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There will soon be a lot o Wi-Fi 6E options. Following Asus, Netgear, and TP-Link, Belkin unveiled over last week at CES 2021 the first mesh router of its own using this latest Wi-Fi standard, the Linksys AXE8400.
Update: The full review of the Linksys AXE8400 is now available.
Similar to the case of the Velop AX4200, the Linksys AXE8400 is available as a single router or a mesh system that includes multiple hardware units. On the inside, though, it's totally different.
Details are still sketchy, but the way Wi-Fi 6E goes, the new router comes with three different bands, including 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. Traditionally, Linksys Velop uses all of the band as backhaul dynamically. It's unknown if that's the same in the case of the AXE8400.
Belkin says the new router is powered by Qualcomm Networking Pro 1210 Platform and can deliver "2 x faster than the competition" in performance. It's hard to quantify that, but the networking vendor does specify that a single Linksys AXE8400 units can cover some 3000 ft2 (278 m2) and handles up to 65 active devices.
What's most noticeable, though, the new routers come with a 5Gbps WAN port. So it's ready for the Multi-Gig era. It's also compatible with previous Linksys Intelligent Mesh Wi-Fi 6 hardware, such as the MX4200, MX5300, or MR9600.
(By the way, it seems the company wants to drop the "Velop" name from its mesh system.)
According to Belkin, the Linksys AXE8400 will be available in Spring or Summer of 2021 with the suggested retail price of $449.99 a single unit, $849.99 (2-pack), and $1,199.99 (3-pack). It's time to save up.
Will this device be backward compatible with the older WHW0301-03 v2 Velop models? Your post mentions “compatible with previous Linksys Intelligent Mesh Wi-Fi 6 hardware, such as the MX4200, MX5300, or MR9600.”
I’m considering upgrading my parent Velop node with an AXE8400, but want to be sure it is compatible with the four other WHW0301 v2 child nodes I currently have in use.
This is a news piece, Joe. The information is from the vendor. The unit is not out yet and nobody knows how it’ll work for sure. But you should check out this post on Wi-Fi 6E. https://dongknows.com/wi-fi-6e-explained/
Dong,
Do you know if this will support wired backhaul?
It’s not out yet and I’m not even sure if it will actually be out, Alex. Judging from existing Linksys Velop, though, chances are it would.