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At CES 2015, Linksys has unveiled a slew of new products under the successful WRT brand as well as a new MU-MIMO Router – the EA8500, AC6200 Dual-Band Smart Wi-Fi Router.
Following the success of the hugely popular WRT1900AC, which brought back the classic Linksys WRT blue and gray styling and stack-able function. Linksys has decided to double down on the WRT brand and has unveiled a slew of new products under it.
WRT1200AC
While the WRT1900AC was well retained among enthusiasts, its relatively high-price left it out of reach for many users who are looking for a reliable router on a smaller budget. That is where the all-new WRT1200AC comes in, providing the same styling and stack-able function as the WRT1900AC, at a price-point of $179.
It features a 2×2 dual-band AC1200 platform, powered by a dual-core processor, offers wireless speeds up to 1.3Gbps*, eSATA/USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, as well as 4 Gigabit ethernet ports and one Gigabit WAN port. It also features high-powered Wi-Fi power-amplifiers, beamforming technology and 2 removable antennas.
Availability is planned for Spring 2015.
WRT NETWORK STORAGE BAY
To go along with the new router, Linksys has also unveiled a brand new WRT Network Storage Bay. It also carry’s the iconic blue/black design and will stack perfectly underneath either a WRT1900AC or WRT1200AC router, helping to keep a clutter free setup.
The device can hold two external SATA hard drives and features RAID-1 mirroring backups and improved read speeds. It also features an eSATA and USB 3.0 port for connecting additional external drives. It will be priced at $129 and also should be available spring of this year.
HIGH-GAIN ANTENNAS
But what if you already have a router you like, one that offers all the features you need, but would like to improve it’s range? That’s where Linksys’ new High-Gain Dual-Band antennas come in.
They feature 7dbI on 5Ghz and 3dBi on 2.4Ghz band, as well as omni-directional broadcasting for range enhancement. Linksys says they should work with any router that uses removable-external antennas, regardless of brand and promises increases of up to 30% in coverage. They will come in packs of four and cost $129.
Open WRT Support Finally Comes to the WRT1900AC
Along with the new products, Linksys has announced that in collaboration with Marvell, the open-source driver for the WRT1900AC has been released to OpenWRT and has been incorporated into the latest open source firmware image snapshot.
They also say that a full open-source firmware will also be available for the WRT1200AC, at launch this spring.
EA8500 – MU-MIMO AC2600 Dual-Band Smart Wi-Fi Router
Linksys has also unveiled an all-new ultra high-end router, which features support for MU-MIMO (Multiple User-Multiple Input-Multile-Output) WiFi technology. Which essentially will allow multiple devices to stream data at the same time at the full speed available, without throttling one another.
The EA8500 features wireless speeds up to AC1733 + N800* as well as four Gigabit ports, one Gigabit WAN port, eSATA, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports. All of that will be powered by a 1.4GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It will be priced at a premium of $279 and should also be available this spring.
RANGE EXTENDERS
If there’s one thing almost anyone with an in-home WiFi network wants, its more range. To oblige this Linksys has unveiled two brand new range extenders, the RE4100W and the RE6700W.
The RE4100W promises to increase an existing router’s coverage by up to 7,500 Sq. Ft. It features Cross-Band technology, allowing the Wi-Fi signal to receive data on one band and transmit on the other. Resulting in a stronger more consistent signal throughout the home. It also features audio streaming with a 3.5mm audio jack, so you can connect speakers to it and stream music from a smartphone, tablet or other device. It features support for dual-band N600 wireless speeds and will cost $79.
The RE6700W ups the ante with support for dual-band AC1200 wireless speeds, and promises coverage increases up to 10,000 Sq Ft. It also adds AC power pass-through and four Gigabit ethernet ports. It is priced at $119.
For more news from CES 2015 stay tuned for our extended coverage coming all this week!