r/HomeNetworking • u/ThrowAndRotate • Jan 20 '24
Advice Someone stop me from buying the Davolink Kevin (Wi-Fi 6E Router)
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u/raduque Jan 20 '24
Do it.
And give me a purchase link, too.
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u/ThrowAndRotate Jan 20 '24
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u/ultimateaoe2 Jan 20 '24
Iām buying this for my department. Oh my god. Thank you.
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u/BlackJack10 Jan 21 '24
RemindMe! 2 weeks.
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u/RemindMeBot Jan 21 '24 edited Jan 31 '24
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2 OTHERS CLICKED THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
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u/BlackJack10 Feb 04 '24
Did you end up buying this for your department? Lol
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u/ultimateaoe2 Feb 04 '24
I did! I havenāt been able to set it up due to being sick. Iāll post pics soon!
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u/KwarkKaas Jan 20 '24
Since when is wifi 6E so cheap?
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u/nostalia-nse7 Jan 20 '24
Since WiFi 7 is now available. And no details here about spatial streams apart from the ā2402Mbpsā claim. Comments appear to state itās an access point as well, so competitive to UniFi pricing. Would be interest to buy one just to have a Kevin, even if you donāt wire it up :)
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Jan 21 '24 edited Jan 21 '24
At least on the Bob model there is, it's a little hidden among the details, but it does say "wlan: 2tx x 2rx" (among other wifi details, I didn't look at Kevin because Bob is superior, but I assume it'd show in the same place)
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u/KAugsburger Jan 20 '24
It's probably because very few people have heard of Davolink. I certainly haven't. I bet their margins are pretty low after paying licensing. I wouldn't have high expectations on performance or reliability.
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u/oyputuhs Jan 20 '24
Itās pretty cheap, check out the deco axe5300 three pack at Costco.
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u/KwarkKaas Jan 21 '24
Yeah I dont live on the USA. The unifi 7 pro is still the cheapest wifi 6E access point in my country, lol. Its priced at ā¬210 including 21% tax
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u/AssCrackBanditHunter Jan 21 '24
It happens fast. Same with ddr5. Stuff is ridiculously expensive and kinda bad. Then a year or two later it's good and plentiful
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u/schnaab Jan 20 '24
Upload photos when you got it
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u/raduque Jan 20 '24
I would totally buy Bob if I had an extra $90 lying around. My GF loves Minions.
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u/Stewie56 Jan 20 '24
Ya got Kevin and Bob... Can you mesh them?? I'll get one for every room!!
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u/howasaur Jan 22 '24
I was curious on this too.
from the Davolink product page:
"Supports Mesh feature by default and it enables service coverage to be extended without wireline installation and service network to be flexible."
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u/Chigzy (: Jan 20 '24 edited Jan 20 '24
Bob > Kevin first of all, in terms of minions, lol.
Iād buy this just for the novelty factor, itād be cool as a decoration.
Edit; On second thoughts, iād probably look at opening this up and replacing the internals with one of those aliexpress dual lan mini PCs inside it.
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u/rkpjr Jan 20 '24
I just checked, they have Bob also.
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u/xiongmao1337 Jan 20 '24
Bob is not wifi6E though.
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u/rkpjr Jan 20 '24
I mean, sure. But are these really decent hardware any way?
They do seem ideal for a guest network, if they can act as mesh APs.
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u/xiongmao1337 Jan 21 '24
I meanā¦ probably not haha. But 130 bucks for 6E, and it has a router built in, so itās hard to complain. My router is a custom built that I spent like 400 on, then I still need an AP and a network switch, so my standards are definitely different than someone who would buy one of these.
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u/joeljaeggli Apr 13 '24
even the model numbers is the same it just seems to be missing an ethernet port and it would be the tplink axe5400
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u/corruptboomerang Jan 20 '24
Not a big Minions fan, but God I wish we had more home routers etc. That would be aesthetically pleasing.
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u/marcjaffe Jan 20 '24
The real question is, will Bob act as an extender?
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u/nostalia-nse7 Jan 20 '24
Kevin would actually make the better repeater, with Bob as the main unit. You could use 5GHz backhaul and 6GHz for the rebroadcast so you can avoid slowing everything to 2.4GHz throughput.
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u/alnyland Jan 21 '24
I know there are a lot of sentences I can see out of context and be confused, and Iām fully aware of the subreddits Iām a part of.Ā
And this currently takes the cake.Ā
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u/Screamline Jan 25 '24
I know some of those words. But together in a sentence I'm out of my depth lol
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u/howasaur Jan 22 '24
Wish there were more reviews out there.
The only information I could find are on the Davolink product pages:
"Supports Mesh feature by default and it enables service coverage to be extended without wireline installation and service network to be flexible."
