Linksys Velop review: What do you get from the most expensive mesh WiFi system?

Linksys Velop was one of the first consumer mesh networking systems on the market, one of the most beautiful, and the most expensive. Its price has not lowered much since its original launch, and many firmware updates later, we got the chance to review it. If you want to know whether Linksys Velop is worth the asking price, read our in-depth review:

NOTE: There are several Linksys Velop mesh systems available on the market. We tested and reviewed the hardware version WHW03.

Linksys Velop: Who is it good for?

This whole-home mesh WiFi system is a suitable choice for:

• People who want premium devices that look great in their homes
• Owners of Alexa powered devices who want to voice control their home network
• Users who prefer to set up and manage their home network from their smartphone

Pros and cons

Linksys Velop has the following positives:

• Beautiful design
• It is easy to use and set up
• The wireless coverage is fast on both bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
• It can be remotely controlled from anywhere on the internet
• It can be managed from a web browser too
• It is integrated with Amazon Alexa
• Great multilingual support

There are also downsides to consider:

• The price is higher than that of similar competing products
• It does not include security features like antivirus protection or an intrusion prevention system
• It has some bugs that should be fixed in future firmware updates
• You cannot mount it on walls

Verdict

Linksys Velop is a gorgeous mesh WiFi system, with a premium price. The setup is similar to that of other mesh systems, and the speed on both wireless bands tends to be higher than the average, even though it is not the fastest mesh WiFi system you can get. Its biggest downside is the price. Linksys Velop is a lot more expensive than its competitors while lacking the advanced security features that you find on competing systems. This makes it a tough sell. Other mesh WiFi systems offer more features and more value for your money.

Unboxing the Linksys Velop (WHW03) mesh WiFi system

The packaging for the Linksys Velop is beautiful and elegant. On the top cover of the box, you see the three devices that make up the kit you just bought, the name of the system, and some of its most essential features.

The top cover opens like the cover of a book. Inside, you immediately see the three devices that make up the mesh. Alongside them, you find the quick start guide, an Ethernet cable, three power adapters, and the warranty.

The unboxing experience offered by Linksys Velop AC2200 is gratifying, worthy of a premium device. Both the packaging and the Velop devices are beautiful. You also get all the accessories you need to set up and use the mesh system.

Hardware specifications and design

Each Linksys Velop station has a quad-core Qualcomm IPQ4019 processor, running at 716 MHz, with support for the latest networking standards, including 802.11ac Wave 2, and 2x2 MU-MIMO transfers. The three devices each have 512 MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage space, for the firmware. The Linksys Velop is a three-band mesh wireless system, with its total maximum theoretical bandwidth split as follows:

• 400 Mbps for one 2.4 GHz wireless band
• 867 Mbps each for the two 5 GHz wireless bands

To provide this bandwidth, each Velop has six internal antennas, four of which are used for the two 5GHz wireless bands. Inside each Velop station, there is also a Bluetooth 4.0 chip, for pairing the stations together.

As you can see, the design of the Linksys Velop hubs is pleasant. They can be either white or black, depending on the color variant that you purchase. On two sides and the top, there are ventilation grids, for efficient cooling. On the top, there is also a discreet LED that lights up in different colors, to signal the status of the node.

Each Linksys Velop station is as tall as a PC speaker with a size of 3.1" x 3.1" x 7.3" or 7.8 x 7.8 x 18.5 cm in length, width and height. The nodes do not weigh much, only 17 oz or 485 grams. On the bottom of each node, there are two 1 Gbps Ethernet ports, the Power button, the Reset jack, and the power jack.

We like the design of the Linksys Velop a lot. The stations look great anywhere you place them. Their only minor design issue is that they do not have a system to mount them on walls. You can only place them on flat surfaces.

If you would like to read all the official specifications of this product, go to this page: Linksys Velop Specifications.

