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Just as Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E become more prevalent, there’s already a new Wi-Fi standard on the horizon. The final Wi-Fi 7 standard should be official in early 2024. In fact, devices with Wi-Fi 7 have already started hitting the market. You can buy a few routers with the latest Wi-Fi version today, and your options will grow exponentially next year. This puts many in a dilemma: whether to grab a router with Wi-Fi 6/6E or wait for Wi-Fi 7.
It’s a genuine concern for anyone looking to buy a new router over the next few months. Like all previous major upgrades, Wi-Fi 7 also brings faster data rates, lower latency, higher bandwidth for more simultaneous connections, improved security, and more improvements. However, all of this comes at a price. Routers with Wi-Fi 7 will naturally cost more than those with older Wi-Fi standards. Such routers are likely to see a price drop as well.
So is Wi-Fi 7 worth the extra money? How big of a difference does Wi-Fi 7 bring to your home internet experience over Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E? Let’s have a detailed look at the specifications, features, and speeds of the three Wi-Fi standards and find out.
Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E share most of the specifications
You might be aware that Wi-Fi standards have historically had rather confusing and complex technical names. While the industry has now settled on these simpler names, the classic technobabble is still around. Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E share the same name (802.11ax), while Wi-Fi 7 is 802.11be.
If you’re wondering why Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E have the same technical name, that’s because there aren’t many differences between the two. The latter is an extension of the former with support for a third 6GHz frequency band along with the existing 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies. It offers all the features of Wi-Fi 6 over this third band as well. The benefit is less congestion in crowded networks.
Everything else remains unchanged. Both Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E offer a 160MHz channel width to give you a maximum speed of 9.6Gbps. The addition of a 6GHz frequency to Wi-Fi 6E improves the speed of short-range connections. The peak theoretical speed is the same, though. They also boast the same 1024-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), which determines how data is packed and transmitted over these radio frequencies.
Higher QAM allows a higher amount of data to be transmitted wirelessly. Wi-Fi 5 operates at 256-QAM (6.9Gbps of peak speed). It struggles to stream higher-quality content such as 4K videos, which require quick transmission of a large amount of data. Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E also doubled spatial streams to 8 from 4 on Wi-Fi 5. This means you can simultaneously connect up to eight 8 devices on the same network without losing the speed.
However, you still only get a single access point. In other words, your device can only transmit data over one frequency (2.4/5/6GHz). Some devices offer a smart connection feature that automatically switches transmission to the best available frequency. Last but not least, both Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E offer WPA3 security, which is the latest Wi-Fi security standard.
Wi-Fi 7 upgrades almost everything
While Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E bring a few notable upgrades over Wi-Fi 5, the upcoming Wi-Fi standard changes the game at almost every level. Wi-Fi 7 upgrades almost everything over the current standards. Despite keeping the same three frequencies (higher frequency has a shorter range), the throughput speed increases several times over the previous generation.
The final Wi-Fi 7 standard is not official yet, so we don’t have a precise number. But the word is that we will get a theoretical peak speed to the north of 30Gbps, potentially topping 40Gbps. This is thanks to improvements in QAM, bandwidth, and more. Wi-Fi 7 quadruples amplitude modulation to 4096-QAM, so you can stream the highest-quality video without buffering.
Wi-Fi 7 also doubles the bandwidth to 320MHz for better efficiency. Spatial streams have been doubled as well (16), allowing more devices to enjoy the same Wi-Fi speed simultaneously. As we move to smart homes where everything is connected, this improvement will deliver high-speed connection to all of those devices. And should there be network congestion or latency, Wi-Fi 7 offers MLO (Multi-Link Operation).
In simpler terms, MLO means multiple access points. It enables connected devices to simultaneously send and receive data across different bands and channels, avoiding potential interference with other connections on the network. All of these improvements are enough to elevate your wireless internet experience to a new level. Whatever might be your need, Wi-Fi 7 will do a better job than Wi-Fi 6.
This is essentially why Wi-Fi 7 is also called 802.11be EHT, where EHT stands for Extremely High Throughput. The new Wi-Fi standard is touted to deliver lightning-fast speeds while simultaneously upgrading almost every other aspect of your wireless internet connection. You get reduced latency and lesser network congestion than before. All of this while improving the security of your connection and connected devices. Wi-Fi 7 is expected to bring WPA4 security.
So should you get a Wi-Fi 7 router?
The answer to this question isn’t a simple yes or no. While Wi-Fi 7 is a massive upgrade over Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, you might be surprised to learn that most electronic devices in use today are limited to Wi-Fi 5. Some of the latest gadgets boast Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E, while there are very few with Wi-Fi 7.
Of course, Wi-Fi 7 is backward compatible, so your Wi-Fi 5 device will still connect to a Wi-Fi 7 router. However, you won’t get the benefits of the new standard. Wi-Fi 6E is already capable of delivering reliable internet connection to an average household with around 40 devices, including smartphones, TVs, watches, smart refrigerators, security cameras, doorbells, and other IoT (Internet of Things) gadgets.
Wi-Fi 7, on the other hand, is best-suitable for commercial spaces. Our never-ending quest for higher-quality content, digitalization, and more smart devices may eventually make Wi-Fi 6E incapable of handling it all, but as things stand, Wi-Fi 7 is a little overkill for an average household. If you need to buy a router right now, you can check out these best Wi-Fi routers.
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