Linksys brings fastest Wi-Fi router ever to market
Who doesn't love fast Wi-Fi? Thanks to 802.11ac, real-world speeds are finally cracking the 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) barrier. With the new 802.11ac multi-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) Wave 2 finally arriving in chipsets, Gbps speeds may finally become commonplace rather than exceptional. Leading the way is Linksys with the first Wave 2 router to market: The Linksys Max-Stream AC2600 MU-MIMO Gigabit Router (EA8500).
In theory, 802.11ac Wave 2 devices, when working with other Wave 2 enabled gear, can crack 7Gbps. Linksys, wisely, doesn't make any such claim. In the real world, Wi-Fi never runs as fast it does in a pristine lab environment.
Linksys does claim that the EA8500 with its Qualcomm MU | EFX MU-MIMO technology+ chipset can hit a combined 2.53 Gbps Wi-Fi speeds. That breaks down as 1,733 Megabits per second (Mbps) with 5 GHz and 800 Mbps with 2.4 GHz. I've benchmarked more Wi-Fi devices than I can recall, and I think what you'll see in your office will be more like 600 Mbps and 200 Mbps. That's still almost certainly a lot faster than what your current equipment is giving you.
