Every wireless device in your home or office is designed around a particular Wi-Fi standard, from the router that drives network traffic to the smartphone in your pocket. The newest version, Wi-Fi 6E, supports blazing transfer speeds and many simultaneous wireless connections. However, another successor is starting to appear in consumer networking hardware advertisements, and Wi-Fi 7 promises even more fantastic wireless improvements.
Is there a reason to get excited? The number of Wi-Fis continues to increase, but many modern devices stick to the previous standards without too much trouble. Delving deeper into an otherwise general set of improvements leads you down a confusing den of confusing network terminology and an endless supply of acronyms, so I’ll break down everything we know so far in a more easily digestible format.
Testing and reviewing networking equipment has always been a part of my job, so I have to keep up with this kind of jargon, and I can bring you up to speed as well.
When will Wi-Fi 7 be available?
Wireless networking standards are determined by Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineerswith IEEE 802.11be dubbed the technical term for Wi-Fi 7. Still technically in the design stage, manufacturers like TP-Link and Lenovo are already developing chips for routers and laptops based on the IEEE-provided draft.
Support for Wi-Fi 7 already appears in Android 13 for mobile and will no doubt be supported in Windows 11 and future operating systems.
Final approval for IEEE 802.11be is expected in early 2024, so it’s reasonable to assume that most consumer devices will be available for purchase as close to the same time frame as possible. Until the 802.11be standard is completed, you shouldn’t expect to see a wide range of routers or mesh systems for sale. However, some early models are starting to appear on digital stores, with TP-Link already offering Wi-Fi 7 hardware.
Wi-Fi 7: Specifications and jargon explained
Overly simplistic presenting the promised improvements coming with Wi-Fi 7 doesn’t effectively explain the benefits of a brand new wireless standard. Each version has made constant efforts to reduce latency, expand the number of simultaneous connections, and improve signal stability.
This is to be expected; why else would anyone buy the latest and greatest router if it isn’t better in every way?
Instead, the most common performance boosts come with tech jargon and acronyms that won’t mean anything to your average consumer. Here are the most impactful features you’re likely to see advertised on Wi-Fi 7 devices, and what they mean.
Channel width 320MHz
With each iteration of Wi-Fi standards, channel widths have expanded to allow for more simultaneous data transfer streams. It is intended to allow more devices to communicate, but increasing channel width does not necessarily equate to faster speeds. There are often benefits to sticking to lower channels around 20 – 40MHz, but Wi-Fi 7 switches to 320Mhz for its 6 GHz band.
Wi-Fi 6E already uses a 6GHz band but is limited to 160MHz, so doubling the channel width is a big selling point for the upcoming standard. As with most technical advances, real-world performance upgrades will depend on your devices being efficiently engineered to support Wi-Fi 7’s maximum theoretical speeds.
16x MU-MIMO
MU-MIMO (multi-user, multiple input, multiple output) increases to 16 streams for Wi-Fi 7 alongside the wider channel, doubling bandwidth from Wi-Fi 6’s 8 streams. The more antennas on your router, internal or external, the better equipped it will be to handle theoretical maximum bandwidth limits. However, that still doesn’t guarantee faster internet, but rather a more consistent split of speeds between devices in your home.
4K QAM
Sounds like a statistic you’d see when you buy a new TV. However, 4K-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) refers to 4096 symbols in the radio signals that carry your traffic, each containing 12 bits of data. Compared to Wi-Fi 6’s 1024-QAM, packing in extra data means higher overall throughput, but at the expense of signal strength and maximum distance travelled.
It will likely be advertised towards streaming services, including ultra-HD video and cloud gaming. However, you’ll need to know the implied wireless coverage of any Wi-Fi 7 router you buy. If it looks buried or otherwise hidden in the stats, it’s probably much weaker than what you’re used to. Expect to see routers with a staggering number of external antennas to make up for the drawbacks.
Wi-Fi 6E vs Wi-Fi 7: An Incremental Upgrade?
If you’ve already purchased Wi-Fi 6 or 6E networking hardware in your home, you’re probably curious as to whether the next generation is worth the excitement. While it’s true that the theoretical maximums of transfer speeds and bandwidth will be increased with Wi-Fi 7, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll benefit as an early adopter.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | WiFi 6E | Wifi 7 |
|---|---|---|
| IEEE standard | 802.11ax | 802.11be |
| Bands | 2.4GHz 5GHz 6GHz |
2.4GHz 5GHz 6GHz |
| Channel width | Up to 160MHz | Up to 320MHz |
| Modulation | 1024-QAM | 4096-QAM (4K) |
| MIME | 8×8 MU-MIMO | 16×16 MU-MIMO |
| maximum speed | Up to 9.6 Gbit/s | Up to 46Gbit/s |
Putting the specs side by side naturally shows that the numbers are all going up, which will almost certainly be part of the hype that comes with Wi-Fi 7 hardware. Most importantly, the increase from a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 9.6Gb/s on Wi-Fi 6E to 46Gb/s on Wi-Fi 7 should imply that even mid-range hardware will benefit from a significantly increased bandwidth cap.
Can I buy a Wi-Fi 7 router?
Even at this early stage of the Wi-Fi 7 generation, you can choose networking hardware that benefits from the modern standard with multi-Gig Ethernet ports and mesh systems communicating with the boosted 6GHz band.
TP-Link is offering its quad-band BE24000 for $700 on Amazon or the scaled-down tri-band BE19000 variant for $600, also on Amazon, for basic single-unit routers. Alternatively, for those who have a larger space to cover or suffer from Wi-Fi dead spots, the TP-Link Deco BE95 retails for $1,200 on Amazon and covers up to 7800 square feet.
Netgear still lists its single offering, the BE19000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router, for pre-order on its official store. At the time of writing, it doesn’t list an equivalent mesh system, but I expect an updated Netgear Orbi network with Wi-Fi 7 support to appear soon.
As more hardware hits the shelves, I’ll see what I can get my hands on for some real-world testing against the best Wi-Fi 6E routers. The tough part is finding compatible devices to push this cutting-edge hardware to its limits, which is the same struggle manufacturers will face when advertising the technology to masses who may never benefit from the speed of light.
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