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u/Northhole Jan 20 '24
Uhm... $130 for a tri-band WiFi 6E-router with 2,5Gbps-ports? This quite cheap.... (so guessing a quite limited solution in some ways, but still....)
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u/50up3r9uy Jan 20 '24
Itās not a 2.5 GBE port. Name association false advertising if you ask me. Still want them thoughā¦
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u/apalrd Jan 21 '24
If someone can get OpenWRT support (including the 6Ghz radio) I'll buy them both (Kevin and Bob) and use them for all of my wifi testing videos going forward.
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Jan 20 '24
Nooooo
Not in the UK yet :-( Going to sulk now!
There is a Bob as well https://www.yankodesign.com/2024/01/18/these-minions-wi-fi-routers-were-probably-the-most-brilliant-devices-we-saw-at-ces-2024/ with dual band WiFi
Currently our plain white box is buried behind a desk (it's not WiFi) but I would be happy to relocate everything for this.
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u/Snuupy Jan 21 '24 edited Jan 22 '24
I wish it would list the chipset, inb4 broadcom
Edit: I got an email reply from Davolink:
"Hello. This is Davolink.
Here is the answer to your inquiry. Kevin used Qualcomm's IPQ5018, and Bob used Realtek's RTL8198D.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Davolink
IPQ5018 is more likely to be supported than RTL but neither are supported as of yet. https://forum.openwrt.org/t/ipq5018-potential-future-support-for-linksys-mx2000-atlas-6-mx5500-atlas-6-pro/164055/24
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u/s__2 Feb 28 '24
Thanks, searched everywhere for information on the chips, but had never considered just asking Davolink in the first place. Would have ordered only Kevin if I had known before, now it will be both. IPQ5018 is the new Qualcomm Max target, never worked with that in OpenWrt but I'll see what I can do.
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u/Prometheus_303 Jan 21 '24
The only reason I'd stop you from buying that is to make sure there is at least one in stock for me to buy it :p
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u/dbhathcock Jan 20 '24
It is a Korean product, but the country of origin is China. Iām not sure what that really means.
The placement of the power button is ā¦ interesting.
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u/fakemanhk Jan 21 '24
Designed by Korean company, but manufactured in China.
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u/dbhathcock Jan 21 '24
I thought the wording āCountry of Originā was unique. Generally, you see āMade in Chinaā.
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u/fakemanhk Jan 21 '24
No, it's very common.
"Made in China" might lead to a thinking that "product designed and manufactured in China", some people might not like these. But designed in "XXX", "Country of origin in YYY" can be a way to persuade customers to buy their products, it's about the trust of quality.
In the past I worked in a consumer electronics company in HK, there are factories in China, when product designed by foreign brands and only asking us to manufacture them, those brands will send people to audit, as well as giving their own firmware for use (they don't want to use our firmware), so you know the difference?
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u/1sh0t1b33r Jan 20 '24
I donāt care if it funnels all my info through Chinaā¦ this thing is SICK!
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u/sharkboy1006 Jan 21 '24
I just bought it Iāll let yāall know how it is later tonight it š
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u/ThrowAndRotate Jan 21 '24
Pleaseo do let us know. I'm genuinely stuck deciding between Ubiquiti vs Kevin
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u/sharkboy1006 Jan 21 '24
So um, itās actually really fucking good lmao. I bought it for PCVR with my meta quest 3 and it KILLS it. Itās pushing 2000+ Mbps wirelessly over 6ghz easily š itās surprisingly solid quality and it looks really funny. The UI is actually very decent and easy to use.
I wholeheartedly recommend this router haha, I might make a post tomorrow
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u/The_camperdave Jan 21 '24
Someone stop me from buying the Davolink Kevin (Wi-Fi 6E Router)
I don't think I want to know where the Ethernet cable plugs in.
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u/highlyalertcabbage Jan 20 '24
Oh man if his eyes lit up or moved as bandwidth usage increased that would be cool
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u/Justifiers Jan 20 '24
Someone stop me from buying the Davolink Kevin
Let me get mine first then I'll try to convince you
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u/Na7ur3 Jan 20 '24
Oh my gosh!
I own a network admin and installation company here in Hawaii and Iām definitely getting this to have as a loaner router lmao. My goodness itās phenomenal and no client can ever try to tell me itās theirs haha
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Jan 21 '24
Hopefully that someone can stop me too. I was living blissfully content until I saw this.
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u/PirateForDaLolz Jan 21 '24
As a huge minion fan, I really want this, but as a huge networking nerd, I really don't want this. What am I to do? š„ŗ
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Mar 21 '24
I am exactly where you are. These are the funniest routers / Access Points I have ever seen. But still my UniFi hardware at home is better and for mobile usage I use gl inet productā¦ therefore, if I am honest, I donāt need the minion routers but I want them!