Setting up and using the Linksys Velop (WHW03)

Setting up the Linksys Velop is the same as for any other mesh WiFi system, and you must use the Linksys app for Android or iOS. The setup process uses Bluetooth for device discovery, so Bluetooth has to be enabled on your smartphone or tablet. If you follow the instructions carefully, you should be able to set up the system in about 10 to 15 minutes. However, issues may arise with the discovery of the Velop nodes through Bluetooth. We encountered problems when adding the final node to the system, so we had to waste another 5 minutes to reset that node, and place it closer to another node that was already part of the mesh. After we did that, everything went smoothly, and we finished the setup.

During the initial setup process, you can only provide the details of your internet connection, set the location of each Velop node, and enter the name and the password for the wireless network that is broadcast by the system. As is the case with all mesh systems, Linksys Velop broadcasts only one network name and uses only one password for accessing the network. As soon as you are done creating the mesh, you should look for firmware updates and install them. The Linksys mobile app handles the process, and it works well. Firmware updates ensure that bugs get fixed and that you get the latest security improvements for your network.

When using the Linksys mobile app, it is a good idea to connect it to your Linksys Smart Wi-Fi account, so that you can remote control your network from anywhere on the internet. When you do that, it does not matter where you are at home or not. You can access your network's settings, see which devices are online, and control the basics: guest access, parental controls, device prioritization, and the few advanced settings that are available.

One positive is that Linksys has added web access to the Linksys Velop. Advanced users appreciate this feature, as it allows them to get more control over the way their mesh network works. Another positive is that both the web-based user interface and the mobile app are available in more than twenty languages.

Help is easily available. When you use the mobile app, you get access to tutorials about setting up and using Linksys Velop, a database with frequently asked questions, and instructions for contacting Linksys support directly, over the phone.

When you are done configuring everything, start connecting your network devices. When using a mesh WiFi system, network devices see only one network name being broadcast. The more expensive smartphones and laptops that support the 802.11ac standard connect to the network using the 5GHz frequency, while cheaper or older devices that support the 802.11n standard connect to the network on the slower 2.4 GHz frequency.

We connected various devices to the network: desktop PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones, an Xbox One console, a few smart plugs, a smart bulb, and a wireless printer. We had no issues in sharing content over the network, and the WiFi network coverage was mostly stable. However, when transferring data through the network, we did notice a bit of variability in the transfer speed, higher than what we expected.

We also noticed that when we made large network transfers (like copying a 6 GB file over the network) some of our wireless devices had brief connection drops. They did not last long, but they were noticeable. Also, not all devices were disconnected, only a few of them. This means that the bandwidth management algorithms used by Linksys Velop could be improved in future firmware updates so that they offer stabler WiFi connections even when large sets of data are transferred over the network.

Except for a few minor hiccups that can be fixed in firmware updates, the user experience offered by Linksys Velop is pleasant. Remote controlling this mesh system works well both when using the mobile app, and the web interface. Also, the multilingual support is excellent.

If you want to know more about the real-world performance offered by Linksys Velop, go to the next page of this review.

Wireless network performance

First, let's take a look at the apartment that was used in our testing and how it is set up. You can see that the central Linksys Velop hub is placed in the living room. When using wireless routers, the signal strength is not that high in rooms like the Kitchen and the Medium balcony. To improve the coverage of the network, we placed the second Velop hub in the Big Bedroom. As a result, the Medium balcony should benefit from more stable WiFi. Then, the third hub was placed near the entrance to the Kitchen, to improve the coverage there too.

Our testing was done using a fast 1 Gigabit Internet connection that is capable of uploads on the internet of up to 500 Mbps. We used an HP Spectre 13 laptop for our measurements.

We decided to compare the Linksys Velop with two competing mesh systems: ASUS Lyra Trio and TP-Link Deco M5.

We started by evaluating the 2.4 GHz wireless network and measured the signal strength offered in each room, using a tool named NetSpot Pro. As you can see in the graph below, the signal strength offered by Linksys Velop was good but with higher variations that what competing mesh systems had to offer.

