Linksys EA9500 MAX-STREAM AC5400 Wireless Router Review

Introduction

At the end of last year, ASUS and Netgear launched the first wave of tri-band Broadcom solutions in the R8500 and RT-AC5300. Six months later, Linksys is launching a new flagship solution dubbed the EA9500 - and it's actually a milestone for the platform as this solution is the first to support Broadcom MU-MIMO along with Seamless Roaming.

The EA9500 uses a Broadcom platform; it's actually based on the same SoC that was found in the Netgear and ASUS solutions, the BCM4709 dual-core operating at 1.4GHz. Linksys has paired their solution with 256MB of RAM and 128MB of flash. On the radio side, a PLX PEX8603 allows this solution to host two 5GHz BCM4366 4x4 radios with the 2.4GHz band using the same BCM4366 and four Skyworks SE2623L amps.

Pricing, Availability, and Specifications

Diving into the specifications, this solution is outfitted with a single 2.4GHz radio capable of 1000 Mbps while two 5GHz radios top out at 2167 Mbps. As mentioned above, this is a MU-MIMO platform sporting a dual-core CPU, beamforming, and eight adjustable antennas. This solution is marketed for very large homes and does features FAT, NTFS, and HFS file system support.

The MSRP of the Linksys EA9500 comes in at $429.99 and features three-year warranty and tech support.