Large vents on the top, vents on the sides, vents on the bottom—so many vents.
In fact, it made me a little uncomfortable.
Evidently, the router relies on these vents as part of a completely passive cooling system.
Jordan Gloor / How-To Geek
Competing standalone 6E routers normally offer at least one more port, and possibly the ability to aggregate ports.
The Netgear mobile app would also let me bypass account registration during setup by disconnecting from Wi-Fi and data.
None of that was possible with the Hydra Pro 6E.
I found this annoying and a bit restrictive.
Plug in the machine and follow the prompts on your phone.
Linksys really wants you to use the app.
In its defense, the app does cover all the configs you’ll likely use.
The problem eventually worked itself out, though, and I didn’t see it happen again.
I couldn’t get any significant drop in performance from that routine.
Related:Wi-Fi 6E: What Is It, and How Is It Different From Wi-Fi 6?
At the moment, though, 6E-ready devices that can connect to the third band are rare and premium.
OurGoogle Pixel 6and6awere 6Ghz-capable, but you should be aware that even theiPhone 14is still stuck at Wi-Fi 6.
That problem of course is due to shrink with time.
Long-term, it’s a good thing the Hydra Pro 6E reserves most of its speed for 6Ghz.
My home is around 1,400-square-feet, so it’s well within the router’s promised coverage.
But I was pleasantly surprised to find that frequency reaching every inch of my home.
Should You Buy the Linksys Hydra Pro 6E?
My recommendation in part depends on how you plan to use the Hydra Pro 6E.
Just make don’t set any uncovered drinks next to it, lest you tragically hydrate your Hydra.
