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Linksys beat them both outright in terms of average speeds, but perhaps more importantly, it was also the most consistent of the three, as well.

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Ry Crist/CNETĪmong those other models, the Asus RT-AX86U (dual-band AX5700) and the TP-Link Archer AX73 (dual-band AX5400) offer the closest comparisons to the Hydra Pro 6. Along with being relatively fast, the Hydra Pro 6 was more consistent than similarly powerful routers such as the Asus RT-AX86U and the TP-Link Archer AX73.

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In the end, the Hydra Pro 6 finished with both the fastest average download speeds throughout my home (536Mbps) and the fastest average uploads, too (467Mbps).Įach dot in these graphs is the download speed during a single speed test in my home.

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To account for that, I tested the Hydra Pro 6 against a couple of top picks from my Wi-Fi router best list - the budget-minded TP-Link Archer AX21 and the Asus RT-AX86U gaming router - plus a handful of other Wi-Fi 6 models I had on hand. Doing so gives me a much better look at the capabilities of each router I test, but it also means that I have fewer models to compare it to, since the old 300Mbps data won't make for a fair comparison. I recently upgraded that plan to a gigabit connection after spending the last few years testing with top speeds set at 300Mbps. Like every router I review, I tested the Hydra Pro 6 at my 1,300-square-foot home in Louisville, Kentucky, where I have a fiber internet plan from AT&T. The Linksys Hydra Pro 6 averaged faster upload and download speeds on my home's gigabit fiber network than top-rated alternatives like the Asus RT-AX86U. It's mostly a moot point if you're the type of user who prefers a set-it-and-forget-it approach to your router, but even if you have no desire to mess with your network settings, you'll still likely want a more robust set of controls for troubleshooting purposes (even if you'll be handing the app over to someone more tech-savvy than yourself). The app won't even let you turn off bandsteering to split the 2.4 and 5GHz bands into two separate networks.

You won't find unique features like those with the Linksys app, and you'll find fewer advanced networking controls, too. A lot of those alternatives will do more, like the gaming-minded latency management features in the Asus app, or the ability to sync with Amazon for simplified smart home device setup in TP-Link's Tether app. That said, just about every other router on the market comes with an app that does those exact same things. You'll also enjoy automatic overnight firmware updates, which is great. Once it's up and running, you can use the app to tweak network settings, toggle the parental controls or the guest network, or keep track of connected devices. The recently refreshed Linksys app (pictured above) has a clean, easy-to-use interface, and it does a fine job of guiding you through the setup process.

That said, we've seen dual-band mesh setups like the Eero 6 Plus, Nest Wifi and Asus ZenWifi XD6 that have performed perfectly well, so it isn't a deal-breaker by any stretch. I'd like that pitch a little better if this were a tri-band router we were talking about, as a dual-band mesh setup won't be able to silo off the backhaul transmissions between satellite devices on a separate band. For instance, if you're already using another Linksys device like that and looking to upgrade, you could swap in the Hydra Pro 6 and relocate the old router somewhere else in your home for use as a mesh extender.

There isn't much else of note to the build, but it's worth pointing out that you can use the Hydra Pro 6 as the centerpiece of a mesh setup by adding other compatible Linksys devices to your network.

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That means that you'll want something else with faster jacks if you're planning to upgrade to a new, multi-gigabit internet plan anytime soon. Turn the thing around, and you'll find the WAN port that you'll connect to your modem plus four spare Ethernet jacks in the back, all of which cap incoming wired speeds at a single gigabit per second.

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LinksysĪ dual-band AX5400 router with a 1GHz dual-core processor, the Hydra Pro 6 features full support for Wi-Fi 6 (that's what the 'AX' part means), and top theoretical speeds of 574Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 4,804Mbps on the 5GHz band (add those up to get the '5400' part). In addition to the WAN port, the Hydra Pro 6 offers four spare Ethernet LAN jacks, along with a USB 3.0 port.