Linksys announces the Wi-Fi 7 mesh system, its first product

The Velop Pro 7 MBE7000, Linksys’ first mesh Wi-Fi 7 system, has been announced. It comes with coverage for up to 9000 square feet and is offered in one, two, and three pack sizes.

Naturally, the big notification is Wi-Fi 7. While Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6E share the same 2.4, 5 and 6GHz frequencies, devices using Wi-Fi 7, will be able to connect to both bands simultaneously for faster and more reliable connections.

Being an early adopter does come with a cost, though. The eero Max 7 was just released by Amazon, and it costs $599 / £599 for a single router, $1149 / £1149 for two, and $1699 / £1699 for three.

According to Linksys, every effort has been made to make the price of the MBE7000 as low as possible. At $399 / £399 for one node, $749 / £749 for two, and $999 / £999 for three, it’s also significantly less expensive.

This gives you a system with a maximum throughput of 591 Mbps at 2.4GHz, 4324 Mbps at 5GHz, and 5765 Mbps at 6GHz. As a result, it is referred to as a “BE11000” system, with the “be” standing for the technical suffix of the Wi-Fi 7 standard, 802.11be, and the system’s total speed (10680Mbps) derived from the sum of the three bands.

As usual, these are theoretical speeds; in order to take benefit of them, your phone, laptop, PC, and other devices must also have Wi-Fi 7.

Those numbers come from Qualcomm’s new Networking Pro 620 platform, which is used by the Velop Pro 7 in the background. Every band has two streams running simultaneously, measuring 2×2.

The eero Max 7, a BE20800 system, has ten streams overall compared to the Velop Pro 7’s six. It offers 2×2 on 2.4GHz but 4×4 5- and 6GHz radios. That is more costly because of this.

With four Gigabit Ethernet ports per unit, the Velop Pro 7 MBE7000 system shares the same teardrop shape as the Velop Pro 6E that we’ve already examined. Another cost-saving measure is that only the WAN port is 2.5Gbps; according to Linksys, most consumers won’t want to pay extra for 2.5Gbps LAN ports.

Customers don’t want complex apps, the company told Tech Advisor in a conference, because mesh Wi-Fi is something they can “set and forget.” Linksys claims that a Velop Pro 7 three-pack may be set up in less than ten minutes since it has made the setup process so simple.

Also, a new help option has been added. Rather of assisting users in modifying the app’s settings, they can give a Linksys agent temporary access so that the changes can be done on their behalf.

In the US, Linksys and Best Buy will be selling the Velop Pro 7 directly starting on October 26. It will be offered by Amazon and other traders in the UK starting in mid-November.