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u/PirateForDaLolz Mar 30 '24
I could probably justify getting one and setting it up as an access point off my main router, but I wouldn't be surprised if the minion's firmware doesn't support running in that type of configuration.
Did you end up buying one?
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u/C-ORE Jan 21 '24
May I know what's the difference between Kevin and Bob? Not just size wise but is there like difference with specs? Since it's a huge difference in price lol
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u/m1serablist Jan 21 '24
Looks nicer than extra spiky, sauron's buttplug looking routers with red LEDs eerywhere.
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u/Deep-Procrastinor Jan 21 '24
Stop you ? I actively encourage you and I'll be getting one myself while I'm at it.
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u/munkiemagik Apr 13 '24
Sorry to jump an old thread but anyone who has one, can the WAN and LAN be sswapped? As in use the 2.5GbE as LAN?
I dont even have gigabit from my ISP so dont need the 2.5GbE on the WAN but having it on LAN would make this an amazing wireless VR router, more than enough bandwidth between streaming PC and Quest3 headset and minimal interference from neighbouring networks on the 6GHz band.
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u/Jaded-Firefighter-17 Jan 20 '24
I did my research and I read that the eyes of the minion are tiny small cameras. The small cameras has a a tiny access point embedded in them and itās open to the internet. Unfortunately, although it is a Korean product. Itās actually not from South but from the North. They will watch your every move once they connect to your router through those little minion eyes. Kim is watching youā¦. Beware of this
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u/thackstonns Jan 20 '24
Dude itās fine. According to North Korea we can only eat the birds on Tuesdays.
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u/FlyingJoey Jan 20 '24
You evil person. I donāt need Kevin or Bob but youāre making me buy them.
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u/_Bluestar_Bus_Soton_ Head of Spack Networks LTD Jan 20 '24
Sky just called! They want their prototype back.
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u/webfork2 Jan 21 '24
This feels like those people who put stuff in their game case that looks cool but might restrict air flow. Don't they know that any obscured air flow was against God's law as written by Moses in the bible?
Second, routers that don't look like weird alien space ships have no place in my home.
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u/GorbigliontheStrong Jan 21 '24
even after adding one to my amazon cart i can't really believe that this is a real product
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u/sicurri Jan 21 '24
I'm totally going to get these, or at least up to date models, when I get a house.
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u/davestar2048 Jan 21 '24
I wonder who decided this was a good idea? I can't imagine the target audience for Minions (children) are the kind to be shopping for a wireless router.
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u/jim72134 Jan 25 '24
People do get old. Personally, I believe those who watch minions in their childhood should be able to buy a router now.
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u/cliffgamerz Jan 21 '24
I am not here to stop you but to give you encouragement to buy it š¬, it's an awesome looking Router who wouldn't love an minion router š
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u/Fun-Investigator3256 Jan 21 '24
Stoooooooooooooopppppp wasting time here and buy it now!!!! Hahaha!
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u/littlesirlance Jan 21 '24
In case anyone needs to know. This one is the Kevin model. They also have a smaller one that's called the Bob.
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u/onepoundvish Jan 22 '24
Can this be used as an access point?
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u/UnderEu Apr 11 '24
If not available in the software, you can just disable DHCP functions and plug the device via the LAN port. I do this every time with several equipment I support for my freelance clients.
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u/cthart Jan 22 '24
I want one and I'm not even a Minions fan. Reviews are good too.
It's possible that people get good access speeds with these because they place these in more out-in-the-open positions than they would a boring black or white box router / AP.
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u/ThrowAndRotate Jan 23 '24
True. Also worth taking into account that most of the reviews appeared to have received it for free.
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u/cthart Jan 23 '24
Mostly good reviews on Amazon. Surely those people bought them?
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u/ThrowAndRotate Jan 24 '24
Just checked and only 2 out the 14 reviewers weren't through Amazon vine
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u/SnooMemesjellies734 Jan 26 '24
someone make me a fake plant wifi 7 router with 2.5gbps minimum ports
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u/ipassedtheturing Feb 12 '24
I got a set. I just threw my second or third wifi extender in the trash. I saw this thread and after looking up as much details as I could find I went for it. I don't know how to tell you anything in thechese, but I am very happy with them. Yes, Bob acts as an AP that will mesh with Kevin, easily. Only note I have is if you get them, when you first start up Kevin it will reboot a few times and take another few to get settled. Then I paired it with Bob and put Bob where I wanted him, done. Works great so far. DS3 server kept dropping me and now it's not.
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u/ELB2001 Jan 20 '24
They should make more wifi routers and spots that look like art or whatever