Confused in choosing between Linksys EA6300 and Linksys EA6350? The two wireless routers indeed look very much identical to each other. They do stand in the same price range; you can get either of them with a budget around a hundred bucks. These are the router models from Linksys that can be considered as the midrange options. The only apparent difference between the two is the antennas. Besides that, is there any actual difference between the two models?
Nearly Identical Specs
EA6300 and EA6350 have the same overall dimensions and weights(without taking the antennas into account). They also share the same designs and layouts. Put them next to each other and you will not be able to tell which one is which if not for the antennas. They are quite small and can be placed easily on a table or a bookshelf, or mounted on a wall.
Both of them support 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi standards. They are both dual-band routers, each featuring one 2.4 GHz and one 5 GHz signal channels working independently and simultaneously. They also offer similar amounts of bandwidth. They each has 300 Mbps of maximum speed for the 2.4 GHz frequency and 867 Mbps for the 5 GHz. They should be able to serve some heavy duties, including gaming and streaming, as long as you don’t have too many activities consuming the network’s performance at the same time. Both routers are also already armed with the beamforming technology, allowing them to focus their wireless signal projection towards every connected device for enhanced connection stability and reliability.
Regarding wired connectivity, both routers also come with similar numbers of ports. Each of them comes with one WAN and four LAN Gigabit Ethernet ports, plus one USB 3.0 that can serve for Storage Link, Virtual Printing, and DLNA Media Server.
External Antennas vs. Internal Antennas
However, the primary distinction of each router is the antennas. Linksys EA6300 has four internal antennas, while Linksys EA6350 has two external antennas. In general, external antennas may perform better than internal antennas, as external antennas can be adjusted to aim towards specific directions where your devices are placed.
SimpleTap
The next difference, which may or may not be as significant, is the SimpleTap feature. It is almost like NFC. The feature allows you to easily connect a device just by tapping the device to the router. Linksys EA6300 actually comes with SimpleTap, while Linksys EA6350 has erased the feature.
Linksys EA6350 vs. EA6300
So, should you choose external antennas or the SimpleTap feature? Having external antennas can give a better and more reliable network performance, which is more important than the somehow gimmicky NFC feature. Therefore, you should opt for Linksys EA6350!
