credentials of the primary and guest networks.

Installing the Velop system is easy. I downloaded the app and logged in to my business relationship. (If you don't have an account, you'll accept to create one.) I plugged in the first (principal) node, connected information technology to my modem using the included cable, and tapped Setup New Device in the app. The node was recognized immediately and needed about 30 seconds to connect to the internet. I was prompted to requite the network a name and password, and so to give the node a proper noun from a list, which included typical locations such as Function, Living Room, Family Room, Kitchen, and others. (You tin too create your own name.)

The app needed almost a minute to add the node to my network and prompted me to either add another node or finish the installation. I tapped Add a Node and plugged the 2d node into an outlet in my living room, about 30 anxiety from the first node. I followed the same routine as above, so added the final node (which I placed in my basement), and the installation was complete. After each node was added, the app informed me that the placement was good, and all iii nodes showed solid blueish LEDs, indicating a good connection.

Mixed Performance

Setup was easy, but the system turned in mixed results in our throughput tests.

Using automated band-steering, the main router scored an impressive 517Mbps on our SU-MIMO (Unmarried User Multiple Input Multiple Output) close-proximity (same-room) test...

That's faster than the Asus Lyra (338Mbps) and the TP-Link Deco M5 (444Mbps), but non the Tri-Band Velop (556Mbps). However, its score of 102Mbps on the 30-pes SU-MIMO test, while certainly decent, came in behind the Lyra (153Mbps), the Deco M5 (249Mbps), and the Tri-Ring Velop (236Mbps).

The Velop nodes too turned in mixed results...

Linksys Velop Dual-Band MU-MIMO Satellites

Node 1 (in my living room) scored 102Mbps on the SU-MIMO shut-proximity test, while node 2 (in my basement) scored 79Mbps. Both scores are significantly lower than what we saw with the Asus Lyra (256Mbps and 220Mbps), the TP-Link Deco M5 (234Mbps and 211Mbps), and the Tri-Band Velop (257Mbps and 328Mbps) nodes. On the xxx-foot exam, the Velop node i scored 97Mbps, beating the TP-Link Deco M5 (48.3Mbps), merely not the Asus Lyra (122Mbps). The Tri-Band Velop led with a score of 238Mbps. The Dual-Band Velop node 2 scored 57Mbps, making it the slowest of the bunch at that location.

To test MU-MIMO performance, nosotros utilize 3 identical Acer Aspire E15 laptops equipped with Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 wireless 802.11ac network adapters equally clients. On the close-proximity examination, the Dual-Band Velop router'due south score of 138Mbps was faster than the TP-Link Deco M5 (108Mbps), merely not the Asus Lyra (268Mbps) or the Linksys Tri-Band Velop (264Mbps)...

On the 30-foot MU-MIMO test, the Velop router's score of 55Mbps was nearly 30Mbps slower than the Asus Lyra and the TP-Link routers, and 61Mbps slower than the Tri-Band Velop router.

Node performance was like...

The Dual-Band Velop node 1 scored 88Mbps on the shut-proximity exam, beating the TP-Link Deco M5 (81Mbps) and the Tri-Ring Velop (60Mbps), but non the Asus Lyra. The Velop's node two led the pack with a score of 75Mbps. Testing at a altitude of 30 feet, though, both of the Velop nodes were at the lesser of the pack.

Spiffy-Looking, But Not Tops for the Field

The Linksys Velop Dual-Band Whole Home WiFi Mesh System makes it easy to blanket your home with Wi-Fi coverage and manage your network. It uses sleek-looking components that you lot can identify out in the open. Information technology too has a thoughtfully designed mobile app that lets you quickly and easily assign network priority for upwardly to three clients and pause access to the cyberspace with one click.

Functioning testing, though, does not distinguish this mesh system. The Velop delivered solid throughput on some of our tests, simply it did not fare so well on our 30-foot range tests. If your upkeep allows, the original Tri-Band Velop organisation offers the all-time overall operation we've seen from a mesh organisation and remains our Editors' Choice, but information technology's nigh $200 more than the Dual-Band Velop system. If you need to stay in the $300 price range, the TP-Link Deco M5 or Asus Lyra Wi-Fi systems both offer meliorate functioning than the Velop Dual-Ring system, and they come with built-in anti-malware tools and robust parental controls.