Wireless Reviews

Features

The EA7500 supports Linksys' standard "Smart Wi-Fi" feature set and user interface, as shown below. It does not include OpenVPN support; I suppose Linksys had its hands full getting MU-MIMO settled in.

EA7500 Home screen

Storage Performance

The Router Charts contain benchmarks for FAT32 and NTFS volume formats with USB 2.0 and 3.0 connections (as applicable). But since we know USB 2.0 is slower and FAT32 has volume and file size limitations, we focus on comparing NTFS format with USB 3.0 connection performance.

The charts below show only AC1900 class routers tested with the latest process. The EA7500 turns in very respectable performance, coming in just behind the Marvell-powered WRT1900ACS, which continues to top the NTFS / USB 3.0 charts for both write and read. If the AC1900 filter is removed, the EA7500 drops down only one place.

Storage Performance - NTFS & USB 3.0

Routing Performance

Routing throughput was measured using our standard router test process with the router using 1.1.2.170654 firmware. Table 2 summarizes the results and includes the WRT1900ACS and Linksys EA6900 for comparison.

The IxChariot unidirectional composite plot shows higher average LAN - WAN throughput. The cyclical between the baseline and maximum values is typical of this test.

Linksys EA7500 routing throughput unidirectional summary

The simultaneous up/downlink benchmark plot shows an interesting slow climb in WAN - LAN throughput with no serious reduction in LAN-WAN. Whatever the CPU was figuring out seemed to settle down toward the end of the one minute test run. The lack of "battling" between up and download traffic indicates the CPU wasn't slammed beyond its ability to handle the heavy loads.

Linksys EA7500 routing throughput bidirectional summary