Now that the 6GHz radio band is open for business, routers that support Wi-Fi 6E are slowly starting to come to market. The Linksys Hydra Pro 6E ($499.99) is only the second such router to make its way to our lab (the Netgear RAXE500 was the first), and it delivered solid 6GHz throughput performance in our tests. It will future-proof your network with the latest Wi-Fi technology and offers multi-gig WAN connectivity and mesh expandability, but it doesn’t offer the speedy performance and extra features that you get with the $599.99 Netgear RAXE500.
Mesh-Capable Wi-Fi 6E
The Hydra Pro 6E looks similar to the Linksys Max-Stream Mesh Wi-Fi 6 Router MR7350 that we reviewed earlier this year. It has a black cabinet with a textured top, measures 2.3 by 11.0 by 6.6 inches (HWD), and has four adjustable, non-removable antennas. The glossy black front edge has a single LED status indicator that blinks blue when using WPS to connect to a device, is solid purple when ready for setup, blinks purple during setup, is solid blue when the router is connected and working properly, and is solid red when the router has lost its internet connection.
There’s a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) button on the right side of the router, and around back are four gigabit LAN ports, a 5Gb WAN port, a USB 3.0 port, a reset button, a power jack, and a power button. Under the hood is a 1.8GHz quad-core processor, 512MB of RAM, and 512MB of flash memory.
The Hydra Pro 6E is a Wi-Fi 6E router that can connect to the 6GHz radio band, as well as the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands (your client devices must support 6E to identify and connect to the 6GHz band). It supports 160MHz channel bandwidth on the 6GHz radio band but not on the 5GHz band, and it lacks the support for link aggregation that you get with the Netgear RAXE500. However, it does use all of the latest 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) technologies including OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple-Access), 1024 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), WPA3 encryption, direct-to-client signal transmissions (beamforming), and MU-MIMO simultaneous data streaming.
This is an AX6600 router that can achieve maximum (theoretical) speeds of up to 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, up to 1,200Mbps on the 5GHz band, and up to 4,800Mbps on the 6GHz band. It can be pressed into service as a mesh router or mesh node when paired with other Linksys Velop-compatible routers and nodes.
The Hydra Pro 6E can be managed using a web console or the Linksys mobile app for Android and iOS devices. The mobile app opens to a Dashboard that shows the name of the network, how many devices are connected to it, and how many routers or nodes are connected to the network. Tap the Devices panel to see a list of individual clients and which band they’re using. Tapping any client takes you to a screen where you can enable Device Prioritization and Parental Controls for that specific client. Parental Controls allow you to block websites, instantly pause internet access, and create access schedules, but you don’t get the age-based filters that you get with the TP-Link Archer AX11000. Also missing are anti-malware tools that protect your network and its clients from phishing, virus, and spyware attacks.
Just below the Device and Router panels is a button for testing your internet speed using Ookla’s Speed Test utility, and below that is a list of the last five clients to connect to the network. If you continue to scroll down, you see a panel that will take you to the Parental Controls settings screen and another that will take you to the Guest Network settings screen.
You can also access Parental Controls and Guest Network settings by tapping the three-bar icon in the upper left corner of the screen. Here you’ll also find Wi-Fi, External Storage, Device Prioritization, Notifications, and Network Administration settings. Advanced settings include Port Forwarding, MAC Filtering, and Local Network settings.
Hydra Pro 6E Performance
Installing the Hydra Pro 6E is easy. I downloaded the Linksys mobile app and tapped Set Up a New Wi-Fi Network. I selected Mesh Wi-Fi Router (MR Series) from the list, plugged in the Hydra Pro, and connected it to my modem. I waited around 30 seconds for the LED to go from blue to purple, confirmed that it was blinking purple, and the router was instantly discovered. I created a Linksys account when prompted, then gave the new network a name and a password. I was then prompted to give the router a location (room) and the setup was complete.
To test throughput performance, I used a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra phone, which is equipped with Wi-Fi 6E circuitry and is the same device I used to test the Netgear RXE500. The Hydra Pro 6E’s speed of 106Mbps on the 2.4GHz close-proximity (same room) test was a bit slower that what I saw with the Netgear RAXE500 (127Mbps), while its speed of 33Mbps on the 30-foot test was significantly slower than the Netgear’s 71Mbps.
On 5GHz tests, the Hydra Pro 6E was notably slower than the Netgear RAXE500. It managed 750Mbps on the close-proximity test and 303Mbps on the 30-foot test, compared with the RAXE500’s speeds of 936Mbps (close proximity) and 530Mbps (30 feet).
The Hydra Pro’s 6GHz performance was more in line with what we saw with the RAXE500. It garnered 927Mbps on the close-proximity test and 379Mbps on the 30-foot test, while the RAXE500 delivered 951Mbps and 427Mbps, respectively.
In our file-transfer tests, we move a 1.5GB folder containing photos, video, music, and office document files back and forth between an external USB 3.0 drive and a desktop PC (both connected to the router) in order to measure write and read speeds. The Hydra Pro 6E scored a speedy 83MBps on the write test and an equally speedy read score of 82MBps. The Netgear RAXE500 was just a hair faster with speeds of 85MBps on both tests.
We use an Ekahau Sidekick Wi-Fi diagnostic device and Ekahau’s Survey mobile app to test wireless signal strength. This combo generates heat maps that show the router’s 2.4GHz and 5GHz signal strength throughout our test home (Ekahau doesn’t yet support 6GHz signals). (Note: Ekahau is owned by J2 Global, the parent company of Ziff Davis, the publisher of PCMag.com.)
The circles on the maps above represent the location of the router and the colors represent signal strength, with dark green representing the strongest signal. Yellow is weaker and gray indicates no measurable signal reception. As show on the maps, the Hydra Pro 6E did a fair job of delivering 2.4GHz and 5GHz signals throughout our test home, but both bands faltered a bit in the dining room and in parts of the garage.
Future-Proof, But Not Class-Leading
If you have a PC or phone that can connect to the 6GHz radio band, you’ll need a Wi-Fi 6E router like the Linksys Hydra Pro 6E to make it happen. The Hydra Pro is very easy to set up and manage, and it delivered solid 6GHz throughput and relatively fast file-transfer performance in testing. Parental controls are limited and it lacks anti-malware software, but you do get a multi-gig WAN port and you can use the router to create a mesh network. That said, the Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500 delivers better overall performance and offers a few extra features including 160MHz channel bandwidth and link aggregation, making it the better buy in this budding category.
