Like other manufacturers, Linksys has used its winter muse to work on an ADSL router version of its Airgo MIMO chipset-toting kit; Linksys calls its MIMO range SRX (Speed and Range eXpansion). In an effort to confuse its consumers, it has opted to release two different versions of the SRX technology based on two Airgo MIMO chipsets: SRX200 and SRX400. If you recall our previous reviews of MIMO routers, you’ll remember that Airgo specifies three antennae in its main specification. As you can see, this has two, making SRX200 a more affordable version of SRX. SRX400 isn’t yet obtainable in an ADSL guise, and while available as a simple router in the US, it’s unclear whether this will be offered to the UK market.

This model’s main issue is its price. We don’t expect other speedy ADSL routers from the likes of Belkin and Buffalo to be much cheaper, but at the moment, the price point isn’t appealing. We expect many to settle for a standard 802.11g all-in-one ADSL router unless they have a specific requirement for a MIMO based device, such as a large footprint to cover or an extended throughput requirement. The firmware in this device will be the same as in the other SRX models; it’s simply the matter of the one antenna and therefore less receivers than other SRX units.

Whereas conventional SRX models carry a cited 8x speed increase and a 3x range increase, Linksys cite 6x and 2x for the SRX200 respectively. This marries up with a throughput of around 3Mbps less than SRX when tested with our throughput-busting QCheck software. Range isn’t noticeably less unless you step out of the building, at which point the lack of poke compared to conventional Airgo MIMO units is apparent.

The SRX200 router doesn’t skimp on other features: it’s fully UPnP compliant for streaming, has security up to the WPA2 standard, and supports the new ADSL broadband services (ADSL2 and 2+). As an early ADSL compatible MIMO router, it’s extremely good, but it will likely be bettered on performance and probably price by Belkin’s forthcoming MIMO ADSL option.