Then, we used SpeedTest to see how fast the internet connection is when using the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency. Linksys Velop was a top performer when measuring the download speed.

The same was true when looking at the upload speed.

Next, we used the PassMark Performance test to transfer data between two computers connected to the network, using the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency. This time, Linksys Velop delivered even faster downloads, increasing its lead over its competitors.

The same trend was noticed when measuring the upload speed with PassMark Performance test.

When using the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency, Linksys Velop delivers excellent speed.

Next, we analyzed the performance offered by the 5GHz wireless network. First, we looked at the evolution of the signal strength, from room to room. This time, Linksys Velop outperformed its competitors.

Next, we ran SpeedTest to see how fast the internet connection is on the 5GHz band. To see the maximum potential of Linksys Velop, we used the world's only PCI-E network card with support for 4x4 MU-MIMO. When we used this network card, we obtained a maximum speed of 502.54 Mbps for the download, and of 453.35 Mbps for the upload. It is a good result.

For more down-to-earth results, we also measured the download speed with SpeedTest, in every room of our test apartment, using our test laptop. Linksys Velop performed well in most rooms, without being the fastest mesh system.

The same was true when looking at the upload speed.

For the last measurements on the 5GHz wireless network, we used the PassMark Performance test to transfer data between two computers connected to the network. The download speed offered by Linksys Velop was quite fast, without being the best.

When looking at the upload speed, Linksys Velop was our speed champ, a result which we found surprising.

Linksys Velop offers fast wireless connections on the 5 GHz wireless band but is not the fastest mesh system that we tested.

Wired network performance

To test the quality of the wired Ethernet connection, we used a desktop PC equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 processor, running at 3.20GHz, 16GB of RAM, a fast Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD, and a Lenovo IdeaCentre 610s mini PC.

We measured the speed of the internet connection when using a 1 Gbps Ethernet cable, using SpeedTest. Linksys Velop was the fastest mesh system in our comparison.

Then, we ran a network transfer between the two computers, each connected with an Ethernet cable to a different Linksys Velop. Since the stations were connected to each other wirelessly, the transfer was mediated through WiFi. We used PassMark Performance test for this measurements. As you can see, the Linksys Velop had a decent performance.

You can enjoy 1Gbps connections just on one Ethernet port, on the main Linksys Velop station. On all the others you get less unless you connect all hubs using Ethernet cables.

Extra features

Linksys Velop offers a few extra features. The most important things it does not have, are antivirus protection, intrusion prevention, and cloud-based parental controls. Other mesh systems which cost less money offer these features, at least for a limited time, others for the whole life of the product. Here is what you get from Linksys Velop:

• Guest Access - you can activate a separate wireless network, with a different name and password, for your guests.
• Speed Check - run a speed test to see how fast your internet connection is.
• Parental Controls - a basic set of manual controls and rules. It is not as competent or friendly to maintain as the cloud-based solutions offered by the competition.
• Device Prioritization - you can set which devices get prioritized on your network, for improved network speed and coverage.
• Port forwarding - you can set rules for single port forwarding, port range forwarding, and port range triggering.
• Amazon Alexa - if you use Alexa, you can control Linksys Velop through voice commands like: "Alexa, ask Linksys What is my Wi-Fi password?."

• Troubleshooting - a set of troubleshooting tools that help you figure out how to solve networking problems. Most of them can be accessed and used only from the web-based administration user interface.

Linksys Velop offers fewer extras than the competition. Its most significant downside is the lack of antivirus protection and that of an intrusion prevention system.

What is your opinion of the Linksys Velop?

Now you know our opinion about the Linksys Velop whole home mesh WiFi system, and how it performed in our testing. Before closing this review, let us know what you think about this device. Would you consider purchasing it? If you already have it, what is your experience with it? Comment below and let's discuss.