While there are many people Although only recently upgraded to Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E, successors to those standards are already on the horizon. Wi-Fi 7 is the next major advancement, and like its predecessors, it promises faster connections, lower latency, and the ability to better manage more connections.
If you’re currently looking to improve your Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 7 isn’t the answer due to a lack of support. But early adopters will be excited by the news that the Wi-Fi Alliance has announced its “Wi-Fi 7 Certified” program. Realistically, it will be quite some time before most of us consider switching. If you need to upgrade your pronto, first take a closer look at how you buy a router before checking out our picks for the best Wi-Fi routers and best mesh Wi-Fi systems.
Updated January 2024: Added news about the Wi-Fi 7 Certified program and updated spec details and experience with early Wi-Fi 7 mesh systems and routers.
What is Wi-Fi7?
7th generation Wi-Fi is expected to be a significant improvement over Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, potentially delivering up to 4x faster speeds. It also includes smart advancements to reduce latency, increase capacity, and improve stability and efficiency.
Wi-Fi 7 was IEEE 802.11be under the old naming convention, Wi-Fi 6 was IEEE 802.11ax, and Wi-Fi 5 was IEEE 802.11ac. Like previous standards, Wi-Fi 7 is backward compatible. However, you will need to upgrade your device to take advantage of the new features and the performance improvements they promise. That means you’ll need to buy a new router or access point, not to mention a new smartphone, laptop, TV, etc.
What benefits does Wi-Fi 7 bring?
Wi-Fi 7 is faster, supports more connections, and is more adaptable to maintain reliable low-latency performance.
These benefits help deliver higher quality video and better cloud gaming, and are useful for AR and VR applications that require high throughput and low latency. Wi-Fi 7 also tackles congestion and interference, delivering tangible benefits in areas with high device density or overlapping adjacent networks. The latter is most important for businesses and large venues.
What is the difference between Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6E?
Naturally, you may be wondering what the difference is between Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6E. Wi-Fi 6E broadly promises similar benefits as the previous standard by opening up the 6 GHz band. Especially since Wi-Fi 7 uses the same three 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands. Here are some notable upgrades.
Wider channels
Each band is divided into channels. The 2.4 GHz band consists of 11 channels of 20 megahertz (MHz) each. There are 45 channels in the 5 GHz band, but instead of being limited to 20 MHz in width, they can be combined to create 40 MHz or 80 MHz channels. The 6 GHz band supports 60 channels and can be expanded to 160 MHz with Wi-Fi 6E. Wi-Fi 7 supports channels up to 320 MHz wide. The wider the channel, the more data can be transmitted.
As a simple analogy, imagine the amount of traffic a one-lane road can handle compared to a three-lane highway or a six-lane superhighway.
Multilink operation
Perhaps the most exciting advancement in Wi-Fi 7 is Multi-Link Operation (MLO). All previous Wi-Fi standards establish a connection between two devices over a single band. Tri-band Wi-Fi 6E routers also connect two devices on a single band with a fixed channel (the router decides whether to connect on the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz band).
MLO can combine multiple frequencies across the band into one connection. A Wi-Fi 7 router can connect to Wi-Fi 7 devices on two or more channels of different bands at the same time. MLO potentially allows for a wider range of channels through which more data can be transmitted. Returning to the freeway analogy, you can send traffic on freeways and freeways at the same time.
Although speed is not always a priority, MLO also allows for more efficient performance. Wi-Fi 7 routers consider congestion and other interference and transmit on the best channel to avoid it, switching to maintain a stable connection and low latency. MLO also helps mitigate the relatively short range of the 6 GHz band, ensuring seamless connectivity from mesh systems as you move around your home.
Higher QAM
Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is a method of transmitting and receiving data over radio frequencies. The higher the value, the more information can be packed. Wi-Fi 7 supports 4K-QAM, while Wi-Fi 6 supports 1,024-QAM and Wi-Fi 5 was limited to 256-QAM.
Potential benefits are complicated by signal strength, background noise, and interference. Therefore, increasing QAM reduces range and requires a stronger signal. So the jump to 1,024-QAM in Wi-Fi 6 was about a 25 percent increase in data rates compared to Wi-Fi 5. The leap to 4K-QAM in Wi-Fi 7 equates to a 20 percent increase in peak performance.
