Linksys Hydra Pro 6: Two Minute Review
It’s taken a while for the prices of Wi-Fi 6 routers to drop to more affordable levels, but Linksys’ new Hydra Pro 6 is a good option for anyone looking to improve their home Wi-Fi without taking out a second mortgage. It’s admittedly still a bit pricey for a dual-band router, but it works hard to make a living.
The top speed of 5.4 Gbps is still much faster than most routers that use the older Wi-Fi 5 standard (also known as 802.11ac), while also offering additional benefits of Wi-Fi 6, such as improved efficiency at sending data to many different devices on your network at the same time.
Linksys Hydra Pro 6: Price and Availability
- $299.99 in the US
- £169.99 from Amazon in the UK
- Currently not available in Australia
Specification Sheet
Here is the Linksys HydroPro 6″ configuration sent to Ditching for review:
Wi-Fi: dual band Wi-Fi 6 (2.4GHz/5.0GHz)
Speed: 5.4 Gbps
Range: 2,700sq.ft
Connectivity: 1x Gigabit Ethernet (WAN), 4x Gigabit Ethernet (LAN), 1x USB 3.0
Processor: 1GHz dual core
Memory Storage: not specified
Dimensions (with antennas): 215 x 155 x 158mm
Weight: 0.57 kg
The prices of the Linksys Hydra Pro 6 vary quite a bit from region to region, with Linksys listing it for $299.99 on its US website and other online retailers. At current exchange rates, that price should be around £250.00 in British Pounds – excluding 20% of UK sales tax – but the Hydra Pro 6 is actually a lot cheaper in the UK.
Linksys primarily sells through Amazon in the UK, where it’s currently listed for £169.99 (and it’s even recently dropped to £129.99 for Prime Day). Linksys’ Australian division seems to be mostly focused on the company’s Velop range of mesh routers, with few standalone routers at the moment.
- Price and availability: 3.5/5
Linksys Hydra Pro 6: Design and Features
- Guest network and ‘pause’ scheduling
- Four Gigabit Ethernet ports
- USB port for shared network drives
The Hydra Pro 6 isn’t much to look at, consisting of a modest black plastic box with a pair of antennas sticking out of the back. However, it is compact and solidly built and fits neatly on any handy table or shelf when connected to your existing broadband modem or router. Linksys hasn’t cut corners much either, as the Hydra Pro 6 offers impressive Wi-Fi speeds of up to 5.4 Gbps, along with four Gigabit Ethernet ports that can be used to provide a lag-free wired connection for devices like a game console or smart phone. -TV. It even has a USB 3.0 port that can be used to connect a hard drive so you can share the drive with other people on your home network.
However, the Linksys app is a bit basic. It takes a few minutes to set up the router as you must first download the Linksys app, create an account and then enter a password to connect your iOS or Android mobile device to the standard ‘setup’- network of the router. Then you have to rename that network and create a new password, then reconnect from scratch – which seems a bit tedious when many routers now just let you scan a QR code to set everything up automatically. But once that’s done, the app is pretty easy to use – it automatically creates a single network that combines the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands and then lists all the devices connected to the network . You can suspend Internet access for each device or create a schedule to limit your child’s Internet use to certain times. There’s a built-in speed test to check network performance, and you can prioritize three devices to maximize performance for demanding tasks like gaming or video streaming. The parental controls are quite limited though, as the app leaves it up to you to manually enter the addresses of websites you want to block – but at least it doesn’t constantly bug you with ads for additional subscription services, like some Linksys rivals. do.
Linksys Hydra Pro 6: Performance
- Creates a single network with 2.4/5.0 GHz bands
- Good performance and range
- Ability to prioritize three devices
Benchmarks
Here’s how the Linksys HydraPro 6″ performed in our series of benchmark tests:
Ookla speed test (download/upload)
Within 5ft, no obstacles: 100Mbps/11Mbps
Within 30 ft, three partitions: 100 Mbps/11 Mbps
20 GB Steam Download
Within 5ft, no obstacles: 12.5MB/s
Within 30ft, three partitions: 12.5MB/s
Our broadband supplier’s Wi-Fi router works perfectly for computers and other devices nearby, allowing us to hit the maximum 100Mbps from our broadband service and 12.5MB/s downloads from Steam. And, as we expected, the Linksys Hydra Pro 6 easily reproduced that performance when connecting to nearby devices.
However, we also have an office at the back of the building where our Wi-Fi signal is so erratic that we normally have to rely on PowerLine adapters to provide a more reliable wired network connection. Fortunately, the Hydra Pro 6 didn’t blink an eyelid as I picked up my laptop and walked down the hall to the back office, maintaining those speeds without any problem. There may be faster tri-band Wi-Fi 6 routers out there now, but the Hydra Pro 6 hits a sweet spot, offering a fast and reliable Wi-Fi 6 upgrade that won’t break the bank.
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Also think about…
Linksys Hydra Pro 6: Scorecard
| Price and availability | It’s not the cheapest Wi-Fi 6 router, but the Hydra Pro 6 is fast and easy to use. | 3.5 / 5 |
| Design and Features | Strong WiFi performance and good wired connectivity make the Hydra Pro 6 a versatile WiFi 6 upgrade. | 4 / 5 |
| Performance | It may only be dual-band, but a top speed of 5.4 Gbps is more than fast enough for most home users. | 4 / 5 |
First reviewed in July 2022
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