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.