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Linksys releases EA8500 Max-Stream AC2600 -- world's first 802.11ac MU-MIMO router

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Quality routers are worth their weight in gold as far as I'm concerned. A shoddy Wi-Fi connection is enough to drive you insane. I've bought budget routers that have been absolute nightmares; many dropped connections and needed reboots. Do yourself a favor and buy something from a reputable manufacturer.

Linksys is one of those reputable manufacturers, offering many wonderful networking products. Today, the company begins shipping the EA8500 Max-Stream AC2600 router. What makes this notable? It is the world's first MU-MIMO router to ship to consumers. In other words, this thing is likely to be awesome. Will you buy it?

"The Linksys EA8500 router incorporates Qualcomm MU EFX MU-MIMO technology+, which helps to provide up to 3x faster speeds compared to current Wi-Fi. The combined 2.53 Gbps Wi-Fi speeds (up to 1733 Mbps for 5 GHz and 800 Mbps for 2.4 GHz) help minimize buffering and enable faster downloads. A supercharged 1.4 GHz dual-core CPU and four Gigabit ports offer blazing-fast speeds perfect for heavy-bandwidth wired gaming. Users can attach devices to the USB 3.0 port and a combo USB 2.0/eSATA port for uninterrupted personal cloud content streaming or to share data across their network. The four removable external antennas are adjustable for maximum coverage, while beamforming technology concentrates the Wi-Fi signal to each device for stronger, better performance and increased mobile speed and range", says Linksys.


But wait -- what exactly is the benefit of MU-MIMO for users? Check out the video above.

Mike Chen, vice president of product management, Linksys explains , "the average home has more than 8 devices connecting to the Internet, and they're not used for just sending emails and tweets. To have dedicated bandwidth for their devices simultaneously will enhance the users' experience so they won’t see that buffering icon when streaming a movie or listening to choppy music or worse, playing games with lag. We are so confident in the experience that MU-MIMO provides that we will be expanding our product line in the future to include more MU-MIMO routers".

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To truly take advantage of the technology, you will need MU-MIMO client devices too. While such devices are not yet mainstream, you will start seeing them in the near future.

BetaNews will soon have this router in our lab for testing -- including a client device. We look forward to sharing that experience with you.

If you are as excited for this router as I am, you should brace yourself for the price tag -- $279. Yes, that is a considerable amount of money, but I think it is totally reasonable for having a bleeding-edge router from such a reputable and dependable company such as Linksys. Consider it an investment; this should keep you and your family happy for many years.

If you are interested in buying, Linksys lists the following retailers for availability.

  • Amazon
  • Best Buy
  • Fry's
  • Newegg
  • Office Depot
  • Office Max
  • Staples
  • Target
  • Wal-Mart

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